(Above) A minaret at left, from which the call to prayer is projected, overlooks the Turkish city of Antalya. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

By Pamela Dittmer McKuen

Apr. 22, 2025 – Flying over the jagged Taurus Mountains from Istanbul and nearing the coastal city of Antalya, I spotted hundreds of elongated, white-roofed buildings. They were greenhouses, I learned, testaments to the region’s horticultural dominance.

About 50 percent of Turkey’s vegetables, fruits, and flowers are grown here, thriving in the subtropical climate along the Mediterranean Sea. Sun-baked summers and cool, rainy winters cultivate palm-lined boulevards and delicious dining and wine, just two of the draws for the throngs of travelers and tourists who flock to the Turkish Riviera each year.

Verdant and modern, Antalya is Turkey’s fifth largest city, with more than a million residents and double that for the metro area. It’s also the gateway to the region’s most epic archeological sites, an irresistible lure for paleophiles.

To begin, Antalya is both a municipality and a province. I started my journey in the city, quartering at the Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Antalya.

The hotel is a sleek high-rise with an infinity swimming pool (left) overlooking the sea and mountains.

Special guests are the clowder of small, friendly cats (like the one at right) who nestle on lobby sofas and anywhere else they please.

The cats are ubiquitous throughout the city – clean, neutered, well-fed, and adored.

(Also, the proper name of the country is “Türkiye,” but we are using American spelling.)

City sights and sites

At the heart of the city is Republic Square, anchored by a bronze sculpture of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk sitting atop a rearing steed. Atatürk was a founding father of the Republic of Turkey and its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He is revered for sweeping reforms, such as separation of church and state, and the replacement of Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, that led to modern-day Turkey. (Constitutionally, Turkey is a secular country, although nearly all residents are Muslim.)

A short walk from Republic Square leads to Kaleiçi, the Old Town (left), a lively historic district with narrow streets, Ottoman-era architecture, cafes, boutiques, and market stalls.

Two important landmarks are the Yivli Minaret, built for a second time in 1373, and Hadrian’s Gate (right), a triumphal arch built to honor Roman Emperor Hadrian for his visit in 130 AD.

Oblivious to the bustle are the neighborhood cats, napping in sunbeams and the occasional flowerpot.

Düden Park is an expansive urban greenscape with pathways, picnic areas, observation terraces, and the dramatic Lower Düden Waterfall (left), which spills 130 feet into the sea below.

A few miles outside the city is Belek, an upscale resort town known as the country’s golfing capital with 14 courses within close proximity.

Ultra-luxe, all-inclusive Maxx Royal Belek Golf Resort (right) has 600 suites and villas, and a golf course illuminated with floodlights at night.

An international roster of famed golfers has played on its links, including Tiger Woods, who tied for third place in the 2013 Turkish Airlines Open.

Digging up the past

Turkey has endured a complicated history since prehistoric times. In short, the Golden Age of Roman rule was roughly from 300 BC to 300 AD, followed by the Byzantines, who were in power for a thousand years or so. Seljuks and Greeks also made appearances, and the various civilizations sometimes overlapped. Ottomans arrived on the scene about 1300 AD, but were ousted at the end of World War I. The region was subdivided, and the Republic of Turkey was established with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at the helm.

While they were in power, Ottomans destroyed Roman buildings and settlements, reducing them to rubble. Later groups looted whatever was left.

A key archeological site in Antalya is Perge, an ancient Roman trade center, which once flourished with grand colonnaded streets, theater, stadium, baths, and agoras. As we waited for our guide to appear, a black-and-white cat befriended me, contentedly accepting my affection.

Perge’s restoration, which began in the 1940s, is painstaking and slow. Fields of broken pieces lay in fields, waiting for assembly.

A major accomplishment is the recent restoration of a massive fountain and waterway (right) that hadn’t flowed for hundreds of years.

If you’d like, you can speed things along by “adopting” a broken column for repair.

Many of the statues, sarcophagi, and other elements that adorned the lost city of Perge have been restored, cleaned, and put on display at the Antalya Archeological Museum. We headed there to see them.

The museum is one of Turkey’s largest and grandest. Thirteen exhibition halls and an open-air gallery are populated with masterful sculptures of real-life and mythical personages, intricately carved sarcophagi, pottery, mosaics, and other treasures.

One room is dedicated to royalty, Emperor Hadrian and King Alexander the Great among them. Another room pays homage to Roman gods and goddesses, including Zeus, Hercules, Hermes, and Aphrodite. One sarcophagus honors a loyal dog.

The sculptures, mostly white marble, were excavated in pieces, and not all are complete. Some bodies have no heads. Some heads have no bodies. Metal rods substitute for absent limbs, and a scaled photograph replaces a missing panel on the side of a sarcophagus.

Behind the museum, landscaped gardens juxtapose modern sculptures and more ruins. Resident cats lay claim to cushioned seating on the patio, and white peacocks strut about the grounds.

Ancient meets modern

Another prominent site, the Aspendos Theatre, is a well-preserved Roman outdoor theater built at the command of Emperor Marcus Aurelius during his reign in 160-180 AD.

Carved from stone with elaborate architectural detail and tiered seating (right) for an audience of up to 15,000, the theater is still in use for musical and theatrical performances.

The acoustics are said to be excellent, even from the highest tiers.

In Side, formerly a magnificent Roman harbor city, a vibrant resort town has grown up around the ruins.

Crumbled remains (left) reveal a grand entrance gate, colonnaded streets, temples, a theater on par with Aspendos, agoras, baths, and homes.

The waterfront, under the watch of a bronze statue of Atatürk, teems with tourist boats, boutiques, souvenir shops, eateries, and small boutique hotels. These modern buildings were built on top of ruins, which you can view while strolling the see-through sidewalks.

I marveled at the sophisticated engineering and complex architectural structures by long-ago societies without the technology and labor-saving conveniences of today. All too soon, it was time for me to leave the Turkish Riviera and board one of those technologies – a jet airplane – to fly home and play with my cats. (Right) The author and friend at Perge. Photo by Rick Stedman.

Photos by Pamela Dittmer McKuen except where noted otherwise.