Located about twenty kilometers from Antalya, in the Güllük Dağı National Park, there is a place called Karabunar Kiui, where the Archaeological Site of Termessos is located. It hosts the well-preserved remains of the ancient city of Termessos, a city-fortress that mythology attributes to the founding by the Homeric hero Bellerophon, and whose location at more than a thousand meters above sea level, surrounded by mountains, made it almost impregnable and allowed it to control the region of Pisidia.

This location in such a rugged environment not only allowed it to escape the unsuccessful siege imposed by Alexander the Great in 333 BC but also from the arrival of mass tourism, protecting the ruins and turning them into one of the best-preserved ancient sites in Turkey.

It is settled on a slope of Güllük Dağı (formerly called Solimo), a 1600-meter peak belonging to the Taurus Mountains where the famous Cilician Gates were located, a strategic mountain pass that connected the interior plateau with the coast.

The Cilician Gates today
The Cilician Gates today. Credit: Teogomez / Wikimedia Commons

Behind the Cilician Gates and on a mountaintop

The Cilician Gates were ancestrally used for military campaigns, from the Ten Thousand that Xenophon narrates in his Anabasis to the aforementioned campaign of Alexander, as well as in the First Crusade; likewise, Paul of Tarsus passed through there during his trip to Galatia. In that sense, Termessos was also on a transmontane route whose narrowness favored its defense with very few men; something that was increased by the fact that its acropolis crowned the top of Solimo, settled on a small plateau, so, as we said, it was a perfect place to control communications between Pisidia, Pamphylia, and Lycia.

In fact, its first inhabitants, the Solymi (a demonym derived from the Anatolian god Solymus and which is still preserved as a surname today), were Pisidians, possibly descendants of the Luwians. A people who practiced livestock and olive cultivation with banditry, which earned them a bad reputation.

Homer mentions them in the Iliad in relation to the myth of Bellerophon, that Corinthian hero who became famous for taming Pegasus (the winged horse of Zeus) and killing the Chimera (a monster, child of Typhon and Echidna, with a goat’s body, lion’s head, and a snake’s tail, whose union with Orthrus gave birth to the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion).

Remains of the gymnasium of Termessos
Remains of the gymnasium of Termessos. Credit: Dosseman / Wikimedia Commons

Bellerophon, the mythical founder

Originally, Bellerophon was called Hipponous (“knower of horses”) or Leophontes, changing his name after accidentally killing a Corinthian tyrant named Belleros, who in some versions is his brother. He was supposed to be the grandson of Sisyphus and the son of the illicit union between Princess Eurynome and Poseidon, and would have founded Termessos during one of his thrilling adventures: the one in which he was sent by the Lycian king Iobates to fight the Solymi who ravaged the region; the mission had the sly intention of Bellerophon dying in it since the monarch suspected that he had an affair with his wife Stheneboea.

In case anyone is curious about the end of that adventure, Bellerophon survived that and other dangers (including fighting against the Amazons first and against the soldiers that Iobates sent to kill him), so the sovereign ended up throwing in the towel and granting him the hand of his daughter Philonoe, in addition to naming him successor; in some versions, his mother-in-law commits suicide upon finding out, while in others, she dies at his hands, thrown from the sky when they rode together on Pegasus, for having betrayed him.

Obviously, the history of Termessos is more prosaic. The city of thieves entered it properly when Alexander the Great, during his conquest of the Persian Empire, set out to seize the region of Milyas. To do this, Strabo says, he needed his troops to have a free pass through the mountainous defiles and, for this purpose, he devastated Termessos.

Remains of buildings and the colonnaded street of Termessos
Remains of buildings and the colonnaded street of Termessos. Credit: Dosseman / Wikimedia Commons

Alexander decided to go around it and pass by

However, it seems that there was no such destruction, but he bypassed it, considering it would take too much time and effort to take that eagle’s nest.

Flavius Arrian says that Alexander defeated the Termessians, contenting himself with forcing them to entrench while he opted to conquer Sagalassos. But none clarify why he chose the Yenice pass when there are other mountain passes that linked Pamphylia with the interior of Phrygia; perhaps it was a deception that his Pergaean hosts devised for the Macedonian.

Diodorus Siculus adds that in 319 BC, after Alexander’s death, the diadochus Antigonus I Monophthalmus proclaimed himself lord of Asia Minor after defeating his rival Alcetas (the brother of Perdiccas) and forcing him to take refuge in Termessos.

