Aug 00 - Steep, subway-sized tunnel (Pontic), Amasya

Hiking to the citadel in Amasya from the Pontic tombs up a steep path (that became a non-path soon after I took this) I came across this subway-tunnel-sized phenomenon almost hidden behind trees, invisible from below. It was wider and more impressive than the similar stepped tunnels at Turhal and Zile. It's just as ancient (late 1st millenium B.C. at the latest), steeper than 45 degrees (I think), deadly even without the mud that cakes up several m.s down, and I could see it sink down and down deep into the distance (this shot doesn't do it justice. I took another from @ 10-20 m.s further down where you can see the mud). None of the locals I asked knew where it goes or how it was used and I wondered if it's function was strategic and military (a passage wide enough for troupe movement to a secret entrance/exit?), or if it was religious. Berlitz refers to "3 long tunnels that were hewn into the cliffs below the citadel. These have no exits, their purpose is a riddle." Could they have been Mithraic cult shrines?

- I climbed down carefully to the point @ 20-30 m.s or so from the top where the mud had caked up such that it was too deadly to descend any further without a rope (there was a large boulder at the entrance which would've been ideal for tying a rope) and took this shot.

- William Hamilton, a researcher, explored Amasya and its citadel in the 1830s and wrote this.: "But the object of greatest interest is the underground passage closely resembling those subterranean flights of stairs which I had seen in several other castles similarly situated on rocky eminences, as Unieh, Tocat, Tourkhal, and Zilleh."

- Update: Loupiote reports that the best, most accepted theory is that this is a cistern that fills with rainwater for use by citadel occupants in times of siege and otherwise. www.flickr.com/photos/loupiote/sets/72157625414246745/

 

- Further update, 2023.: Of the 3 major theories as to the intended function of the stepped tunnels in Pontos and other regions in Anatolia (military/defensive, religious, and for water supply) "the most widely accepted is that they were built to provide water, which is consistent with the observations in [a] study" conducted by A. Emirhan Bulut. 'A General Overview on the Stepped Tunnels in Pontos Region', www.academia.edu/44959589/A_General_Overview_on_the_Stepp... (The military/defense theory doesn't seem to hold as most of the tunnels don't have exits.) That said, Hubertus Von Gall, the author of "the only publication" to analyze stepped tunnels in Anatolia up until 2017, and "in detail" in 1967, evaluated the competing theories and states that "it's unlikely they were intended only to provide water. He concluded that they might have had a religious function on the basis of the examples in Midas City and Arsameia am Nymphaios. [?]" (Ibid.)

- "Richard Leonhard suggested that the stepped tunnels served a representative function rather than [or as well as?] practical usage, and were linked to the mother goddess Cybele. [Were they Phrygian?] Some evidence of religious or cultic function was noted during our survey [I'm quoting Bulut] ... [incl.] a niche similar to the façade of a temple on the rock walls at the entrance to the stepped tunnel of Hisarkavak village, which had been neglected by prior researchers. The architectural elements of this temple ... [include] an architrave with 3 fasciae on 2 antae columns and a pediment on the architrave with an object (a rosette? bust? shield?) in the middle. Acroteria are identifiable in the corners and in the centre. www.researchgate.net/figure/Temple-imitated-niche-Hisarka... Furthermore, dozens of niches have been found in the walls at the bottom of the stepped tunnel of the Kurul Fortress. These features are consistent with the ritual activity of a water cult." www.researchgate.net/figure/The-stepped-tunnel-of-the-Kur... The tunnels' impressive dimensions are also consistent with ritual and religious use, in light of the effort required to excavate and maintain them. [The pyramids of Giza, for example, could never have been built unless everyone involved were devout adherents of the prevailing cult, needless to say.] Evidence of the presence of the cult of the mother goddess has been found in the vicinity of stepped tunnels, incl. a marble statue of Cybele excavated in 2016 at the entrance to the fortress of Kurul. www.shorthistory.org/ancient-civilizations/statue-of-cybe... An open air cult area was found 20 m.s south of the tunnel. A relief, 3 m.s in height, belonging to Cybele or the Persian river goddess Anaitis [Anahita] is located near the stepped tunnel in the Kazankaya Canyon in İncesu Village (Ortaköy, Çorum)." (Ibid.) (I can imagine high priests and priestesses descending deep down into these, to which only they and some caretakers had access, and their flock watching from above, all very impressed.)

