Sillyon is an ancient city not too far from Perge, within easy reach from Antalya. It lies further from the main road and as such is more difficult to visit. In 2015 I paid it a long overdue visit. I possessed little advanced knowledge, the site is not well provided with explanatory texts. Also, some of the major sights such as a theatre and odeion, no longer exist, as they tumbled into the abyss during rather recent landslides. Going is tough, much of the terrain is overgrown. Still, it is a fascinating place.

It lies on a rather flat-topped hill that can be spotted from afar. The Wikipedia has: "Sillyon (Greek: Σίλλυον, also Σύλλειον Sylleion, in Byzantine times Συλλαῖον Syllaeum or Syllaion) was an important fortress and city near Attaleia in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of modern Turkey. The native Greco-Pamphylian form was Selyniys, possibly deriving from the original Hittite Sallawassi. [...] Throughout Antiquity, the city was relatively unimportant. According to one legend, the city was founded as a colony from Argos, while another holds that it was founded, along with Side and Aspendos, by the seers Mopsos, Calchas and Amphilochus after the Trojan War. The city is first mentioned in ca. 500 BC by Pseudo-Scylax (polis Sylleion). From 469 BC, the city (as Sillyon) became part of the Athenian-led Delian League. It is mentioned in the Athenian tribute lists in ca. 450 BC and again in 425 BC, and then disappears again from the historical record until 333 BC, when Alexander the Great is said to have unsuccessfully besieged it. According to Arrian (Anabasis Alexandri I. 26), the site (recorded as Syllion) was well-fortified and had a strong garrison of mercenaries and "native barbarians", so that Alexander, pressed for time, had to abandon the siege after the first attempt at storming it failed.[...] The city was extensively rebuilt under the Seleucids, especially its theatre. In later times, when most of western Asia Minor fell to the Kingdom of Pergamon, Sillyon remained a free city by a decision of the Roman Senate. [...] Under the Byzantine Empire, the city rose to relative prominence. It is mentioned as the site of the destruction of an Arab fleet by storm in late 677 or 678, following the unsuccessful Arab Siege of Constantinople. As one of the major fortified sites of the area, it became the seat of an imperial representative (ek prosōpou), complementing the stratēgos of the naval theme of the Kibyrrhaiotai. Syllaeum was also located at the start of the great public road that linked the southern coast, via Amorium and Nicaea, with Bithynia and the capital Constantinople. In this position, it began to eclipse the traditional local metropolis of Perge, and sometime between 787 and 815, the local bishop's seat was transferred to Syllaeum. Together with the wider area of Pamphylia, the city fell to the Seljuks in 1207."

In 2022 I am restructuring my site, and change information as I have new information. Old attributions will change. Many points can often be found using "view map", thanks to GPS.