Ancient City of Vasada, Bostandere

The ancient city of Vasada can be found in the Bostandere Neighborhood, southeast of Lake Beyşehir and northeast of Lake Suğla. It is located 80 kilometers from Konya, 26 kilometers from Beyşehir, and 13 kilometers from Seydişehir. To reach Bostandere, you need to travel 80 km on the Konya-Seydişehir highway and then take the secondary road that turns left from the main road when you are 10 km away from Seydişehir. After traveling another 3 km on this route, you will arrive in Bostandere, which was founded within the borders of the ancient city of Vasada. Vasada was an important city during the Roman and Byzantine periods and can be found in various sources as a Hellenistic city on the ancient road of Mistheia, Amblada, and Isauria. There are also two main roads leading from Vasada, one to the ancient city of Isauria near Bozkır, and another to Mistheia in Beyşehir.

In the past, almost every house in Bostandere had Roman and Byzantine materials decorated with human, animal, and plant motifs, as well as inscriptions in Greek and Latin, which were used as building materials. These materials can still be found around the fountains in the area surrounded by a wire fence across the old town hall and in the town square.

The Konya Archaeology Museum houses a Zeus Relief, a limestone altar with reliefs of a woman on one side and a horn of fertility on the other, a cross-shaped hanger with the figures of Jesus Christ and his apostles, and an Augustus coin minted in Vasada during the Byzantine period.

Scientific excavations in Vasada began in 1969, when a theater was found while a waterway was being opened in Aktepe to bring water to Bostandere. Excavations began in the theater and necropolis area in 1970, revealing the seating areas, orchestra, and most of the stage of the Roman Period Amphitheater. The excavations also uncovered an oil lamp made of terracotta from the Roman Period in the necropolis area. During the first excavation, which lasted two years in the 1970s, a small part of the theater was discovered, but some of the seats were destroyed, and the seats in the south, north, and upper parts were completely removed and used in the construction of houses. The excavations resumed in 2010 and were carried out by a team of eight people under the presidency of Konya Museums Directorate Archaeologist Kazım Merter. The seats, orchestra, and stage part of the theater were completely unearthed, revealing that there are 15 rows of seats with a height of 45 cm and a width of 84 cm, and five ascending stairs in the theater, which does not have a promenade. The lower part of the steps of the ascending stairs was made in the shape of a lion's claw, adding a unique beauty to the theater. The seats are made of gray andesite stone, and the quarry where these stones were brought is located about 2 km southeast of the theater and around the castle. The excavations also uncovered spouted pots made of terracotta, gray clay terracotta bowls, perfume bottles made of cullet, stone artifacts with reliefs of male busts, fragments of pottery with reliefs of grape clusters, bone pins, and fragments of terracotta appliqués with children's relief. These findings indicate that Vasada was an important settlement with its 3,000-seat amphitheater during its brightest period