Pamphylia is in one respect a country of peculiar character: although it consists almost entirely of a plain, extending from the slopes of Mount Taurus to the sea, this plain, though presenting an unbroken level to the eye, does not consist, as in most similar cases, of alluvial deposits, but is formed almost wholly of travertine. “The rivers pouring out of the caverns at the base of the Lycian and Pisidian ranges of the Taurus come forth from their subterranean courses charged with carbonate of lime, and are continually adding to the Pamphylian plain. They build up natural aqueducts of limestone, and after flowing for a time on these elevated beds burst their walls and take a new course. Consequently it is very difficult to reconcile the accounts of this district, as transmitted by ancient authors, with its present aspect, and the distribution of the streams which water it. By the sea-side the travertine forms cliffs from 20 to 80 feet high” (Forbes’s Lycia, vol. ii. p. 188). Strabo describes a river which he terms Catarractes as a large stream falling with a great noise over a lofty cliff, but for the reason above given it cannot now be identified with certainty. He places it between Olbia and Attalia, where there is now no river of any importance. East of the latter city is the Cestrus, and beyond that again the Eurymedon, both of which are considerable streams, navigable for some distance from the sea. Near the mouth of the latter is a lake called Caprias, mentioned by Strabo, but it is a mere salt marsh.

The chief towns on the coast are—Olbia, the first town in Pamphylia, near the Lycian frontier; Attalia, founded by Attalus II., king of Pergamus, which still retains the name of Adalia, and is the principal port in this part of Asia Minor; and Side, about 15 miles east of the Eurymedon. On a hill above that river, some distance inland, stood Aspendus, and in a similar position above the river Cestrus was Perga, celebrated for its temple of Artemis. Between the two rivers, but somewhat farther inland, stood Sylleum, a strong fortress, which even ventured to defy the arms of Alexander. None of these towns are historically known to have been Greek colonies; but the foundation of Aspendus was traditionally ascribed to the Argives, and Side was said to be a colony from Cyme in Aeolis. But it is certain that the inhabitants, even of these towns, retained little of a Hellenic character, and spoke a semi-barbarous dialect. The legend related by Herodotus and Strabo, which ascribed the origin of the Pamphylians to a colony led into their country by Amphilochus and Calcha¾,after the Trojan War, is merely one of those mythical fictions current among the Greeks with regard to so many non-Hellenic races. The coins of Aspendus, though of Greek character, present us with legends in a barbarous dialect.

The Pamphylians never appear in history as an independent people. They are first mentioned among the nations subdued by the kings of Lydia, and afterwards passed in succession under the dominion of the Persian and Macedonian monarchs. After the defeat of Antiochus III. in 190 b.c., they were included among the provinces annexed by the Romans to the dominions of Eumenes, king of Pergamum; but at a somewhat later period they joined with their neighbours the Pisidians and Cilicians in their piratical ravages, and their port of Side became the chief centre of the naval power of these freebooters, and the place where the captives were sold as slaves. Pamphylia was for a short time included in the dominions of Amyntas, king of Galatia, but after the death of that monarch lapsed into the ordinary condition of a Roman province, and its name is not again mentioned in history.