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See also: Antalya Province § History
Hadrian's Gate, built in the honor of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited Attaleia in 130 CE
Statue of Apollo's head in the Antalya Museum
Statue of Artemis in the Antalya Museum
King Attalus II of Pergamon is looked on as founder of the city in about 150 BC, during the Hellenistic period. It was named Attaleia or Attalia (Ancient Greek: Ἀττάλεια) in his honour. The city served as a naval base for Attalus's powerful fleet. Excavations in 2008, in the Doğu Garajı plot, uncovered remains dating to the 3rd century BC, suggesting that Attaleia was a rebuilding and expansion of an earlier town.[citation needed]
Harbour of Antalya (Sattalia), Turkey, 1698, by Cornelis de Bruyn. Voyage to the Levant, that is to say, in the principal places of Asia Minor, in the islands of Chios, Rhodes, and Cyprus etc., Paris, Guillaume Cavelier, 1714.
Old photo of Antalya harbour, Wilson - Voyage around the world, 1923.
Attaleia became part of the Roman Empire in 133 BC when Attalus III, a nephew of Attalus II, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome at his death in 133 BC. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period and was part of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, whose capital was Perga.
Christianity started to spread to the region even in the 1st century: Attaleia was visited by Paul of Tarsus and Barnabas, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: "Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attaleia, and from there they sailed to Antioch". Some of the bishops attributed to the episcopal see of Attaleia in Pamphylia may instead have been bishops of Attalea in Lydia (Yanantepe), since Le Quien lists them under both sees. No longer a residential bishopric, Attalea in Pamphylia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
Max Schmidt - Antaliiskaya fortress, Antalya (1843).
Ruins of Antalya castle, Charles A WIlson - Voyage around the world, 1923.
The 13th-century Seljuk mosque at Attaleia, now in ruins, had been a Christian Byzantine basilica from the 7th century.[citation needed] The Great Mosque had also been a Christian basilica and the Kesik Minare Mosque had been the 5th-century Christian Church of the Panaghia or Virgin and was decorated with finely carved marble.[citation needed] The archaeological museum at Attaleia houses some sarcophagi and mosaics from nearby Perga and a casket of bones reputed to be those of St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra, further down the Turquoise coast. The area of Antalya was subject to naval attacks by the Arabs of the Abbasid Caliphate.[citation needed]
Attaleia was a major city in the Byzantine Empire. It was the capital of the Byzantine Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots, which occupied the southern coasts of Anatolia. According to the research of Speros Vryonis, it was the major naval station on the southern Anatolian coast, a major commercial center, and the most convenient harbor between the Aegean Sea and Cyprus and points further east. Besides the local merchants, "one could expect to see Armenians, Saracens, Jews, and Italians."
At the time of the accession of John II Komnenos in 1118, Attaleia was an isolated outpost surrounded by Turkish beyliks, accessible only by sea, but his capture of Sozopolis in 1120 re-opened land-communication with the city once more. Upon learning of the death of emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II subjected the city to a long siege, but failed to take it. Following the Sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, Niketas Choniates records that Attaleia was the personal fiefdom of a certain Aldebrandus, "an Italian by birth who was strictly raised according to Roman tradition". When Kaykhusraw, sultan of the Seljuk Turks attempted to capture the city in 1206, Aldebrandus called Cyprus for help and received 200 infantry from the Latins. The attackers were defeated after a siege of less than 16 days. Kaykhusraw would take Attaleia the following year and build its first mosque. Local Christians rebelled and captured Attaleia with aid of Walter of Montbéliard in 1212. Briefly restored Byzantine rule in Attaleia was ended by Kaykaus I in 1216.
