Saturday, October 29, 2011

Kilikia: Heaven & Hell


Near Kizkalesi, huge walls of a mammoth  temple of Zeus
Descend 288 steps to the Byzantine chapel in the caves mouth. Huge mouth of cave. Another 70 steps takes you to a flat area below the chapel, yet another 97 steps and you are down into the cave itself. Heading out of the cave is daunting : 400 steps to go to the rim
The cavern of Hell : 100 m uphill from heaven is a smaller depression with steeper sides, 30 m in diameter and 120 m deep.
The 2 caves figure prominently in Greek myths according to which Typhon, a fire-breathing 100-head dragon battles Zeus. Zeus is defeated and imprisoned in these chasms. Hermes and pan rescue Zeus who goes after Typhon again, defeats him and buries him in the earth, but he issues with fire from Mt. Etna.




KizkalesiKorykosKanytelis
Kizkalesi : maidens castle 150 m off shore, crusaders castle
Korykos : onshore castle
 
ElaioussaSevaste : roman-byzantine necropolis at Kanytelis
 
ElaioussaSevaste : just off the highway in the modern city of Ayas are the ruins
Elaioussa (or Elaeousa, olive) was founded in the 2nd cent AD and flourished by raising and exporting olives and olive oil.
Archelaus, king of Cappadocia founded a new city near Elaioussa and called it Sebaste (Augusta) in honor of Augustus.
ElaiussaSebaste thrived in the 1st cent. AD and continued through the Byzantine period, but in the 550s as the nearby city of Corykos flourished, Elaiussa-Sebaste lost importance  and gradually abandoned. The city ruins excavated by Italians since 1995.
A small 2nd cent theatre  with only 23 rows of seats. Near ruins of agora. Not far away ruins of an extensive necropolis.



Extensive ruins of the roman-byzantine city east of  Kizkalesi
A yawning chasm at the center of the city, a huge limestone sinkhole surrounded by the ruins of ancient buildings
Deep in the chasm carved into the rock are high reliefs of a roman soldier and a group of people. further uphill extensive necropolis
Soloi ( Pompeiopolis), founded in 700 BC by Rhodos
Solecism: a dialect was a corrupted form of attic Greek
Mersin (Zephyrion),  natural harbor, coins, molybdenum from mines at Coreyra
Erdemli (Mersin) : nearby places of interest – many, many
Imirzeli : Hellenistic city with church, tower, houses
Catioren : a Hellenistic city with temple of Hermes




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