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The Aqueduct at Amasya in Pontus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Oliver  and
Caroline Nicholson
Oliver
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Caroline Nicholson
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
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Extract

Amasya, wrote a visitor at the turn of this century, is “the most picturesque town of all Anatolia, the Baghdad of Rûm”. Another called the city “l'Oxford de l'Anatolie”. One of its principal charms is the River Iris, the Yeşil Irmak, which runs through the town. Beautiful but not potable: “Tokat dumps in it, Amasya drinks it” is a Turkish proverb at least as old as Evliye Çelebi, who visited the town in the first half of the seventeenth century.

In ancient times the city would seem to have taken its water from a source in the neighbouring hills. It was carried along an aqueduct cut, for the most part, into the face of the cliffs which form the side of the river valley south and west of the town and on the right bank of the river (Fig. 1). The castle of Amasya, on the left bank, had its own arrangements for water supply described by the geographer Strabo, a native of the city, and these should not be confused with the aqueduct on the right bank.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 43 , December 1993 , pp. 143 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1993

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References

1 Anderson, J. G. C.A Journey of Exploration in Pontus = Studia Pontica I (Brussels, 1903) 17Google Scholar. In an account written in 1554 Busbequius disagreed: “Nec domus nec plateae Amasianae pulchritudine ulla visendae sunt” (Legationis Turcicae Epistola Prima = O.G. de Busbecq Omnia Quae Extant Opera (Basel, 1740; repr. Graz, 1968) 85).

2 Gabriel, A.Monuments turcs d'Anatolie II (Paris, 1934) 8Google Scholar, quoting Perrot, G.Souvenirs d'un voyage en Asie Mineure (Paris, 1861) 433Google Scholar.

3 Çelebi, Evliye: trans. von Hammer, J.Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa in the Seventeenth Century by Evliya Effendi II, 2 (London, 1850) 99–102Google Scholar. The accounts of early travellers to Amasya are summarised by Ritter, K.Erdkunde XVIII, 155 ff.Google Scholar

4 Strabo XII, 561; Hamilton, W. J.Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia (London, 1842) I, 368–9 and 373Google Scholar.

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6 W. J. Hamilton op. cit. (note 4) 365.

7 van Lennep, H.Travels in Little-Known Parts of Asia Minor (London, 1870) I, 91Google Scholar.

8 Those to tell the story of Ferhad in the course of their account of the aqueduct include (in chronological order) Evliye Çelebi loc. cit. (note 3), Otter, J.Voyage en Turquie et en Perse (Paris, 1748) II, 335Google Scholar; Sestini, D.Viaggio da Costantinopoli a Bassora (Yverdun, 1786) 45–6Google Scholar; SirPorter, R. KerTravels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia etc. (London, 1822) II, 705–6Google Scholar; SirOuseley, W.Travels in Various Countries of the East, more particularly Persia (London, 1823) III, 492–4Google Scholar; Ainsworth, W. F.Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldaea and Armenia (London, 1842) II, 25Google Scholar; W. J. Hamilton op. cit. (note 4) I, 365 and 373; Skene, J. H.Anadol: the Last Home of the Faithful (London, 1853) 103–4Google Scholar; H. van Lennep op. cit. (note 7) 90–91, who recounts a local legend making the daughter of a King of Amasya responsible for the rock-cut channel, and Perrot, G. “Antiquités d'Amasia” Rev. Arch. (2e série) XXIV (1872) 202–3Google Scholar. Hasluck, F. W.Christianity and Islam under the Sultans (Oxford, 1929) II, 747Google Scholar adduces other legends like that of Ferhad.

9 Sir W. Ouseley op. cit. (note 8) 492.

10 W. J. Hamilton op. cit. (note 4) I, 365; G. Perrot art. cit. (note 8) 202; F., and Cumont, E.Voyage d'exploration archéologique dans le Pont et la Petite Arménie = Studia Pontica II (Brussels, 1906) 185Google Scholar.

11 Grégoire, H. in Anderson, J. G. C., Cumont, F. and Grégoire, H.Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines du Pont et de l'Arménie = Studia Pontica III, 1 (Brussels, 1910)Google Scholar.The mosque is of 1428 A.D.

12 Ward-Perkins, J. B. “The Aqueduct at Aspendos“, Pap. Br. Sch. Rome XXIII (1955) 120Google Scholar.

13 Asterius of Amasea Homily III, 12, 2 (baths) and XII, 10, 2 (font), edited by Datema, C. (Leiden, 1970)Google Scholar.

14 Evliye Çelebi loc. cit. (note 3); A. Gabriel op. cit. (note 2) 65 and 4.

15 Sir R. Ker Porter loc. cit. (note 8); W. J. Hamilton op. cit. (note 4) 365.