Ancient city of Syedra comes to light

Artifacts belonging to the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Anatolian Seljuks period have come to light during the ongoing excavation works in the ancient city of Syedra, which lies in the southern province of Antalya's Alanya district.

Located in Seki neighborhood, the ancient city of Syedra is believed to date back to the ninth century, considering the artifacts unearthed in this year's works.

The ancient city draws attention with its Kaynak Cave, infrastructure for clean water supply, Colonnaded Street, Baptism Cave, pools and cisterns.

Carrying the traces of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Anatolian Seljuks into the future, Syedra is open to visitors free of charge.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Ertuğ Ergürer, associate professor at Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University and the head of the excavations, said that Syedra was one of the most important cities in the Cilicia region.

Stating that the first excavations in the city were carried out in the form of salvage excavations between 1994 and 1999, Ergürer said the Colonnaded Street, which was considered to be the heart of Syedra, was also unearthed during this period.

He stated that during the new term of excavations carried out in the city center in 2019, they mostly worked on different buildings in the ancient city. "Here, we saw the architectural elements of other cities of the ancient period, too. The terrain here is difficult, and their placement of these architectural elements on this difficult terrain shows the city's distinction."

"The altitude suddenly rises 400 meters from the sea. They processed natural rocks and placed the structures like that. Architecturally, it differs from other cities," he added.

Noting that the city gives an...