Sagalassos
Σαγαλασσός · Selgessos · Sagallesos
Hellenistic to Early Byzantine (classical antiquity to c.640 CE earthquake)·Pisidian → Hellenistic → Roman Imperial → Byzantine·🇹🇷 Burdur Province, Western Taurus (Mount Akdağ), Turkey
About
About Sagalassos
Pisidia's 'first city' spectacularly terraced at 1450–1700 m on Mount Akdağ, where Alexander failed to storm it and Hadrian raised it to imperial favour. The Antonine Nymphaeum (with Aqueduct), restored to flowing water in 2010, the 9,000-seat Roman theatre clinging to slope, and the Doric-Roman agora with colossal Hadrian-Antoninus Pius statues illustrate highland Romanitas funded by pottery and grain. Leuven's 35-year dig pioneered 'polymorphous archaeoseismology' — the city died by 6th-century earthquake plague, not war.
Why it mattersBest-preserved Roman highland city in Mediterranean; model earthquake-termination site.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why Antonine fountains remained so intact — rapid burial?
- 02Plague vs quake as abandonment driver
Theories
- 01Pottery-export wealth (Sagalassos Ware) explains Hadrianic favour despite isolation
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Hellenistic city c.300 BCE; Roman peak 1st–6th century CE
- Period
- Hellenistic to Early Byzantine (classical antiquity to c.640 CE earthquake)
- Culture
- Pisidian → Hellenistic → Roman Imperial → Byzantine
- Builders
- Pisidians; Seleucids and Roman clients; Hadrianic benefactors
- Purpose
- Pisidian hill capital, later Roman colonia controlling Taurus pass trade
- Abandoned
- c.640 CE (earthquake c.518 and plague c.542; final quake 590–650)
- Rediscovered
- 1706 Paul Lucas; 1884 Lanckoronski; 1990 Marc Waelkens (KU Leuven)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
333 BCE
Alexander fails to take Sagalassos
129 CE
Hadrian visit — imperial patronage
161–180
Antonine Nymphaeum and aqueduct built
2010
Nymphaeum restored to running water
On the ground
Structures & features
37.6781° N · 30.5194° E · 1550 m · 3 mapped features
Antonine Nymphaeum
nymphaeumSeven-meter fountain façade restored to water flow
37.6775° N · 30.5198° ERoman Theatre
theatre9,000-seat theatre high on Akdağ (c.180 CE)
37.6783° N · 30.5218° EUpper Agora with colossal statues
agoraPaved agora with Hadrian/Marcus Aurelius bases
37.6768° N · 30.5180° E
Gallery