- A stepped tunnel at Bagayarich aka Pekeriç (Cadırkaya today), 10-15 km.s north of the E80 (my route to Tercan later this trip), the site of a Mithraic temple, one of the 6 primary pagan temples in ancient Armenia, might present more evidence of a cultic function of these tunnels. T.A. Sinclair describes it in his "Architectural and Archaeological Survey" of Eastern Turkey, Vol. II, and writes that "it's not known how far one can go [? - this was published in 1989], but the tunnel's purpose seems to have been not to give access to the water-table, but to allow the god to come out of the ground." Wow. (He doesn't elaborate.) See that tunnel at 4:26 min. point in this video.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xil0KgUAJRc (The presenter says what sounds like 'Mihr' several times [Mithras]).

- As to dating the tunnels, Von Gall notes that there's little basis in evidence on which to do so, but dates those at Midas City in Phrygia and in the fortress of Boyabat (Sinop) to the 5th-4th cent. B.C., and the barrel-vaulted stepped tunnels on the Amasya Harşena fortress and on Karalar (Kahramankazan, Ankara) to the Hellenistic Period. (Ibid.)

- So many years later I regret not visiting a hardware store and at least trying to rent a good long rope or strong cord, and returning to try to plumb these depths. I would've found it submerged as at Turhal (see the exchange with Loupiote in the comments below), but it would've been fun.

- Here's another tunnel that leads down from atop a hill somewhere near Sivas (?), submerged at the bottom, explored in the video in this link.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OThV_vuWAsY

 

- Amasya (Ah-mahss-yah) is a relatively touristy city in the region with much to see, famous for its Ottoman-style, 1/2-timbered houses lining the Yeşilırmak river which divides it (known in the time of Strabo as the 'Iris river'), Pontic tombs carved out of the living rock on the side of the mtn. below the kale, and its Selcuk and Ottoman mosques, medresehs, etc. The LP also claims that it's "one of the prettiest towns in Turkey", which it is. I stayed a few days to take in as much of it as I could.

 

- According to Strabo and co., Amasya was first founded by and named after Amasis, an Amazonian queen. It was settled by Hittites, and then by Phrygians, Cimmerians, Lydians, Persians and Armenians, was conquered by Alexander the Great, and then "became the capitol of a successor kingdom ruled by a family of Persian satraps. By the time of King Mithridates II (281 B.C.), the Kingdom of Pontus was entering its golden age and dominated a large chunk of Anatolia." (LP)

- "During the latter part of Pontus' flowering, Amasya was the birthplace of Strabo (@ 63 B.C. to 25 A.D.), the world's first historian. [Not Herodotus?] Strabo left his home to travel in Europe, West Asia and North Africa, writing 47 history and 17 geography books. Though most have been lost, we know something of their contents as he was well quoted by many other classical writers." (LP)

- Amasya's golden age ended when Pontus was absorbed into the Roman sphere of influence by Pompey in @ 70 B.C. or when Caesar defeated Mithridates VI in 47 B.C. and took control of all of Anatolia. Situated in a fertile country and near the frontiers of Armenia, the city prospered in the Byzantine period, but was "exposed to the ravages of the Persian and Saracenic conquerors, and to the still more destructive incursions of the Tartar and Turkish hordes. Nonetheless, it is only casually mentioned in the histories of the later Byzantine emperors". www.romeartlover.it/Amasya1.html (Bur it was in 'Amaseia' that "Emperor Alexios I Komnenos received the Norman general Ursel as a captive from the Turkic general Tutach. Ursel had, according to the Alexiad, looted and pillaged the Eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire until the Byzantine General Alexios induced Tutach to capture him." [Wikipedia]) The city continued to prosper under the succeeding Turkic Danishmends (after Manzikert in 1071), the Selcuks (1174), the Mongol Ilkhanids (1243), and the Ottomans in particular (Tamerlane in 1402 notwithstanding). Amasya was the birthplace of the sultans Murad I and Selim I.

