Side & Manavgat: Mosques, History & The Modern World

Each day, the first haunting call from the muezzin sounds out around first light, greeting the day alongside the crowing of cockerels and, sometimes, the clanging of binmen emptying the communal rubbish bins in the street outside.

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We’ve been to places where the Muslim faith has seemed to be much stronger than it is in this part of Turkey, maybe westernisation has had an effect, but there is no doubting the evocative nature of the sound of the call to prayer, which still stirs us even after 8 weeks here. And with the daylight hours reducing, the muezzins’ calls become that bit more regular.

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Despite the apparent moderation of diligence of prayer, the mosques at both Side and Manavgat are splendid, particularly the latter, grand and ornate even in the interior where mosques are commonly fairly plain. 

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After putting it off several times we finally visit Side museum, which is mostly open air in a glorious position overlooking the deep blue Med. With so many wonderful relics simply dotted around town, this museum would need to produce something special – or at least different. Its best shots at this are the skeletal remains encased in tombs; a large selection of tooling ranging from surgical implements to water jugs; and sizeable sections of the Nike statues which once headed the gates to the city. Nike was the symbol of victory; its presence on city gates therefore a statement of defiance to any would be predators.

We also learn that Side was once at the southern end of a 333-mile Roman road, leading all the way here from Bergama (Pergamon), way north of Izmir. They were pretty good at that kind of thing, those Romans.

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Daytimes are still very warm here, but as the sun goes down, so too does the mercury. There is a chill to the evenings. It’s clear too that this COVID ravaged tourist season is drawing to a close, and some restaurants are calling it a day and putting up the shutters, others opening only for lunch.

Our evening meals here have been mostly away from the tourist area and more in our own, more local, neighbourhood, but we decide to venture down to an inviting bar where we’ve had a couple of daytime beers. To our delight, Side House is even more inviting after dark. Just around the corner we find Radika, a fish restaurant with live music, fun staff, and great house wine.

This is probably our second best fish house of the entire trip, after Ucagiz, but both the evening and the atmosphere are terrific, although this opinion may just be being swayed by the heady combination of Efes, house wine and raki. 

Oh, and the fish was fantastic.