Termessos....A hidden city and other Antalya, Turkey Off The Beaten Path Tips

Mountain Fortress

Termessos, high in the mountains 34km northeast of Antalya, is probably the most spectacularly sited ruined city in Turkey. Inhabited by the Termessians, it remained independent when Alexander the Great was fought off in 333 BC. You can visit en route from Olimpos to Goreme, which is only possible by reaching Antalya no later than 13:00 from Olimpos. From Antalya to Goreme, buses depart nightly at 20:30. The bus company will store luggage for free.

Termessos is not accessible directly by local transport.We shared renting a car for the day with another hotel guest. Buses running between the Antalya bus station and Korkuteli will drop-off at the road junction to Termessos for 1 million TKL. The latest return bus to Antalya is at 18:00. From the Termessos junction, it's 9km uphill. The walk takes about 2 hours at a steady pace. Alternatively, taxis waiting at the junction charge about 5 million TKL one-way by meter. You can take a taxi both up and down to ensure that you would have time to catch a bus to Goreme. Those who walked the 9km to the Termessos parking lot didn't look happy to realize that it's another 20 minute steep hike up to the ruins. The Termessians must have been one physically fit population.

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Website: http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/termessos/

the ancient city of Termessos in southern Turkey. Termessos is a sort of "Machu Picchu" of Turkey, a picturesque tumble-down ruin on the top of a mountain. Situated in a part of the country less visited by foreigners and requiring a short vertical hike, the site remains remarkably undisturbed.
I met a Turkish guy going hunting, we shared a love for a place I visited and stayed for 6 weeks, Isik Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan. I knew a hunter there who used to get dropped by chopper in the mountains and then get picked up 3 days later, he would light a fire to signal his location and then the chopper would come down and pick him up with his catch..

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Termessos (also known as Termessus) was inhabited by the Pisidians, an indigenous Anatolian nation of noted ferocity. The city first appears in history during the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander swept through the region but after winning a skirmish in the narrow mountain passes near the city, declined to storm it. (Guidebooks consistently portray Alexander as unable to take the city, but in fact he was merely disinclined to try.) After Alexander's death the city saw a famous clash during the wars of Alexander's "Successors." One of Alexander's generals, Alcetas, found himself trapped in the city by another of Alexander's generals, Antigonus the "One-Eyed." Beloved by the city's young people, Alcetas was betrayed by its "senior citizens" and comitted suicide rather than fall into Antigonus' hands. Mutilated and left unburied by Antigonus, Alceta's body was retrieved by the younger generation and given a hero's burial. The extant "lion sarcophagus" has convincingly been identified as his final resting place?among the only surviving graves of Alexander's friends and companions.
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Website: http://www.ancientlibrary.com/wcd/Termessus

In the Hellenistic period, Termessos gradually "Hellenized," adapting Greek culture, language and even becoming a democracy. The impressive theatre was built during this period, no doubt serving as both entertainment venue and political meeting place. Throughout the period, Termessos was engaged in frequent warfare with its neighbors, often taking on more than one. For its help in his campaign against Selge (c. 158 BC), Attalus II of Pergamum erected the city's elegant stoa (porch).

Termessos passed easily into Roman friendship and later empire. The city received considerable autonomy for its role against King Mithridates. It guarded its privileges jealously; remarkably, its coinage never included either image or title of the Emperors. (This is the source of the tour-guide story that Termessos was never conquered by Alexander or the Romans!) Most of the city's buildings were erected in this period, including a temple to the Emperor Hadrian. At some point the city Christianized, and bishops from Termessos participated in the early church councils, but the city was abandoned between the 5?7 centuries. (Remoteness and earthquakes may have both played their part.) Except for the occasional nomad it lay empty after that, which explains its relatively pristine state.

Termessus today
Termessus was rediscovered by British naturalist Edward Forbes in 1842. The picturesque ruins date mostly from the Roman era, and include a theater, gymnasium, council chamber (bouleterion) and a stoa (donated by Attalus II of Pergamon). Seven temples subsist in various states of disrepair, including temples to Artemis, Zeus Solymeus and the Emperor Hadrian, and the site include an expansive necropolis of rock-cut tombs and sarcophagi in the Lycian style. One of the sarcophagi has been identified as that of Alexander's general Alcetas, driven to suicide by Antigonus in 319, during the wars of the Successors

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Termessus entered history during the winter of 333 BC when Alexander the Great was in the region. Having swept through Lycia, Alexander entered Pamphylia by the coastal route and mastered its cities of Perge, Aspendus and Side. Alexander then proceeded inland to Phrygia by a path that led through a narrow, difficult pass controlled by Termessus. Arrian (1.27) represents this as "the route to Phrygia," but there were others. We can only speculate whether (as Freya Stark suggested) his Pamphylian sources steered him in the direction of their fearsome neighbors or whether the plan was Alexander's.

Alexander's actions at Termessus are recounted in Arrian (1.27-28). Arrian describes the defile through which Alexander's army had to move, with steep sides "like gates" allowing even a small force to close it. Sure enough the Termessians turned out in a body to stop him. Seeing this, Alexander ordered his men to pitch camp, anticipating, as Arrian says, that the sight of this action would cause the bulk of the Termessian force to retire to the city until morning. When things turned out just as Alexander had suspected, he threw a team of archers, javelin men and light infantry against the Termessian positions, sending its defenders back to the city. Alexander passed the narrows and encamped threateningly close to the city itself.

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Alexander did not, however, take the city. Alexander's purpose in the region was at an end; the isolated mountain strongpoint was of no use to the Persian navy, nor were its warlike people likely to chose a side other than their own. To go east and face Darius Alexander had to turn north, and time was critical. His decision was helped by the arrival of a friendly delegation from Selge, the sworn enemies of the Termessians. With garrisons in Pamphylia and new friends in Selge, Alexander could safely resume his course. At Sagalassus his army clashed with locals?also Pisidians?and came out victorious.

Alexander's "failure" to take Termessus has achieved something like mythic status among modern-day guides and guidebooks. The story also generally includes the idea that Termessus was the only city Alexander never captured. This statement is manifestly false?not a page before Arrian describes Alexander as "unable to take" (?dun?th? labein) Syllium, another inland fort, without siege equipment

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