Manavgat is the eastern part of ancient Pamphylia — the country ringed by the Taurus to the north, the Mediterranean to the south, the Alara stream to the east and the Köprü stream to the west. The name is Greek and the municipality reads it as the land of many peoples: a country where many languages were spoken and many tribes lived together. Stephanos of Byzantium wrote that the name was given later, after a woman called Pamphylia.
The earliest chapters are uncertain and the source says so. The region's history in the 14th and 15th centuries BC is judged from Greek legend, and although Mycenaean colonies are said to have come down onto the Pamphylian shore in those centuries, that has not been established.
Settlement proper begins in the 8th and 7th centuries BC along the Mediterranean coast. The first city of the Greek colonies was Phaselis, founded in 690 BC, and Side followed it.
Human life here is far older than any city. Occupation in the Karain cave near Antalya goes back fifty thousand years, and the people of the Palaeolithic who lived around Karain must also have lived in this district, two or three days' walk away. The first serious scientific work at Seleukeia, north of the town, was carried out in 1946 but could not go far for technical and financial reasons. Side, the Manavgat waterfall and the ancient cities of the district each have their own page below.
