Perge

About Perge

Perge — ancient city of Pamphylia in modern-day Turkey. Located in Antalya, Turkey.

Perge is an extensive ancient city 15 kilometres east of Antalya, originally a Lycian settlement that became a Greek city of Pamphylia and reached its peak in the second and third centuries CE as capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda. It was the birthplace of Apollonius of Perga, one of the greatest Greek mathematicians, famous for his work on conic sections. Perge is among the most complete Roman cities surviving in Turkey: a Hellenistic gate with two round towers, a colonnaded agora, a huge theatre, a stadium that is one of the best preserved of the ancient world, large baths, a temple of Artemis and two Byzantine churches. Its most distinctive feature is the long colonnaded main street with a water channel running down the middle through a series of cascading pools, unique for a Roman city and a cooling device in a semi-arid plain where summer temperatures exceed 30 degrees. Its finest marble statues were moved to the Antalya Museum, but the city itself, with its long rows of columns, stadium and theatre, remains one of the most rewarding archaeological visits on the Turkish coast.

Where:

Antalya, Türkiye