Things to do
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Antalya Museum
One of the largest archaeological collections in the country, holding the Roman sculpture lifted from Perge, the sarcophagus of Herakles returned from the United States in 2011, and a hall of Lycian and Phrygian material. It sits at the west end of the tramline.
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Düden Waterfalls
Two falls on the same river, the upper one in a park where the path runs behind the curtain of water, and the lower one dropping forty metres straight off the cliff into the sea. The lower fall is best seen from a boat.
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Yivli Minaret Mosque
The fluted brick minaret of 1230 that is the emblem of the city, standing over a Seljuk mosque built on a Byzantine church. The complex around it holds two dervish lodges and a tomb.
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Aspendos
The Roman theatre of about 160 AD, complete to its stage wall and upper gallery, and the best preserved in the Mediterranean because the Seljuks reused it as a caravanserai. The aqueduct in the fields behind it is worth the extra walk.
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Hadrian's Gate
A triple marble arch built into the city wall for the emperor's visit in 130, with the original Roman road surface and its cart ruts exposed beneath it. It is the main way into Kaleiçi on foot.
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Hidirlik Tower
A Roman tower of the second century at the seaward corner of the old walls, probably a tomb, standing at the edge of Karaalioğlu Park. It is the sunset spot in Kaleiçi.
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Kaleiçi
The walled quarter above the old harbour, a grid of Ottoman timber houses, Roman and Seljuk walls and stepped lanes now largely given over to hotels and workshops. The best of it is early, before the coaches arrive.
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Konyaaltı Beach
A long shingle beach west of the centre with the Beydağları rising straight out of the sea at the end of it. It is a city beach, served by tram, with the mountains doing the work.
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Canyon
Köprülü Canyon National Park
A limestone gorge on the Köprüçay where a Roman bridge still carries a road, and the busiest whitewater rafting run in the country, about fourteen kilometres of grade two and three. The season runs from April to October.
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Perga
A Roman city fifteen kilometres east with a colonnaded street, a stadium and one of the best preserved bath complexes in Anatolia, still being excavated. Saint Paul preached here on his first journey.
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Termessos
A Pisidian city on a mountain saddle at a thousand metres that Alexander declined to besiege, left unexcavated among the pines with its theatre on a cliff edge. The climb from the car park is steep and takes about half an hour.
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Tuvana Hotel
Six restored Ottoman houses joined around courtyards and a pool in the middle of Kaleiçi, a few minutes' walk from Hadrian's Gate. The rooms keep their painted ceilings.