Culture and history

Attalos II, king of Pergame, who gave him the name of Atteleia, founded Antalya in the 2nd century BC. Then Antalya was settled by Roman, Byzantine and Seldjuk civilisations before to be finally occupied by Ottomans. Today Antalya is an attractive city with its shaded palm-lined boulevards, its marina and its picturesque old quarter, called kaleiçi, with narrow and sinuous streets and the old wooden houses.

The province of Antalya corresponds to the lands of ancient Pamphylia to the east and Lycia to the west and features many ancient cities such as Xanthos, Tlos, Çiralı and Phaselis, of which we visit the ruins. Dominated by the Tahtalı mount, the three ports of Phaselis testify to its role of historical shopping centre. We discover the theatre, the Hadrian gate, the acropolis and many ruins of aqueducts, agoras and baths, which are perfectly integrated with a generous nature in vegetation.