Ship bridge over the Bosphorus

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The pontoon bridge over the Bosphorus was a floating bridge , which the Persian Great King Darius I v in 513, respectively. On the occasion of his campaign against the Scythians , in order to get with his army from Asia over the Bosporus to Thrace (in today's European part of Turkey and in Bulgaria).

It is the first bridge over which the Greek historian Herodotus reports in his histories . However, it was not the first ship bridge of antiquity , as is often shortened and therefore incorrectly written, but only the first, the existence of which was passed down in a report. From Herodotus' simple mention that Darius I ordered not only the delegation of soldiers and warships but also the bridging of the Bosporus in preparation for his campaign, it can be seen that the construction of ship bridges was already a matter of routine at this time, even if a bridge over the broad Bosphorus was an outstanding achievement.

Herodotus only roughly stated that the bridge was located halfway between Byzantion and the temple at the exit of the Bosporus to the Pontos Euxeinos , i.e. the Black Sea . It is therefore assumed that it was located a little south of today's Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge , the second modern Bosphorus bridge, near the Rumeli fortress . The Bosporus there is around 800 m wide and 67 m deep. On the map of the ancient Bosporus from 1784, Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage even drew the location of the bridge.

The bridge was built under the direction of the Mandrocle of Samos , but Herodotus gives no technical details about it. Although he mentions that Darius I had an army of 70,000 men and a fleet of 600 ships on this campaign, he ordered the Ionian part of the fleet to continue to the Danube before crossing the Bosporus in order to prepare a ship bridge above the delta ., probably at Isaccea . Because of the great depth of the Bosphorus, it was not possible to anchor the ships at the bow and stern as usual. The ships must therefore have been tied to long ropes and formed a slightly curved arch over the Bosporus in the current. The bridge was therefore around 10% longer than the straight line measured distance from bank to bank, i.e. around 880 m long.

One can assume that the bridge consisted of Pentekonteren (or comparable ships), which, according to Herodotus, were also used in the later ship bridges over the Hellespont . If one then assumes a ship width of 4 m and a gap of 3 m between the ships, the result is a bridge of 125 ships.

In any case, Dareios I was satisfied with the bridge, rewarded Mandrokles generously and moved his army over the bridge towards the Danube.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus 4.83-88
  2. ↑ Herodotus 4.87
  3. ↑ GeoHack MapTech Nautical Maps
  4. ↑ The narrowest point at 700 m is a little further south in a sharp bend with a steep rocky bank.
  5. ↑ Herodotus 4.87
  6. ↑ Herodotus 4.89
  7. ↑ See anchor # water depth . An anchor line should be ten times the length of the water depth.
  8. ↑ Herodotus 7:36
  9. ↑ Herodotus 4.88

Coordinates: 41 ° 5 ′ 14 ″  N , 29 ° 3 ′ 38.5 ″  E