Tercan
| Tercan | ||||
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| Basic data | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province (il) : | Erzincan | |||
| Coordinates : | 39 ° 47 ' N , 40 ° 23' E | |||
| Height : | 1425 m | |||
| Residents : | 5,244 (2018) | |||
| Telephone code : | (+90) 446 | |||
| Postal code : | 24 800 | |||
| License plate : | 24 | |||
| Structure and administration (as of 2019) | ||||
| Structure : | 6 mahall | |||
| Mayor : | Lokman Gültekin ( AKP ) | |||
| Postal address : | E-80 Karayolu Üzerİ 24800 Tercan |
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| Website: | ||||
| Tercan County | ||||
| Residents : | 17,623 (2018) | |||
| Surface: | 1,614 km² | |||
| Population density : | 11 inhabitants per km² | |||
| Kaymakam : | Kürşad Karaca | |||
| Website (Kaymakam): | ||||
Tercan is a small town and the administrative center of the district of the same name ( İlçe ) in the Turkish province of Erzincan . The city of Tercan is located about 100 kilometers by road (approx. 64 km as the crow flies) east of Erzincan. It has 5,244 inhabitants and the district 17,623 (as of 2018). Two Seljuk buildings from the 13th century have been preserved near the town center : the Mama Hatun Hanı caravanserai and the Mama Hatun Kümbeti tomb .
The name is of Armenian origin. A variant of this name is already mentioned by Strabo . An earlier name was Mamahatun, named after a ruler of the Saltukids in the 12th century.
location
The E 80 , which leads eastwards from Erzincan in a shallow basin of the Anatolian highlands on the Karasu , a source river of the Euphrates , leaves the river shortly before Tercan, only to meet the Karasu a little later. The expressway reaches Erzurum 93 kilometers to the east . The railway line between the two cities follows the Karasu valley in a large arc to the north around Tercan. A few kilometers southeast of the city, the Tercan Dam ( Tercan Barajı ), completed in 1988, is used to generate electricity. The reservoir is fed by the Tuzla Çayı and Tuz Çayı, its drain flows south past the city and flows into the Karasu. A mountain range north of Tercan at the summit of Kılıçkaya Dağı 2679 meters high forms the watershed between the Karasu Valley and the Tuzla Valley. In the late Middle Ages and Ottoman times, a trade route ran between Erzincan and Erzurum through Tercan and another parallel to it north of the mountains in the Karasu valley.
About ten kilometers west of Tercan and two kilometers from the village of Mercan, the remains of the Kötur bridge between the railway and modern road bridges that cross the Karasu here have been preserved. The ruin probably dates from the 16th / 17th centuries. Century, there was probably an older previous building. The stone bridge had eight arches, of which only the two outer arches with the ascending road sections are preserved, the middle part disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century.
district
Tercan County is the easternmost of Erzincan Province and borders on Otlukbeli counties in the north, Çayırlı and Üzümlü counties in the west, and Erzurum counties in the east, Bingöl and Tunceli in the south.
The district was separated from the province of Erzurum by Law No. 3383 in 1938 and assigned as an independent district to the province of Erzincan. In terms of area, it is the third largest in the province and has the second largest population of all nine districts of the province. The district has the third highest population density with eleven inhabitants per square kilometer .
In addition to the district town, it consists of three municipalities ( Belediye ): Mercan (2,013), Kargın (1,850) and Çadırkaya (1,814 inhabitants). Furthermore, 70 villages ( Köy ) complete the district. The average population is 96 inhabitants per village, which is almost the provincial average. Başbudak is the largest village with 438 inhabitants.
Cityscape
The city center of Tercan, which was called Mamahatun until the beginning of the Turkish Republic, essentially consists of a commercial street north parallel to the E 80 and a 100-meter-long street at right angles to it, which connects the two. Tour buses stop at the central junction, this is where the only simple accommodation option is. In the gently sloping terrain, the small residential area expands to the north.
Mama Hatun Kümbeti
The caravanserai ( Turkish han ) and the tomb ( Türbe ) face each other a few meters east of the town center. According to local tradition, the construction of the grave goes back to Mama Hatun, who was a daughter of the Saltukid ruler Izz al-Dīn Saltuq II. Bin Alī (r. 1132–1168) and who ruled the principality ( Beylik ) from 1191 to 1201. There are other legends about Mama Hatun, and she is said to have initiated the construction of the Kötür Bridge.
There is no inscribed date for the Türbe, so the construction time cannot be clearly determined. It is assumed that it is not the 12th century, but the middle or end of the 13th century. In between is the date of the year 1192 and the determination of the master builder Prince Sesi Muffada (called "the cross-eyed") from Ahlat on Lake Van.
