Hadrian’s Gate

Hadrian’s Gate or called "The Three Gates", was built in honor of Hadrian's visit to Antalya in 130. It is considered Pamphylia's (Pamphylia; the region between Lycia and Cilicia, modern-day Antalya province) most beautiful gate. It was built as a Triumphal arch which can be described as a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways roughly.

Hadrian’s gate is rising above four pylons, has two columned facades and 3 entry arches. The tower on the southern known as Julia Sancta belongs to the Roman era but seems that built independently. Towers' northern section is also from Roman times but it has been known that the upper part was rebuilt in the Alaeddin Keykubat period, the reign of Seljuks.

Kaleici was always an active settlement which means is the gate has been used for years. In 1950 it was harmed upon this and restored in 1959. During this restoration at the foot of the gate the letters which are spelling the word “Trajan”, “Traiano” in Greek, stated the name of Hadrian’s adopted father, were found. Unfortunately, those letters have been taken by various European visitors, today 9 letters are in Vienna, 2 letters are in Berlin, others are in London at the British Museum and at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It has been beliving that some other letters are missing.

A local legend pointed out that the Queen of Sheba Sultana Belkis have passed under those gates before she visited King Solomon and had a good time in Aspendos palace. If so she would have passed from the former version of the gate because Solomon and Belkis lived almost a thousand years before.