The story of Sagalassos

The highest-altitude theatre in the world stands here, on the slopes of Mount Ağlasun: it seats 9,000 and is the best-preserved building in the city. Sagalassos, capital of Pisidia in antiquity, was built on sloping ground between 1450 and 1700 metres, its ruins spreading 2.5 km east to west and 1.5 km north to south. Paul Lucas discovered it in 1706; excavations began in 1990 and are still going on.

The city is remembered for its splendid fountains and distinctive rock tombs. The Antonine Fountain in the Upper Agora dates to AD 160–180, and its restoration was completed in 2010. Two storeys of the Roman baths, with their many pools, survive. Busts of Ares, Hercules, Hermes, Zeus, Athena and Poseidon from the reign of Trajan are among the finds you can see in the Burdur Museum.

Researchers here study every trace of daily life, and have identified an eruption of the Gölcük volcanoes around 13000 BC and earthquakes around AD 500 and in the mid-7th century.