Ariassos Antik Kenti

About Ariassos Antik Kenti

Ariassos is a city of the Pisidia region, about 50 km north of Antalya and 1 km from the village of Akkoç, west of Çubukbeli, the pass that links the Antalya coast with the Anatolian plateau. Its official founding is dated to the early 2nd century BC, in connection with the campaign of Manlius Vulso and the Peace of Apamea. The city is laid out on terraces on the northern slope, parallel to a street running east to west. From east to west come a necropolis, the southern corner of the city walls and civic buildings, the city gate, a probable colonnaded street leading west from the gate with the main settlement on its north side, and a second necropolis. The most important structures are the city gate, mausoleum-type tombs, the walls, a Roman road, an aqueduct, a nymphaeum, a bouleuterion, a gymnasium, a bath and a theatre. The grandest ruin is the monumental three-arched entrance gate at the start of the valley into the city, which stands almost complete and is known to have been in use in the reign of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander. Three small churches have been identified, two on the presumed colonnaded street and one in the north-west of the city. On the western slope, a Roman road paved with large, regular blocks crosses the present Akkoç road and runs from the direction of Termessos to the western gate. After the gate, the most striking remains are the monumental tombs. The western necropolis has nine mausoleum-type tombs with double vaulted roofs on podiums, reached by steps to the chambers holding the sarcophagi, and forty simpler tomb buildings; the eastern necropolis has nine more tomb buildings. Limestone sarcophagi with Pisidian-style shields on their short sides and graves cut directly into the rock were also used. The site is reached by a turn-off from the road between Antalya and Bucak.