Normally, I don’t much care for folk dance but this is a performance that transcends the usual meaning of the words. This performance is a spectacle of sound and movement so exuberant and colorful that it leaves me begging for more, so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise the next morning to see that the posters have been hastily amended to add a second date to their itinerary.Even more astonishing than the actual performance is the fact that it’s taking place in erstwhile “Seedy Side,” a resort that, like Alanya, had sold its soul to a certain sort of mass-market tourism that turned every stroll through the center into an obstacle course of salesmen yelling “bitte schön.” This was after all the “Pomegranate” of British author Jeremy Seal, the resort where the sight of Turkish salesmen wearing the once-forbidden fez and trying to sell them to visitors had set him off on the journey that became the popular travelogue “A Fez of the Heart.”
This was always a great shame since Side, more almost than any other town in Turkey, is a place where the hand of history is everywhere, with Roman columns and capitals adorning local restaurants as casually as if they had been mass carved just yesterday instead of almost 2,000 years ago. Now at last the town seems to be reclaiming its heritage with many more of its historical attractions accessible to visitors. At the same time, the shops in the town center have been stripped of their erstwhile obtrusive awnings so that it’s now possible to see more of the pretty architecture, not to mention catching glimpses of the sea as you stroll around. Why, even the “bitte schön” salesmen seem to have quietened down, their antics now observed by cameras that guard the street corners.
Roman remains
Apparently Side meant “pomegranate” in the language of the Luwians who had settled the site, on a beach-fringed peninsula, long before the Romans came along. They, however, left little that has survived whereas the Romans zealously stamped their mark on the town. Even as you’re driving in, you’ll spot copious chunks of ancient masonry dotting the fields. Then as soon as you leave the otogar to walk into the pedestrianized town center you’ll begin to feel yourself cast right back into the past.
Just beyond the otogar work continues on the restoration of an enormous nymphaeum dating back to the second century. To call this just a fountain would be rather like calling Lezginka just a dance troupe. Instead, this was a monumental three-storey structure copiously decorated with pillars and carvings where once locals used to gather to celebrate the start of the commercial sailing season with a festival.
The nymphaeum faced directly onto the north gate that led into the main part of the town, although little of this survives today. Beyond the gate, the modern road into Side follows the old Roman road that was lined on both sides with colonnades and small shops whose owners no doubt yelled out the Latin equivalent of “bitte schön” to passers-by. Part of the way along it, the road is crossed by a second road that was also lined with columns and which led to a part of town that really came into its own in the Byzantine era. Here, many of the fine flagstones that lined the road still survive so you can quite literally walk in the footsteps of the Romans.
The main road continues south towards the heart of Side. As you walk along it you’ll come, on the left, to the remains of the commercial agora, currently out of bounds as work continues on its excavation. Its centerpiece is a delightful circular temple dedicated to Tyche, the Greco-Roman goddess of destiny, the restoration of which has just been completed. In Roman times the agora was the site of a lively slave market on which much of the city’s prosperity depended.
Across the street a huge Roman bathhouse, rebuilt in the fifth century, houses Side’s fine small museum, its grounds full of pieces of carved masonry that would be major exhibits elsewhere in the world but here amount to no more than also-rans. Inside, there’s a small but impressive collection of statues and sarcophagi found in the city as well as a cluster of ostoteks, miniature sarcophagi used to contain cremated ashes.
Beyond the museum the road twists to the right as it makes its way round the perimeter of the huge theater, here unusually a freestanding structure rather than one that is built into the hillside. Before you go inside it, be sure to take a quick look at the public toilet block just beside it with seats for 24 bottoms, and at the elegant monument to the Emperor Vespasian that originally stood elsewhere but was then attached to another of the city gates to serve as a fountain. The theater itself is simply magnificent, the view from the top tier of seats sweeping out over the remains of the skena that formed the back of the stage to the jumbled ruins of the Byzantine city.
Once you’ve examined it, you’ll find yourself suddenly in the heart of modern touristic Side although hidden among the shops and restaurants there are two more sizeable bathhouses and the slight remains of a temple dedicated to the moon god, Men. Most people will head straight for the temples of Apollo and Artemis where a few re-erected columns stare romantically out to sea, rather like those of Cape Sounion in Greece.
Byzantine Side
So impressive are the Roman remains of Side that it’s easy to overlook the fact that it continued in importance in Byzantine times, a fact made obvious first by the enormous size of the basilican church whose ruins sit beside the temples of Apollo and Artemis, and then by the remains of the bishop’s palace which go almost unnoticed amid the jigsaw of fallen walls that lie east of the theater. Once you find it, however, you’ll be astonished at the quality of the marble carvings around the doors, which look as if they were carved only yesterday. Here, too, you’ll find the considerable remains of a building tentatively identified as a sixth-century Byzantine hospital, possibly commissioned by the Emperor Justinian of Hagia Sophia fame.
Despite its early importance Side died an early death at the hands of the seventh-century Arab invaders and only sprang to life again after 1923 when it was resettled by migrants from Crete, hence the dearth of buildings from the Selçuk or Ottoman eras.
Modern Side
Today’s Side lives solely for tourism, which means that you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to finding places to stay, eat and shop. For atmosphere, you can’t really beat sleeping inside the old part of the town where some delightful small hotels and pensions hunker down amid the ruins. There are small beaches here, too, although for the best of the sands you’re better off choosing one of the many hotels lining the main beach to the northwest. Whichever area you choose, expect to be able to pick from a wide range of watersports, with parasailing also on offer.
WHERE TO STAY
Beach House Hotel. Tel: 0242-753 1607
Can Garden Beach Hotel. Tel: 0242-753 3240
Lale Park Hotel. Tel: 0242-753 1131
HOW TO GET THERE
The nearest airport to Side is in Antalya and the town is readily accessible on the many buses that ply the coast road from Antalya to Alanya.
(Today’s Zaman)
