Perge, originally, a Hellenistic settlement, later developed into a thriving Roman city, is a historicists delight. Situated only 18 km from Antalya in the Pamphylia plain, Perge has a long legacy (almost from 1500 B.C.) to narrate with its initial inhabitants being the Hittites. Its importance also lies in the fact that the ruins of the Roman city provides a very complete picture of the past, thus making it archaeologically invaluable. However, even if you are wondering how an archaeologically fertile site could ever interest you, you should never miss a chance of visiting it. For Perge has much to offer for the vacationer as well, it has a unique blend of the exotic and the ancient.

The ancient city of Perge was the capital of the Pamphylia region, now the province of Antalya on the southwestern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. It is a large archaeological site of ancient ruins 15 km east of Antalya in the coastal plain. There is an acropolis dating back to the Bronze Age.

In the 12th century BC, there was a large wave of migration of Greeks living in the northern Anatolia to the Mediterranean coast. Many of them settled in the area standing immediately to the east of todays Antalya city. This large area arround Antalya city was called Pamphylia, meaning "land of the tribes". As a result of the migration wave four great cities rose in Pamphylia : Perge, Sillyon, Aspendos and Side.

Perge was founded in around 1000 BC sited inland some 20 km from the sea as a defensive measure to avoid the pirates terrorizing this part of the of the Mediterranean. In 546 BC, the Persians gained control of the region and two hundred years later, in 333 BC, Alexander the Great arrived in Perge in his great route towards the Persians.  The citizens of Perge welcomed him and sent out guides to lead his army into the city.

After Alexanders death his Hellenistic Empire was divided into four parts and this region was ruled by Seleucus one of Alexanders commandants thus it is called the Seleucid Empire. This was the time that Perges most celebrated ancient inhabitant, the mathematician Apollonius (c.262 BC – c.190 BC), lived here and worked. Apollonius was a pupil of Archimedes and wrote a series of eight books describing a family of curves known as conic sections, comprising the circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola.

Roman rule began shortly in 188 BC, and most of the surviving ruins today date from this period and the later Byzantine times. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Perge remained inhabited until the Selcuk times, before being gradually abandoned.

Perge today is an archaeological site and a major tourist attraction. The city was built between the Rivers Catarrhactes (Duden suyu) and Cestrus (Ak su), some 60 stadia from the mouth of the latter. A stadion was equal to 600 podes something around 177,6 meters today.