Side, which was the most important port city of the Pamphylia region in ancient times, is 8 km from the town of Manavgat. It is on a peninsula in the distance. Being the first museum opened in a village in Turkey, Side Museum is in Side Antique City, dated to the 2nd century AD. It has survived today with the changes made in the 5th and 6th centuries and serves in a Roman Bath building, which was later turned into a museum.
The museum's collection opened in 1962, consists mainly of the finds unearthed during the Ancient City of Side excavations, carried out from 1946 to 1966.
Consisting of 5 halls of various sizes, the museum is designed with three closed and two open halls. The outstanding collection includes artifacts from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods. Among the exhibited works are sculptures, torso portraits, relief sarcophagi and ostotes, sundials, funerary stelae, Greek and Side inscriptions, altars, amphorae, terracotta, glass and bronze finds, architrave frieze columns, column capitals, pediments, etc. architectural elements, coins belonging to the cities of Pamphylia and Pisidia, and Side Coins draw attention. In the museum where you can see the magnificent statues of the famous gods and goddesses of mythology, the 'Three Beauties Statue' attributed to Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, and the Hermes Hercules statues, are among the unique pieces of the museum.
The museum's courtyard, which used to be the gymnasium of the Roman Baths, extends to the sea walls. Among the important finds exhibited in the yard you can see sarcophagi, columns, friezes, mosaic pieces, busts and sculptures from the Roman Period, and inscriptions and tomb inscriptions from the Seljuks.
