Antalya Province () is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.
Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visiting Turkey. Its capital city of the same name was the world's third most visited city by number of international arrivals in 2011, displacing New York. Antalya is Turkey's biggest international sea resort. The province of Antalya corresponds to the lands of ancient Pamphylia to the east and Lycia to the west. It features a shoreline of with beaches, ports, and ancient cities scattered throughout, including the World Heritage Site Xanthos. The provincial capital is Antalya city with a population of 1,344,000.
Antalya is the fastest-growing province in Turkey; with a 4.17% yearly population growth rate between years 1990–2000, compared with the national rate of 1.83%. This growth is due to a fast rate of urbanization, particularly driven by tourism and other service sectors on the coast.
The city and thus the province are named after Attalos II, king of Pergamon, who founded the city in the 2nd century BC.
Antalya has been settled since pre-historic times. Evidence of human habitation dating back to the early Paleolithic age (150,000-200,000) years has been discovered in the Karain cave, of the north of Antalya city. Other finds dating back to the Mesolithic (Beldibi Cave), Neolithic (Bademağacı Höyüğü) and more recent periods show that the area has been populated by various civilizations throughout the ages.
According to Herodotus, the earliest known inhabitants were a Bronze Age people called the Milyae (Milyans), who referred to the area as Milyas and spoke an Indo-European language known as Milyan. A people called the Termilae, from Crete, also settled and eventually dominated the coastal margins, which were known as Trm̃mis (while the Milyae became concentrated in the mountains). According to Greek legend, an exiled Athenian called Lykos (Latin: Lycus) became prominent in the region.