Sagalassos: Ancient Mountain City Where Fountains Still Flow | Pisidia Series 02

Описание: Sagalassos: Ancient Mountain City Where Fountains Still Flow | Pisidia Series 02
High in the Taurus Mountains at 1,450 meters, the ancient site of Sagalassos lies in today’s Burdur Province, Turkey. Once a powerful mountain city, its ruins remained hidden for centuries beneath the soil, preserved in silence.

Chapters:
00:00 What Was This Ancient Site That Once Stood Here?
02:12 How Did This Lost City Remain Hidden for Centuries?
05:24 What Remains Beneath These Ancient Ruins?
07:19 What Belief Shaped This Ancient Civilization?
13:16 Why Did This Ancient City Fall into Silence?
18:23 How Was This Lost Civilization Rediscovered?
19:46 What Still Remains After All These Centuries?

The name “Sagalassos” comes from the Luwian word Salavassa, meaning “fortress on the high rock.” Buried for nearly two millennia, this lost city has only recently revealed its true magnificence.

What made Sagalassos different was not just its monumental architecture it was water. While most peaks in the Taurus Mountains held no springs, a rare geological formation trapped underground lakes beneath the city, creating a continuous supply. The Romans called it a “water city,” and for good reason. Five monumental fountains once stood here, and remarkably, two still flow from their original sources after nearly 2,000 years. Water was not just survival it was power, wealth, and belief.

In the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, Sagalassos became the heart of Roman Imperial cult worship in Pisidia. Emperor Hadrian received a temple here, and the city earned the rare title of Neokoros friend and ally of Rome. This status granted its citizens the same rights as Romans. The city flourished. Colonnaded streets stretched 300 meters. The grandest bath complex in Pisidia rose from the rock. A library rivaled Ephesus’s famed Celsus Library. The Antonine Fountain, restored over 13 years, became a masterpiece of Dionysian art, with sculptures imported from the legendary workshops of Aphrodisias.

But empires fall. By the 5th and 6th centuries, earthquakes and fires weakened the city. Marble was stripped and burned in lime kilns. Sagalassos contracted behind hastily built walls made from salvaged stones fragments of former glory reused in desperation. In the 7th century, a massive earthquake brought final collapse. The city was abandoned. Soil covered the streets. Shepherds grazed their flocks over hidden ruins. Sagalassos faded into silence.

That silence lasted for centuries. Then, in the 1990s, Belgian archaeologist Professor Marc Waelkens began excavations. Over 30 years, his team uncovered a city preserved exactly as it fell intact statues, flowing fountains, and astonishing evidence of continuity. DNA analysis revealed that modern residents of the region are direct descendants of the ancient Pisidians. This was not just ruins. It was living history.

The theater of Sagalassos, still largely unexcavated, holds 9,000 silent seats. Construction halted in the 2nd century when funds ran out. The upper tiers were never completed. Yet when you sit on those ancient stone rows today, you hear echoes applause, laughter, voices carried by the wind. Time did not erase them. It only hid them.

This ancient site reminds us that nothing is ever truly lost. Beneath the soil and the silence, stories remain. Civilizations rise and fall, but the human desire to build, to believe, and to leave something beautiful behind never disappears.

Come to Sagalassos. Walk the colonnaded streets. Stand before the Antonine Fountain where water still flows. Sit in the theater where thousands once gathered. And listen because this city, though silent, has never stopped speaking.

#lostcivilizations #ancienthistory #ancientcivilizations

Previous episode mentioned in this video (Kibyra):
🏛️ The Best-Preserved Medusa Mosaic — Kibyra’s Silent Guardian
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Previous episodes (Pamphylia):
🏛️ The Ruins of PERGE: A Silence in Stone | Pamphylia 01:
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🏛️ Best Preserved Roman Theater — ASPENDOS | Pamphylia 02:
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🏛️ SIDE — An Ancient Harbor Still in Use for 2,000 Years | Pamphylia 03:
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🏛️ All Pamphylia PERGE, ASPENDOS and SIDE Playlist:
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🏛️ All Ancient Cities and Places Album in Anatolia (Turkey):
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