Excavations along a nearly 390-metre-long street in the ancient city of Side have revealed how a major urban route changed from the Roman period through Late Antiquity.
The work focused on Street B, an east-west thoroughfare in the ancient Mediterranean port city, located in what is now Antalya Province in southern Turkey. Conducted under the country’s Heritage for the Future Project, the excavation was announced by Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
Archaeologists uncovered a colonnaded walkway, or stoa, built along the northern side of the street during the second century AD. Rooms stood behind the covered passage, while doorways and surviving threshold stones preserved elements of the street’s original Roman-period layout.
Three monumental entrances were identified along the stoa: the West Gate, the Herakles Gate and the North Baths Gate. The Herakles Gate is notable for reliefs showing the Twelve Labours of Herakles, along with panels depicting Athena, Zeus, Artemis, Hygieia and Tyche.
The sculptures have been dated to the early third century AD. However, the excavation evidence suggests that they were not originally created for the Late Antique gateway. Instead, they appear to have been removed from an earlier structure and reused in the gate’s construction. This practice, known as spolia, involved incorporating older architectural elements and sculptures into later buildings.
Street B underwent a major redevelopment during the fifth century AD, when a large area north of the route was incorporated into Side’s Bishop’s Palace complex. Several earlier entrances between the street and the northern stoa were sealed, and new monumental entrances were built.
Although the street continued to serve people entering Side through the East Gate, the changes altered its appearance and function. The route became a monumental urban axis, presenting a more imposing approach into the city.
The combination of Roman colonnades, reused sculpture, monumental gateways and later Christian-period construction allows archaeologists to examine successive changes along one urban route. Rather than reflecting a single building phase, Street B records how Side’s urban landscape was repeatedly reshaped in response to changing political, religious and civic needs.
