Season Opens At The Ancient City Of Pisidia

This season's excavations have started in the ancient city of Pisidia in the southern province of Isparta's Yalvaç district.

The head of the excavations, Süleyman Demirel University's Professor Mehmet Özhanlı, said this year's work would focus on the Temple of Men, which is valuable enough to enter the UNESCO World Heritage List.

He said that during the six years of excavations, they had unearthed the ancient city's main streets.

Özhanlı said there were important developments in the structures of the Roman bath, theater and villa, adding, "We have unearthed structures on one of the main streets of the ancient city, Cardo Maximus. The Roman villa was found on the upper part of the street in 2012. This year we plan to start restoration there. We will also work in the southern streets of the city."

The professor said that works will start on the Temple of Men, located on a hill in Özbayat, a village in the eastern part of the district.

"It is a very important place that even deserves to be included in the UNESCO list. We applied to the Culture Ministry to work there [in Pisidia] just as we did in previous years. The officials gave us the license. We will start by restoring the artifacts in the temple. We plan to carry out excavations in the coming years."

The area of Pisidia has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Age, with settlements having been built from the eighth to third millennium BC.  In the 11th century, the ancient city of Pisidia was captured by the Seljuk Turks. Pisidia frequently changed hands between the Byzantine Empire and the Turks until 1176.

(Photo) - Isparta