Agora of Aspendos

The Agora of Aspendos was the public marketplace of this ancient Pamphylian city, built on a hill above the Eurymedon river some 40 kilometres east of Antalya. Aspendos is best known today for its Roman theatre, widely regarded as one of the best-preserved ancient theatres anywhere, but the settlement around it preserves a full civic centre, including a basilica, a council building, a monumental fountain house, a triumphal arch, and the agora itself. The agora served as the city's commercial and social hub, flanked by these surrounding public buildings and reached by paved streets, while a long aqueduct carried water into the city from the nearby hills. Aspendos grew wealthy largely through river trade, since the Eurymedon was navigable far enough inland for ships to reach the city, and the scale of the agora and its neighbouring civic buildings reflects the prosperity this trade brought during the Roman imperial period.