- Amasya "was first reduced under Osmanli dominion by Beyazit in the year of the Hegira 794 (a.d. 1392)." (Ainsworth). "After the disastrous Battle of Ankara in 1402, Mehmed I [the son of the defeated and captured Sultan Beyazit II] fled to Amasya, which (along with nearby Tokat) became his main residence and stronghold during the Ottoman Interregnum." (Wikipedia) As a result, the city enjoyed a special status under the Ottomans." (Wikipedia) Mehmet I prevailed in a war of succession in 1413 following the death of Timur in 1405, and appointed his son as 'sanjakbey', district governor, of Amasya. For more than a century to follow, "by tradition, the Ottoman crown prince was sent to live in Amasya to be taught statecraft there, and to test his knowledge and skill as governor of the province. [The tradition ended with the execution of Sehzade Mustafa, who'd served as sanjakbey, by his father Suleiman I in 1553.] Young sultans-in-training would learn about every nation of the Empire in their training. For this reason "every millet of the Empire was represented in a particular village in the region, such as a Greek village, Armenian, Bosnian, Tatar, a Turkish village, etc." (Wikipedia) The city also developed as a centre of Islamic theological study, with as many as 18 medresehs and 2,000 resident seminarians in the 19th cent. Numerous fine Ottoman bldg.s still stand." (LP)

- After WWI, Atatürk came to Amasya "where he secretly met with friends on June 12, 1919 and developed the basic principles of the Turkish struggle for independence. ..." (LP) He then effectively declared war, the Turkish War of Independence, in 'the Amasya Circular', which was then distributed across Anatolia, declaring Turkey's independence and integrity to be in danger and calling for a national conference to be held in Sivas." (Wikipedia)

 

- My first night in town I thought I'd scramble up the side of the foot of a mtn. at the edge of the centre of town in the dark to the collection of floodlit Pontic tombs. After a bit I reached the entrance to another tunnel with steps leading down, leaned against the wall of the entrance with my left hand and immediately felt a very sharp pain on my palm. I thought I'd cut it and deep. (It was the type of stinging, sharp pain you might feel after cutting your palm deeply with a knife or the lid when opening a tin, but only after several minutes. This pain was immediate.) I couldn't see any cut or blood, so I walked back down to street level and a streetlight and still couldn't see any mark while the pain remained intense. Then my hand began to flex involuntarily at my heart-rate. With every beat of my heart my hand would flex, and then my forearm got into the act too. Something was moving up my arm. I've since read that such involuntary muscle spasms signify a "serious venom reaction" to a scorpion sting. "Shock or respiratory arrest may ensue without prompt medical intervention." www.chapala.com/chapala/ojo2008/scorpion.html Heading back into town I flagged and took a cab to the hospital, and my arm settled down soon after the anti-venom injection.

- The doctor or male nurse or clinician was very nice. He couldn't speak English, but knew the treatment to administer. Now I wish I'd tried to ask him to write down the name of the species or the type of scorpion that he thought had stung me (if he could be so specific). All I've found online is that species belonging to the Buthidae family, the largest family of scorpions (incl. @ 100 genera and 1,339 species as of 2022), are most common in the area. "Several health-threatening scorpions are found in Turkey, all belonging to the Buthidae family: Androctonus crassicauda [aka 'the Arabian fat-tail', Androctonus is Latin for 'Man-killer'; it "lives in the ruins of old, neglected structures" and is nocturnal {Wikipedia}, big, black and ugly: youtu.be/pf6Axa_fMng?si=G1hbsTidF5TOtF97 {I think I saw a baby or juvenile Arabian fat-tailed 'scorpling' on the floor of a room in a budget Inn in Na'in, Central Iran 2 mos. later, just as the room was being shown to me, which I write about here: www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/2993322096/in/photostr... }], ... Leiurus abdullahbayrami [with venom at least twice as toxic as that of Androctonus youtube.com/shorts/1KAcZymXL4E?si=TdKmq7j5rfb2vKM6 ; Leiurus Quinquestriatus, also found in Turkey, is known as 'the Yellow Deathstalker' and has "venom capable of provoking cardiac complications such as pulmonary edema, myocarditis, changes in heart rate and rhythm, and cardiac failure." According to the narrator of this video, "immediate symptoms include excruciating pain at the site of the sting, followed by muscle spasms [Hmmm] and convulsions." youtube.com/shorts/4kp2Ui7Eikw?si=cjrCMUyMcQrCYlQ3 youtu.be/PjbhEn_odhA?si=A-YOmaj4x7JxPuD3 youtu.be/gYyulM9Xzgc?si=KHbJhpoLMTv6__9w youtu.be/8h0zk-Y7SI0?si=IxJ8fUdre536GX57 www.scielo.br/j/jvatitd/a/58RvQPwGkWX6hrNdyzT9gHJ/?lang=en ], Mesobuthus eupeus [possibly the most widely-dispersed of the Buthidae], and Mesobuthus gibbosus". link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-6...

