Boyan Tower
Coordinates: 36 ° 27 ′ 51.5 ″ N , 34 ° 6 ′ 1.8 ″ E
The Boyan Tower is an ancient watchtower in the rough Cilicia .
location
The tower is in the Silifke district of the Turkish province of Mersin . It is located about 3.5 kilometers northwest of Kızkalesi , the ancient Korykos , and 15 kilometers northeast of the district town of Silifke, about one kilometer east of the hamlet Hasanaliler with the church ruins there . It belonged to the territory of the Hellenistic priestly state of Olba . The tower forms the western end of a series of watchtowers that had visual contact with each other. These include the towers of Akkum , Gömeç , Sarayın and Yalama, which are between 1.5 and 10 kilometers away in the northeast.
description
The tower has a footprint of around 5.0 × 5.5 meters with a preserved height of 9.50 meters. The masonry is built without mortar using the isodomic technique, which means that all the stones have almost the same cuboid format. The entrance is in the south wall, the door is 0.90 meters wide and 1.80 meters high, there is an insertion hole for a locking bar in the right side of the door. On the lintel, heavily destroyed remains of two Olbic symbols , a club and a wreath, can be seen. In addition to the ground floor, the tower had two upper floors and a battlements reinforced battle platform above , only a few of the battlements have survived. The beamed ceilings of the storeys lay on consoles protruding from the inside. The south wall has a slit window on the first and second floor, a rectangular window measuring 0.68 × 1.04 meters, next to it is a machicolation above the entrance. Another window measuring 0.92 × 1.06 meters is located on the east side, a drainage channel is embedded next to it, and there are slotted windows on the first upper and ground floor. The north wall has only one slotted window per floor as well as a drainage channel for the combat platform; two slotted windows are also incorporated into the west wall.
Three holes in the masonry above the door were believed to have been designed to accommodate timbers that supported an arbor over the entrance. However, this did not take place until a later phase, when the defensive function of the tower was no longer a priority, as the function of the machicolation above the door through the arbor was no longer given. A series of beam holes in the south and north walls of the first floor indicate that an intermediate floor was put in here at this later time, probably for storage purposes.
In the vicinity of the tower are the remains of residential and farm buildings from the Byzantine period, including a press and a cistern.
Towers in the rough Cilicia
In the Rough Cilicia, especially in the area between the rivers Kalykadnos, today Göksu , and Lamos, today Limonlu , there are numerous towers from the late Hellenistic period to the Roman Empire . Partly free-standing, partly built into settlements and fortifications, the function as a watchtower is common to all. They were used to defend against attacks, mainly by pirates who settled here after the rule of the area in the 2nd century BC. Passed from the Seleucids to the Romans . Five free-standing towers (Akkum, Boyan, Gömeç, Sarayın and Yalama) with ashlar masonry are grouped around Korykos and Elaiussa Sebaste, which took turns as the metropolis of the region around the turn of the millennium . They also have a living and storage function. Food such as grain could be stored in the lower, lightless floors, and they also served as a retreat for the residents of the surrounding area. Archers could defend them from the top, crenellated platforms. Due to the similar design and the fact that they were three to five kilometers apart, they can be viewed as a group that belongs together with a watchful and signaling character. Their probable time of origin is limited by the end of the Seleucid rule in 133 BC. BC, the defeat of the pirates in 65 BC. By Pompey and the latest date in AD 74 when the area became a Roman province.
Tower from the southwest
Traces of club and wreath on the lintel
Window and machicolation in the south wall
Settlement remains
cistern
literature
- Serra Durugönül : towers and settlements in the Rough Cilicia. Asia Minor Studies Volume 28. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 1998 ISBN 3-7749-2840-1 pp. 54–65.
