The Temple of Apollo is the image on every postcard of Side, and the first thing worth knowing about it is that it costs nothing to visit. There is no gate, no ticket office and no closing time. It stands on the open headland at the tip of the old town, where the harbour meets the sea, and you walk up to it the way you would walk up to a bench.
That surprises people, because Side does sell a ticket — but for a different enclosure altogether, inland around the theatre and agora. The temple is not inside it, and never has been.
What you are actually looking at
Five Corinthian columns carrying a section of carved entablature, on a stone platform a few steps above the water. The temple was built in the second half of the 2nd century AD, around AD 150, when Side was a prosperous Roman port.
What stands today is honest reconstruction rather than survival. The columns lay in pieces for centuries; between 1984 and 1990 five of them were re-erected with their capitals, and in 2017 the base was repaired again after the concrete from that first restoration began to fail. It is worth knowing this before you arrive, because the temple is far more moving as the fragment that was put back together than as the intact building some photographs imply.
Beside it, lower and less photographed, are the foundations of the Temple of Athena from the same period, and behind both the outline of a 5th-century Byzantine basilica that was built across the site once the temples had gone out of use.
Sunset, and the case for sunrise
Sunset is the famous moment. The sun drops into the sea directly behind the columns, the stone goes orange, and by the time it happens there are a hundred people on the headland and a queue for the one angle everyone wants.
Come at sunrise instead. The light comes from the land side, so it strikes the columns rather than silhouetting them; the harbour is empty; the restaurant chairs are still stacked. You will not get the sun-into-the-sea picture, but you will get the temple, which is the thing you came for.
If you can only do one, do sunset — it is genuinely lovely, crowd included. If you are staying in Side for a week, do both.
Where it sits in an old-town walk
The temple works best as the end of a walk rather than a place you drive to. From the dolmuş stop or the car park at the edge of the old town:
- Vespasian Gate and the monumental fountain at the entrance — free.
- The colonnaded street running south through the old town — free.
- The harbour, with its restaurants and fishing boats — free.
- The temples, on the headland just past the harbour — free.
That is a slow forty minutes, with the temple as the reward at the end. The ticketed enclosure with the agora sits off to the side of this route; with the theatre closed, whether the ticket is worth buying is a fair question — and the honest answer is that for most visitors the free route above is the better day. Everything else in Side is on the places to visit page.
Practical notes
There is no shade on the headland. Between June and September the stone radiates heat by midday, and there is nowhere to sit that is not in full sun. Bring water; the harbour cafés are two minutes away but you will want it while you are there.
The platform is uneven and the drop to the rocks is unfenced on the seaward side. Fine for adults; keep hold of small children.
Do not climb on the columns or the platform edges. The 2017 repairs exist because the structure is fragile, and a guard will move you on.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a ticket for the Temple of Apollo in Side?
No. The temple, the neighbouring Temple of Athena, the harbour and the whole headland are open ground with no gate and no ticket office. The paid ticket in Side covers a different enclosure — the theatre and agora area inland — and the theatre inside it has been closed for restoration since November 2024.
When was the Temple of Apollo built?
Around AD 150, in the second half of the 2nd century, in the Corinthian order. What stands today is a partial reconstruction — five columns and their entablature were re-erected between 1984 and 1990, and the concrete base was repaired in 2017.
What is the best time to photograph the Temple of Apollo?
Sunset is the famous one, and the headland fills up an hour beforehand. If you want the columns without a hundred people under them, come at sunrise: the light is softer, the harbour is quiet, and you will have it more or less to yourself.
How long do you need at the Temple of Apollo?
Twenty minutes for the temple itself. It is better treated as the end point of a slow walk through the old town than as a destination on its own.
Is the Temple of Apollo open at night?
Yes, because there is nothing to close. It is lit after dark and the harbour restaurants sit right beside it, so an evening stroll past the columns is simply part of a night out in Side.
