Sagalassos occupies steep terraces above Ağlasun in southwestern Türkiye, between roughly 1,450 and 1,700 metres elevation. Its mountain position controlled fertile land, water and regional routes. The surviving city includes an agora, fountains, baths, theatre, houses, tombs and production districts spanning Hellenistic, Roman and late antique life.
Alexander the Great captured Sagalassos in 333 BCE. Under Rome it became a prosperous centre of Pisidia, benefiting from imperial patronage and producing widely exported red-slip pottery. Earthquakes, changing networks and disease contributed to contraction; settlement gradually shifted, leaving the high city without dense modern construction.