- See the rooms FILLED with scorpions at the end of this short video.: youtube.com/shorts/S5dQIXuRmtc?si=qBcHp9tNgyWdfaQ6

"Scorpionism is a known, significant medical problem" in Turkey, per reports and journal articles online. The next day I felt a bit crappy and the palm of my hand was achey, but not enough to interfere with my tourism much.

 

- I toured the 14 or so Pontic tombs in the sheer cliff face above the city thoroughly. See the next photo of the 'Mirror Cave', a tomb apart from the rest that I hiked over to see.

 

- I hiked up and up to the sprawling Citadel, aka the Harsena kale, "perched precariously atop the cliffs. Some remnants of the walls date from Pontic times, but a fort has stood here since the early Bronze Age. Destroyed and repaired by successive empires, it had 8 defensive layers that descend to the river, was reconstructed by the Ottomans, and was restored in the '80s. [Much more of it has been 'reconstructed' since 2000.] An old Russian cannon on a ledge just below the citadel is fired during the month of Ramadan to mark the end of the fast." (LP) I walked along the ridge to something like a 'crows'-nest', a semi-intact corner of the castle with a window and clear views at a height out across the city and beyond. (I'll scan a photo.) I spent much time scrambling over cut stones and rubble in the ruins but later learned that I'd somehow missed an entrance to another tunnel (but navigable, not steep, deep, and stepped). The name Harsena derives from Harsuwana-Arsuawana, "beautiful, blissful river town." (from a plaque in a video on-line)

- I vaguely recall exploring some caves and tunnels closer to the base of the hill below the Pontic tombs. And I explored the ruins of an old hamam on a terrace near the tombs, the so-called 'Baths of the Maidens' Palace' (14th cent.). I took a photo into the space or chamber beneath with the hypocaust. There was paint on the walls in some rooms, with alternating bands of colour around arched interior doors painted to give the impression of brickwork.

 

- I spent the better part of a day in the local museum, which displays treasures from the Bronze Age, Hittite, Pontic, Roman, Selcuk and Ottoman eras. It has the obligatory collection of bits of marble Roman and Byzantine masonry, statues, cornices, friezes, architraves etc., some with Latin and Greek inscriptions, displayed inside and outside on the grounds. Inside I would've seen the following, per the LP.: 1. The wooden doors of the Selcuk Gok Medrese Camii; 2. A Roman coin minted in Amasya; 3. Baked-clay anthropoid coffins; 4. A Selcuk tomb in the garden with some "gruesome mummies" dating from the Ilkhanate (I took some photos), discovered beneath the Burmali Minare Camii ("6 of the 8 mummies were family: the eldest, Cumudar, was a Selcuk minister who apparently drowned in 1297; his son Izzettin Mehmet, a former governor of Amasya executed in a rebellion against the Mongols; 4 of his children; and a concubine" [RG]); and 5. A small bronze figure of the Hittite god Teshub, with pointed cap, boots with curling toes, and large almond-shaped eyes. Referred to as 'the Statuette of Amasya', it gets much attention in videos online.

 

- The LP helpfully provided a walking tour of the city's Seljuq and early-Ottoman mosques, medreseshs, etc., (and one Ilkhanid Darussifa), and so I toured the following, at least, on both sides of the river.:

- the Sultan Beyazit II Camii (1486, Ottoman), Amasya's principal mosque, set in a spacious rose garden, with "the town's largest külliye, incl. a medreseh, fountain, imaret [now a museum, with a series of maps of the waxing and waning Ottoman empire per sultan, as seen on youtube; watch a patriotic local show a British tourist a map on the wall of his tea shop of the greatest extent of the empire at the 5:43 min. pt. in this video.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXoUl4dbN7M ], and kutuphane (library)" (LP). It's symmetrical with 2 large central domes and lovely. I'll scan a photo of a marble muqarnas niche above the entrance, with 'swirled protuberances' (what to call them?) that I'd see in Tokat too, and with the interior of a dome in the porch above it in the same shot, seen here at the 20:34 min. pt.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4_mZbLUCh0

- the impressive, ancient but well-preserved Gok Medreseh Camii (1266-'67) built for Seyfettin Torumtay, the Selcuk governor of Amasya. The eyvan serving as its main portal is unique in Anatolia; the kumbet (domed tomb) was once covered in blue (gok) tiles, hence the name, and the cupola or drum is Armenian in its form (an umbrella dome). The mosque's interior is plain, but the exterior walls, portals, lintels, etc. are covered in intricate carvings. "The unfinished Torumtay Turbesi (1278) before it is the tomb of Seyfettin Bey." (LP) See it from the 8 min. pt..: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4_mZbLUCh0 ;

