Antalya

Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province.Located on Anatolia’s southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Aegean region with over one million people in its metropolitan area.

The city that is now Antalya was first settled around 200 BC by the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, which was soon subdued by the Romans. Roman rule saw Antalya thrive, including the construction of several new monuments, such as Hadrian’s Gate, and the proliferation of neighboring cities. The city has changed hands several times, including to the Seljuk Sultanate in 1207 and an expanding Ottoman Empire in 1391.Ottoman rule brought relative peace and stability for the next five hundred years. The city was transferred to Italian suzerainty in the aftermath of World War I, but was recaptured by a newly independent Turkey in the War of Independence.

Despite having architectural heritage dating back up to Hellenistic times, most historical architecture in Antalya date to the medieval Seljuk period, with a number of mosques, madrasahs, masjids, caravanserais, Turkish baths and tombs giving the city a Turkish-Islamic character.Historical architecture is concentrated in the walled city, Kaleici; ancient structures are not well-preserved in the rest of the city of Antalya as the modern city was built on the ancient city.Kaleici, with its narrow cobbled streets of historic Ottoman era houses, is the old center of Antalya.