Remains of the temple of Hadrian in Termessos
Remains of the temple of Hadrian in Termessos. Credit: Dosseman / Wikimedia Commons

The Termessians were divided into two blocks: the young were in favor of helping him, against the elders, who feared disaster seeing the army of Antigonus camped in front of the city and who finally agreed with him for his surrender, although they could only give him the body because Alcetas took his own life first.

The Macedonian not only did not bury him but subjected him to desecration for three days; then, the young of Termessos buried him with honors, built a monument in his memory, and unleashed a guerrilla war against Antigonus.

Despite this, the territory underwent profound Hellenization and entered a period of splendor. Paradoxically, this aroused the interest of neighbors and rivals so that between that and its undoubted strategic interest, the Antigonid dynasty could not retain it for long, and it was conquered by the Ptolemies.

Relief of a rider in the so-called Tomb of Alcetas in Termessos
Relief of a rider in the so-called Tomb of Alcetas in Termessos. Credit: StefanC / Wikimedia Commons

Allies of Rome

In the 2nd century BC, a city with the same name, Termessos Minor, was even founded while wars with Lycia, Isinda, and Selge were maintained, counting on the help of Attalus II, king of Pergamon, who financed the construction of a stoa in the city.

In the conflict with Isidia, the Termessians besieged the enemy city, and it requested help from the Roman Republic, which, in full eastern expansion, came to the call, forcing the besieging army to withdraw and imposing a tribute of fifty talents of silver. However, Termessos ended up being a convenient ally of Rome in the war against Mithridates VI, and in 71 BC, through the Lex Antonia de Termessibus, obtained wide autonomy from it, which has been reflected even in numismatics – it was authorized to mint coins – and privileges.

Except for a brief episode in the last quarter of the 1st century BC, in which they supported Amyntas, king of Galatia, the Termessians remained loyal to Rome. At the end of the republican period, things changed slightly from an administrative point of view, and the city was integrated into the province of Lycia and Pamphylia, prospering economically and being an episcopal see.

Rock-cut tombs
Rock-cut tombs. Credit: Zythème / Wikimedia Commons

An earthquake put an end to it all

But everything went wrong in the 5th century AD, after an earthquake demolished the city’s architecture with especially severe damage to the aqueduct, depriving its inhabitants of the water supply and, therefore, forcing them to abandon it.

Ironically, this abrupt departure without turning back was partly responsible for the excellent current preservation of its architecture (the other, as we said, is due to the isolation from mass tourism due to its difficult access).

You reach it by a left turn at kilometer twenty-four on the road between Antalya and Korkuteli, which leads to a steep path from which you can see the aforementioned Yenice pass and the Persian Royal Road ending at the city walls. These are studded with augury dice inscriptions, as it seems the Termessians were very fond of divination.

Aerial view of the theater's surroundings in Termessos
Aerial view of the theater’s surroundings in Termessos. Credit: Capyusuf / Wikimedia Commons

The main buildings are structured around a square: the agora, which has vaulted rooms and is surrounded by stoas – one of them that of Attalus II – cisterns, and a gymnasium; the theater, of Roman type, with a Hellenistic cavea, adjacent odeon, and capacity for about five thousand spectators, which probably also served as a bouleuterion (meeting place of the boule or council); four of the six temples, whose location near the agora gives that area a religious character, dedicated mainly to Zeus Solymeus and Artemis (two other Corinthian temples, dedicated to unknown deities, are located further away).

A Roman villa, mistakenly called the House of the Founder, several necropolises with hypogea (one of them is possibly that of Alcetas, but the looting suffered prevents it from being assured) containing ornamented sarcophagi, a triumphal arch erected by Emperor Hadrian, cisterns, porticos, etc., are also preserved.

No excavation campaigns have been carried out, but some interesting pieces have appeared that are exhibited in the Antalya museum, such as the Sarcophagus of the Dog (which owes its name to the dedication read on its exterior, dedicated to the dog Stefanos by its owner).

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on August 2, 2024: Termeso, la inexpugnable ciudad en la cima de una montaña que Alejandro nunca pudo conquistar

SOURCES

Homero, La Ilíada

Estrabón, Geografía

Flavio Arriano, Anábasis de Alejandro Magno

Diodoro de Sicilia, Biblioteca histórica

Jenofonte, Anábasis

Polibio, Historias

Robert Graves, Los mitos griegos

Nadia Julien, Enciclopedia de los mitos

Ministerio de Cultura y Turismo de Turquía, Termessos Örenyeri

Ministerio de Cultura y Turismo de Turquía, Termessos Archaeological Site

Wikipedia, Termeso

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