Sagalassos Archaeological Site

Sagalassos is a mountain city in Ağlasun district of Burdur province, at an altitude of 1,500 to 1,700 metres in the Taurus Mountains. It is reached by a road about 20 kilometres long that leaves the Burdur-Antalya highway. During the Roman Imperial period it was among the most important cities of Pisidia and of the eastern Mediterranean. The name first appears in accounts of Alexander the Great's conquests, and the French traveller Paul Lucas rediscovered the ruins in 1706.

Since 1990 a team led by the Belgian archaeologist Marc Waelkens has been excavating. The city was ruled by the Seleucid kingdom until it came under Pergamon in 189 BC. Much of its wealth came from making terra sigillata tableware, in demand across the Mediterranean, using the clay beds of the Çanaklı plain near the city centre and to the south of it.

Sagalassos is among the best-preserved ancient cities in Asia Minor. Restoration work has rebuilt the Neon Library, the Hellenistic fountain, the Heroon and the Antonine fountain. Standing remains include the Lower and Upper Agoras, the Roman baths, the temples of Apollo Klarios and Antoninus Pius, a colonnaded street, the macellum (market), an urban villa and the theatre.