Syedra Antik Kenti

About Syedra Antik Kenti

Syedra, also called Sedre, is an ancient city about 20 km south-east of Alanya within the bounds of Seki village. Settlement here goes back to the 9th century BC, and traces of life continue until the 13th century AD. Both a mountain and a coastal city, Syedra was one of the most strategic places in the region and marked the western edge of Cilicia. Its ancient name, Syedreon, first appears on coins struck by the Roman emperor Tiberius in the 1st century AD. Inscriptions found in excavations show that it was a centre for important games and competitions, and that it enjoyed its most prosperous years between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. The residential remains lie in the Upper City on the hillside, protected by walls and crossed by two main streets with stepped lanes running down at right angles. Visitors enter from the west through a monumental gate that still stands. From the visitor area a wooden walkway leads to the 250 m colonnaded street, once the social heart of the city, with niches in its northern wall and a heroon reached by steps at its western end. To the east are the impressive remains of a bath building with traces of mosaic on its floor, and next to it a well-preserved gymnasium where athletes trained and competed. Inscribed statue bases around the site name winners of wrestling and athletics contests and the people who organised and funded the games. Mosaics and inscriptions from excavations in the harbour area, the Lower City, are displayed in the Alanya Museum. The city drew its water from the spring-fed Sarnıç (Kaynak) Cave, storage pools and rain-filled cisterns. Close to the cave is the rock-cut Baptism Cave, decorated with frescoes and thought to have had a religious use because of the pool inside it. There are also remains of a theatre, temple, basilica, church, houses and shops, and olive-processing workshops on the west side of the city. The site can be reached on Alanya to Gazipaşa buses.