The Seljuk tomb, which is unique in its shape, consists of a rounded tower with a conical roof, as it is known in Persian architecture as the gonbad , from which the Turkish name kümbet is derived . The tower with a diameter of 4.60 meters and a height of over ten meters stands in the middle of a courtyard which is surrounded by a circular wall. The outer diameter is 17.35 meters. The smooth tower wall is divided vertically by eight flat, round arches protruding from the circular shape and separated by bulging strips. This results in a lobed cross-section, which the cornice and eaves take over. The tower rises above an octagonal base zone, which contains the grave room ( crypt ) , which is partially below ground level . A side stone staircase leads up to the entrance door on the south side of the tower. In the area of the door, the wall is straight up to half the height and is only arched in the upper area. Inside, the walls pierced by three tiny windows are divided into semicircular niches according to the external shape. The protruding wall peaks between the niches flow into ribs that continue on the dome ceiling as ridges and unite in the center of the vault like an open umbrella.
On the courtyard side, eleven ogival niches are sunk into the 4.5-meter-thick surrounding wall, in which sarcophagi presumably used to stand for family members of Mama Hatun, who was buried in the tower. A sarcophagus with the year 1247 is still there. On the left side of the portal there was a fountain inside in another small niche. Its arch is shaped by honeycomb muqarnas and surrounded by a ribbon of vine tendrils - an unusual ornament for Seljuk architecture that could have models in Georgian church building. To the right of the entrance, steep steps lead to the walkway on the edge of the wall. The entire structure has been extensively restored. The surrounding wall ends today on the inside with layers of stone projecting far into an arch. There may have been an arched portico around it in the past .
The portal of the surrounding wall is most elaborately designed with geometric bas-reliefs made up of interwoven octagons. Only a part of these wide ornamental ribbons was preserved. Above the ogival muqarnas niche runs a tape in Kufi on which the well-known al-Ichlās sura can be read: “Say: He is Allah, one and only, Allah, the sovereign (ruler). He neither fathered children nor was he (himself) fathered. And nobody can compete with him. ”On the sides of the entrance there are further Kufi inscriptions that indicate the name of the architect or sculptor (Abul name) and his place of origin (Ahlat). The portal reveal is made up of slender columns, the capital stones of which bear a medallion with a pentagram on the outside . The names of the prophet Mohammed and the first four caliphs are written around its point . Two V-shaped niches cut into the wall on both sides of the portal form a symmetrical unit. They are framed by the same geometric braided bands on the wall surface. On both outer sides, a groove separates the entire portal design from the rest of the wall surface.
Mama Hatun Hanı
The caravanserai forms a square with a side length of 51 meters. The almost windowless walls are reinforced on each side by five round half-towers, which tower over the eaves with their pointed conical roofs. The only access is a projecting portal with a pointed barrel vault on the east side. Guards used to stand in the two raised niches on the side walls. A long entrance hall leads to the inner courtyard, on the north and south sides of which there is a row of five chambers that receive light through a window above the door. They could be heated by small fireplaces and probably served as accommodation for wealthier travelers. The chambers are now almost twice as long as in the first construction phase. Their previous size can be read on the walls of the small Iwane adjoining to the west , which were created during the renovation instead of the original sixth chambers.
To the west, three large ivans line the inner courtyard, the middle one is higher than the others. Their representative architecture in this row arrangement is unusual for a simple caravanserai. It is not known whether they were used as open-air sleeping places in summer or as shelters for camels. The huge halls on the north and south outer walls, in which the animals were housed and probably also the common people, could be reached from the entrance hall via a narrow cross corridor in the east. At a distance of five meters, transverse ribs reinforce the barrel vaults of the halls, which extend over the entire length of the side. They are ventilated through chimney-like attachments in the roof. Separate rooms on both sides of the entrance hall may have served as a warehouse.
The caravanserai did not have a bathroom of its own. Not connected to the building complex, but there was a small bathhouse available nearby . The fully restored and converted caravanserai now includes a restaurant.
Personalities
- Alev Irmak , Turkish actress
literature
- Volker Eid : East Turkey. Peoples and cultures between Taurus and Ararat . DuMont, Cologne 1990, pp. 155–157, ISBN 3-7701-1455-8
- Thomas Alexander Sinclair: Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Vol. II. The Pindar Press, London 1989, pp. 243-246
Web links
- Mama Hatun Caravanserai . ArchNet
- Mama Hatun Tomb . ArchNet
- Dick Osseman: Tercan in Eastern Turkey . pbase.com (numerous photos)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Türkiye Nüfusu İl ilçe Mahalle Köy Nüfusları , accessed on June 12, 2019
- ↑ Sevan Nişanyan: Adini unutan Ülke. Türkiye'de Adı Değiştirilen Yerler Sözlüğü. Istanbul 2010, p. 130
- ↑ Tercan Dam. structurae
- ↑ Sinclair, pp. 250f
- ↑ Kanun No. 3383 / Law No. 3373 (PDF file, 2.4 MB) , accessed on June 12, 2019
- ↑ ArchNet
- ↑ Vera and Hellmut Hell: Turkey. Northern Turkey, Eastern Turkey, Southeast Turkey. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a., 3rd ed. 1988, p. 83
- ^ Oath, p. 156
- ^ Translation after Rudi Paret
- ^ Sinclair, p. 245