- the partially ruined Tas Han (1758, Ottoman);

- the Burmali Minare (Spiral Minaret) Camii, (1237-'44, Selcuk), with a minaret (rebuilt in the 17th cent.) similar to one at the famous Üç Şerefeli cami (1438-'47) in Edirne and with a plain interior. The mosque was built during the reign of Seljuq Sultan Giyasettin Keyhusrev II by his vizier Ferruh in the style of the classic Seljuq 'Ulu mosque'.;

- the pavilion-esque Gumuslu (Silvery) Cami (1326, rebuilt in 1491 after an earthquake, in 1612 after a fire, and in 1688), the earliest Ottoman mosque in town, but relatively plain inside;

- the Darüşşifa (Bimarhane) (1309, Ilkhanate), built as a mental hospital by Ildus Hatun, the wife of Ilkhanid Sultan Oljaytu (r. 1304-'17; I would tour his tomb at Soltaniyeh a few mos. later, the greatest surviving Ilkhanid bldg. capped by the largest dome built by the date of its completion in the Islamic world.) "The bldg. is based on the plan of a Selcuk medreseh, with muqarnas in the portal." (LP) Much of the portal's surface is intricately carved in the Selcuk style. It "might have been the first place where psychiatric disorders were treated with music." ! (LP) It served as a hospital until the 18th cent. Today it houses a museum of the history of medicine (not in 2000). It's the first Mongol construction I'd seen anywhere to that point. (More to follow in Sivas, Erzurum, and Iran.);

- the Mehmet Pasa Camii (1486, Ottoman), built "by Lala Mehmet Pasa, tutor to Sehzade Ahmet, the son of Sultan Beyazit II";

- the Beyazit Pasa Camii (1419), "an early Ottoman mosque following a twin-domed plan that was a forebear in style to the famous Yesil Cami in Bursa";

- the unusual, octagonal Buyuk Aga ('Chief White Eunuch') Medresesi (1488, Ottoman), built by Beyazit II's chief white eunuch Huseyin Aga aka Grandagha. "Nicely restored, it still serves as a seminary for boys training to become hafiz (theologians who have memorized the entire Koran), but it's not open to the public." (I don't recall it.)

- the Vakif Bedesten Kappali Carsi (Covered Market) (1483, Ottoman), still in use today.

 

- I toured the Hazeranlar Konagi (1865, restored in 1979), an Ottoman house-museum with the obligatory, dry ethnology exhibits in the Hatuniye Mahallesi, a neighborhood by the river and below the Pontic tombs with the best Ottoman, 1/2-timbered houses. "Built by Hasan Talat, the accountant of governor-poet Ziya Pasa, for his sister Hazeran Hanim, its restored rooms are furnished in [mid-19th-cent.] period style" (LP) with much carved wood, carpets, "wall niches for oil lamps, bathrooms hidden behind cupboard doors, and sedirs - divan seating lining the walls." (I barely recall it.)

 

- Misses in Amasya include visits to the Mustafa Bey and the Yildiz Hamami, the latter 13th cent., rebuilt in the 16th.

- In 2013, an impressive 24 m.2 floor mosaic from a Byzantine chapel was discovered, depicting an apple tree and partridges.

- possibly the Gumus Maden cami, converted from a 19th cent. church with some preserved aspects incl. a fresco of Christ hidden behind a curtain during prayers but revealed to visitors on request.

 

- Amasya was lovely and edifying, but a bit of work with so much to see and while recovering from that scorpion sting. Travelling from Zile and Turhal to Amasya, it seemed I'd returned in time somewhat from a more ancient, timeless place, notwithstanding the Pontic tombs, mysterious tunnels, etc., and I looked forward to heading further east. That said, in leaving Amasya I left the classical world and that of the 1st mill. B.C. to explore the medieval world of the Anatolian Seljuqs, Saltuqs, the Il-khanate, more of the early Ottomans, and of the Christian Georgians and Armenians, up until my arrival at Dogubeyazit near the border with Iran (home to a much more ancient Urartian fortress and tomb).

 

 

- From Amasya I hitched south down the Amasya-Erzurum Yolu, and east and south back to and through Turhal via the D180 (@ 70 clicks, @ 1 hr.) and further SE on that route through the villages of Kalaycık and Dökmetepe to Tokat. I don't know of any misses on the Turhal-Tokat stretch although there's a renovated old Selcuk caravanserai, the Hatun Hani, and an old cami in Pazar a few clicks south of the hwy.

Done