
Side Ören Yeri
Ruins of an ancient port that served as the Mediterranean's chief pirate slave market.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the ancient port ruins at Side, near Antalya, traces how the Cilician pirates turned this harbor into the Mediterranean's principal hub for kidnapping and selling captives in the first century BCE. It follows the wealth that piracy brought the city, funding its theatre and temples, and the Roman general given sweeping emergency powers in 67 BCE to hunt the fleets down. Listen with the harbor in view; the water looks much as it did then.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Olympos Ancient City
Lycian harbor city in a river canyon, once ruled by pirates who chose fire over Roman capture.
Apollon Temple
Corinthian columns flanking the Mediterranean, all that stands of a second-century Roman temple.
Antalya Kaleiçi Ancient City & Marina
Walled old-city harbour where Roman galleys, Crusader ships, and Ottoman traders once anchored.
Phaselis Örenyeri
Ancient Lycian port city where Alexander the Great wintered before marching east to conquer Persia.
Termessos Ruins
Hilltop ancient city at a thousand meters that turned away Alexander the Great without a battle.