The city and the surrounding region were conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the early 13th century. Attaleia was the capital of the Turkish beylik of Teke (1321–1423) until its conquest by the Ottoman Turks, except for a period of Cypriot rule between 1361 and 1373. The Arab traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited the city in 1335–1340, noted:
From Alanya I went to Antaliya [Adalia], a most beautiful city. It covers an immense area, and though of vast bulk is one of the most attractive towns to be seen anywhere, besides being exceedingly populous and well laid out. Each section of the inhabitants lives in a separate quarter. The Christian merchants live in a quarter of the town known as the Mina [the Port], and are surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut upon them from without at night and during the Friday service. The Greeks, who were its former inhabitants, live by themselves in another quarter, the Jews in another, and the king and his court and Mamluks in another, each of these quarters being walled off likewise. The rest of the Muslims live in the main city. Round the whole town and all the quarters mentioned there is another great wall. The town contains orchards and produces fine fruits, including an admirable kind of apricot, called by them Qamar ad-Din, which has a sweet almond in its kernel. This fruit is dried and exported to Egypt, where it is regarded as a great luxury.
In the second half of the 17th century, Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi wrote of a city of narrow streets containing 3,000 houses in 20 Turkish and four Greek neighborhoods.[citation needed] The town had grown beyond the city walls and the port was reported to hold up to 200 boats.[citation needed]
In the 19th century, in common with most of Anatolia, its sovereign was a "dere bey" (landlord or landowner). The family of Tekke Oğlu, domiciled near Perge had been reduced to submission in 1812 by Mahmut II, but continued to be a rival power to the Ottoman governor until the early 20th century, surviving by many years the fall of the other great beys of Anatolia. The records of the Levent (Turkey) Company, which maintained an agency in Antalya until 1825, documented the local dere beys.
The Antalya Museum
Sculpture of the Three Graces in the Antalya Museum
Statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the Antalya Museum
Marble statue of a dancing woman from Perge, 2nd century AD, Antalya Museum.
Ancient Roman theatrical mask fragment, Antalya Museum
In the 20th century, the population of Antalya increased as Muslim refugees from the Caucasus and the Balkans moved into Anatolia. The economy was centered on its port that served the inland areas, particularly Konya. Antalya (then Adalia) was picturesque rather than modern. The chief attraction for visitors was the city wall, and outside a promenade, a portion of which survives. The government offices and the houses of the higher classes were outside the walls.
Statue of Attalus II in the city
As of 1920, Antalya was reported as having a population of approximately 30,000. The harbor was described as small, and unsafe for vessels to visit in the winter. Antalya was exporting wheat, flour, sesame seeds, livestock, timber and charcoal. The latter two were often exported to Egypt and other goods to Italy or other Greek islands, who received mainly flour. In 1920, the city had seven flour mills. Wheat was imported, and then processed in town before exportation. Antalya imported manufactured items, mainly from the United Kingdom. The city had a Greek minority that made up 1/3 of the population until the population exchange. Antalya also had a tiny Armenian population which had a church on the street of "Hamam çikmazi" named Hovhannes Surp Garabed, which was later on demolished. Antalya also had a Jewish community which had a tiny Synagogue in the neighborhood of Balbey and a Talmud Torah. The Synagogue was closed in 1948 and its exact location is not known, and the Synagogue might not exist anymore. The Jewish community had two graveyards and one was located across "Donerciler carsisi"and was demolished when the area was opened to construction, but one marble tombstone belonging to a Jew named Raphael Moshe was transferred to the Antalya Museum where it can be seen in the museum garden.
The city was occupied by Italy for three years (1919-22) in the aftermath of World War I, but was recaptured by a newly independent Turkey in the Turkish War of Independence.[citation needed] Large-scale development beginning in the 1970s transformed Antalya from a pastoral town into one of Turkey's largest metropolitan areas.[citation needed] Much of this has been due to tourism, which expanded in the 21st century. In the 1987 singing diva Dalida held her last concert in Antalya.
Antalya was the host city for the 2015 G-20 summit and the Expo 2016. Five countries have their consular missions in Antalya including Belgium, Germany, Russia, Serbia and the United Kingdom.
