Antalya, Turkey's principal holiday resort in the Mediterranean region (ancient Pamphylia), is an attractive city with shady palm-lined boulevards, a prize-winning marina on the Mediterranean. In the picturesque old quarter, Kaleici, narrow winding streets and old wooden houses abut the ancient city walls. Lately, many foreigners have bought (and continue to buy) property in and around Antalya for their holidays or for the retirement. It became a popular area especially for the German and Russian nationals.

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 Aspendos is located to the east of Antalya and is famous for its best-preserved ancient amphitheater built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The theater has a capacity of 15,000 people and is still used today for performances and festivals. Its galleries, stage decorations and acoustics all testify to its architect Xeno's success. Next to the stage there is a small room which is used as a small museum where you can see some of the masks and clay tickets from the ancient times. Just above the theater there is the acropolis with a great view of the river from the top, where you can see a basilica, an agora, a nymphaeum and and a bouleuterion (council), all of them in ruins. About one kilometer north of the town there is one of the largest Roman aqueducts in Anatolia which supplied Aspendos with water. 

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 Though a very ancient city nearby Antalya, in the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia, the early history of Olympus is shrouded in mystery. Its name is probabily derived from Olympos (Tahtali) mountain about 15 km north of the city. We know it was an important Lycian city by the 2nd century B.C. because Strabon mentioned that Olympos had 3 votes in the Lycian League. The Olympians worshipped Hephaestos (Vulcan), the god of fire. No doubt this veneration sprang from reverence for the mysterious site of Chimeira, an eternal flame which still springs from the earth not far from the city. The town declined in the 1st century B.C. when it was controlled by the pirates, until the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century A.D. In the 3rd century pirate attacks brought impoverishment. In the Middle Ages, Venetians, Genoese and Rhodians built fortresses along the coast. And finally by the 15th century Olympus had been abandoned after the arrival of the Ottomans.

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Side town was one of the ancient ports of Pamphylia on the Mediterranean Sea, located on a tiny peninsula about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Antalya. The word "side" in local Anatolian language meant "pomegranate". Some historians say that the city was settled around 7th century BC and than came under the rule of the Lydians, Persian, Alexander The Great's, Seleucid Empires, Pergamon Kingdom, Romans, Byzantines, and Turks respectively.

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