Eurymedon Bridge (Aspendos)
Coordinates: 36 ° 54 ′ 51 ″ N , 31 ° 9 ′ 47 ″ E
| Eurymedon Bridge (Aspendos) | ||
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| Official name | Köprüpazar Köprüsü | |
| Crossing of | Eurymedon ( Köprüçay ) | |
| place | Aspendos ( Turkey ) | |
| construction | Arch bridge with vaulted vaults | |
| overall length | 259.50 m (Roman Bridge) | |
| width | 9.44 m (Roman bridge) | |
| Number of openings | 9 (Roman Bridge) | |
| Clear width | Max. 23.52 m (Roman bridge) | |
| Pillar strength | Max. 9.60 m (Roman bridge) | |
| Flow profile | 2.6 to 1 (Roman Bridge) | |
| construction time | 4th century (Roman bridge) 13th century (Seljuk bridge) |
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The Eurymedon Bridge was a nine-arched bridge from Roman times over the Eurymedon ( Köprüçay ) near Aspendos in Pamphylia in what is now Turkey . Today the Köprüpazar Köprüsü rests on the foundations of the ancient building , a Seljuk pointed arch bridge with Roman spolia , which - following the remains of the Roman piers in the river bed - has a prominent offset in the middle.
Roman bridge
reconstruction
The shape and course of the Roman bridge were reconstructed on the computer. The basis for the computer model were the remains of the building that still exist today, namely parts of the ramps, the abutments on both sides of the bank and a pillar foundation. Numerous other bridge sections scattered in the river bed and lying around on both banks were not taken into account as they were no longer found in situ .
The reconstructed bridge is a 259.50 m long and 9.44 m wide structure with nine round arches . It crossed the Eurymedon at a right angle, whereby the otherwise straight road in the right bank area, shortly before the ramp, made a slight bend to the left. The gradient of the two ramps, which was determined to be 12.3% on the left and 12.2% on the right bank of the river, provides an important clue for the height of the ancient bridge. The gradient already ended in the bank area, so that the bridge spanned the river at a constant level, which was around 4.1 m higher than in the Seljuk successor building.
In the horizontal middle section there were six arches, which were supplemented by three small culverts in the ramp area to relieve flooding - one on the right (5.11 m clear width ) and two on the left side of the river. In normal water, the Eurymedon ran under the three largest arches of the bridge in the middle of the river, constrained on both sides by double-wedge-shaped bank fortifications, which were attached to the piers next to the river and were intended to prevent the bridge foundations from being undermined. These embankment walls - as far as they can be seen from the archaeological findings on the right side of the river - were pulled forward against the current, at 8.15 m, significantly further than on the underwater side (4.76 m). As an additional safety measure, pointed breakwaters were built both upstream and downstream, but these are not found on both sides of all piers. The clear spans of the three main arches could be calculated on the basis of the bridge remnants at 23.52 m for the central arch and 14.95 m each for the two flanking barrel vaults . The thickness of the two pillars of the central arch was 9.60 m each.
The open structure in the area of the right bridge ramp provides a clear view of the hollow chamber system that was used in a number of Roman bridges in Asia Minor , such as B. the Aiseposbrücke . The high level of ancient bridge construction is also documented by the discovery of iron tensioning anchors, which are 1.5 m long iron rods that were connected to each other with hooks and eyes and laid in the lower ashlar layers to reinforce the bridge foundations. The bridge body was made of Roman concrete , which can still be found as the foundation of at least one Seljuk pillar.
Dating
The chronological classification of the Roman bridge must be in close connection with the well-known aqueduct in nearby Aspendos , from which part of the building material was removed. In the outer cladding of the bridge alone, around 250 perforated bricks from the Aspendos pressure pipeline were reused as spoil. Since the aqueduct was demonstrably in operation until the 4th century AD, the ancient road bridge over the Eurymedon could not have been built before this time. However, it cannot be ruled out that there was a Roman bridge in its place earlier. It may have been destroyed together with the Aspendos aqueduct in the great earthquake of 363 AD, which could explain the reuse of the now unusable pipe stones in the reconstruction.
Seljuk Bridge
course
Over the remains of the late antique bridge - probably also collapsed in a severe earthquake - a fixed river crossing was probably built again under the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Kaykubat (1219–1237). In the course of the route, the existing Roman building fabric was used as much as possible, with parts of the structure shifted by the force of the river being included, so that today's bridge over the central pillar in the middle of the river has a characteristic jump. This zigzag course gives the Köprüpazar Köprüsü as well as the continuous use of pointed arches its very own character, very different from the Roman bridge.
Dimensions
Compared to its ancient predecessor, the Seldschukenbrücke has much smaller dimensions, which offered the advantage of being able to use the ancient remains to the full extent. So could z. For example, thanks to the half-width of the bridge, only half-preserved ancient pillar foundations can be integrated into the new building. The height of the medieval bridge had an apex that was 4.1 m lower. The length was so short that the new bridge ramp on the right bank of the river only started at the point where the roadway of the previous Roman building had already merged into the horizontal.
Building material
The main building material consists of stone blocks. The perforated stones from the Aspendos aqueduct, which were already installed in the late antique bridge, were also reprocessed in the ramp of the Seljuks bridge, so that one can speak of a third-party use of this material. The dilapidated parapet was restored at the end of the 1990s, with some old inscription stones in Greek and Arabic that were already walled up in the old parapet as spolia.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 7
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 10
- ↑ a b Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 9
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), pp. 9f.
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 3
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 8, Fig. 17
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 2
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 12, note 14
- ↑ a b c d e Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 11
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), p. 1
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), Figs. 1, 2, 5, 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 25
- ^ Grewe, Klaus et al. (1999), pp. 1f.
literature
- Klaus Grewe et al .: In a zigzag course across the river. The Roman / Seljuk Eurymedon Bridge of Aspendos (Turkey) , in: Antike Welt , Vol. 30, No. 1 (1999), pp. 1–12
