Silifke cistern
Coordinates: 36 ° 22 ′ 32 ″ N , 33 ° 55 ′ 17 ″ E
The cistern of Silifke ( Turkish Tekir Ambarı ) is located southwest of the center of the district town of Silifke in the Turkish province of Mersin , in the historical Cilicia . It is located at the foot of the eastern slope of the castle hill of the citadel of Silifke , about 400 meters as the crow flies from the fortress and 800 meters west of the Roman temple .
description
The cistern , built in the early Byzantine period, is carved into the rock on a terrace on the mountain slope. It is rectangular, the east-west facing long sides measure 46 meters, the narrow sides 23 meters, the depth of the structure is about 12 meters. The side walls form arches of ashlar masonry, eight each on the long and five on the short sides. Hellenkemper and Hild describe the remains of bricks on the walls. They also found approaches for arches to free-standing columns in the interior, which were either planned or dismantled as spoilers . From this they conclude that a roofing of the cistern was at least in the planning stage. The tributary was in the northwest. On the east side there is a spiral staircase that is still accessible today and leads to the interior.
Mentions
The British captain Francis Beaufort , who explored the Cilician coast on behalf of the Admiralty in the years 1811-12, mentions the cistern in his report, and he also describes a ceiling construction. The French traveler Victor Langlois also describes the building in his travelogue of the Cilician coast, published in 1861. Friedrich Hild and Hansgerd Hellenkemper toured the place in 1969, 1975 and 1985 and also gave a description of the cistern.
South side
Entry to the stairs
View from the castle hill, in the front right the cistern
literature
- Friedrich Hild, Hansgerd Hellenkemper: Kilikien and Isaurien. Tabula Imperii Byzantini Volume 5. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7001-1811-2 , pp. 404-405.
- Celâl Taşkıran: Silifke (Seleukeia am Kalykadnos) and surroundings. Sim Matbaası, Ankara 1999, pp. 22-23.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sir Francis Beaufort: Karamania: or, A brief description of the south coast of Asia-Minor and of ... R. Hunter, 1818, p. 225 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).