Professor Huseyin Sabri Alanyali of Anadolu University's Archeology Department told the newspaper that his excavation team is excavating the remains of the ancient city of Side.
He said that if they can't get more funding, his team will be forced to finish its investigations earlier than planned this year, on August 15.
"If we can find a sponsor, we want to complete our work at the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Athena and around the basilica," he said.
"Sometimes we find ourselves in interesting situations. For example, there is a brothel structure at the ancient site of Side. When those who are thinking about sponsoring us ask about the purpose of the structure in ancient times, they change their minds when we say it was a 'love house' [brothel] or a 'toilet,'" Alanyali stated.
The resort town of Side is located on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast, and is one of the country's best-known classical sites. The ancient city was a prosperous Aegean trading center in Hellenistic and Roman times, and a base for Cilician pirates in the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE.
"@turkeytourism: Temple of Apollo — #Side #Antalya #turkey #travel pic.twitter.com/f0JeJBYjX2"
— Mony Guevara (@Guevara_Mony) 6 мая 2014 г.
Its ancient architecture includes the Temples of Athena and Apollo which were erected in the 2nd century AD, and a Roman theater which was built in the middle of the 2nd century AD, on the site of an earlier, Hellenistic, theater.
