Agora of Side

The Agora of Side was the main public square of this ancient Mediterranean port city on Turkey's Antalya coast, founded as early as the seventh century BC and later flourishing under Greek, Roman, and Byzantine rule. At its centre stood a round temple dedicated to Tyche and Fortuna, goddesses of civic fortune, built in the second century BC with a colonnade of twelve columns running around its outer wall. Beyond its religious role, ancient sources record that the agora also served as a trading ground where pirates active along the Pamphylian coast sold captured slaves, reflecting Side's double reputation as both a prosperous harbour city and a market tied to Mediterranean piracy. The square was framed by covered porticoes in the Roman style common to Pamphylian cities, and it sits within a dense cluster of surviving civic monuments, including Side's theatre, colonnaded streets, and bathhouses, that together make the site one of the best-preserved ancient city centres on Turkey's southern coast.