Nov 12 - 'The Iron Gate' dam (Byzantine, 6th cent. at least) in the gorge between Mt. Cassius and Mt. Staurin, Antakya (Antioch)
Buit or greatly improved by Justinian, it's one of the only ancient structures, and the largest, that I saw or know of in this city which was the 3rd largest in the Roman empire, once home to 1/2 a million. "Procopius, a Byzantine scholar from the sixth century, gives us the following description:
“It is proper to describe also what he did with the torrent which comes down from these mountains. 2 precipitous mountains rise above the city, approaching each other quite closely. Of these they call the one Orocassias [Mt. Cassius] and the other is called Staurin. Where they come to an end they are joined by a glen and ravine which lies between them, which produces a torrent, when it rains, called Onopnictes. This, coming down from a height, swept over the circuit-wall and on occasion rose to a great volume, spreading into the streets of the city and doing ruinous damage to those who lived in that district. But even for this the Emperor Justinian found the remedy, in the following way: Before that part of the circuit-wall which happens to lie nearest to the ravine out of which the torrent was borne against the fortifications, he built an immense wall or dam, which reached roughly from the hollow bed of the ravine to each of the two mountains, so that the stream should no longer be able to sweep on when it was at full flood, but should collect for a considerable distance back and form a lake there. And by constructing sluice-gates in this wall he contrived that the torrent, flowing through these, should lose its force gradually, checked by this artificial barrier, and no longer violently assault the circuit-wall with its full stream, and so overflow it and damage the city, but should gently and evenly glide on in the manner I have described and, with this means of outflow, should proceed through the channel wherever the inhabitants of former times would have wished to conduct it if it had been so manageable.” antioch-on-the-orontes.blogspot.ca/2010/10/iron-gate.html (a link to an interesting blog with all things Antioch)
www.google.ca/maps/@36.2089395,36.1818282,301m/data=!3m1!1e3
- This is one of the few tangible remnants in situ of ancient Antioch, the 3rd largest city in the Roman empire (although this is Byzantine). There are some overgrown, low-lying Roman ruins in the city's vicinity that I've read about since I was here, but the famous mosaic museum and the alleged cave church of St. Peter et al. are the focus for most tourists interested in the city's important ancient Roman history.
- "Among the early churches in Antioch was the octagonal Domus Aurea (Golden House), a magnificent structure thought to have been Constantine the Great’s palace chapel, built in 327 CE. Destroyed by fires and earthquakes in 588, its exact location is lost to us today, but it is known through the description of contemporaries to have served as the prototype for the octagonal Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, from where the Emperor Charlemagne took his inspiration for his own palace chapel at Aachen, Germany." (D. Darke)
Nov 12 - 'The Iron Gate' dam (Byzantine, 6th cent. at least) in the gorge between Mt. Cassius and Mt. Staurin, Antakya (Antioch)
Buit or greatly improved by Justinian, it's one of the only ancient structures, and the largest, that I saw or know of in this city which was the 3rd largest in the Roman empire, once home to 1/2 a million. "Procopius, a Byzantine scholar from the sixth century, gives us the following description:
“It is proper to describe also what he did with the torrent which comes down from these mountains. 2 precipitous mountains rise above the city, approaching each other quite closely. Of these they call the one Orocassias [Mt. Cassius] and the other is called Staurin. Where they come to an end they are joined by a glen and ravine which lies between them, which produces a torrent, when it rains, called Onopnictes. This, coming down from a height, swept over the circuit-wall and on occasion rose to a great volume, spreading into the streets of the city and doing ruinous damage to those who lived in that district. But even for this the Emperor Justinian found the remedy, in the following way: Before that part of the circuit-wall which happens to lie nearest to the ravine out of which the torrent was borne against the fortifications, he built an immense wall or dam, which reached roughly from the hollow bed of the ravine to each of the two mountains, so that the stream should no longer be able to sweep on when it was at full flood, but should collect for a considerable distance back and form a lake there. And by constructing sluice-gates in this wall he contrived that the torrent, flowing through these, should lose its force gradually, checked by this artificial barrier, and no longer violently assault the circuit-wall with its full stream, and so overflow it and damage the city, but should gently and evenly glide on in the manner I have described and, with this means of outflow, should proceed through the channel wherever the inhabitants of former times would have wished to conduct it if it had been so manageable.” antioch-on-the-orontes.blogspot.ca/2010/10/iron-gate.html (a link to an interesting blog with all things Antioch)
www.google.ca/maps/@36.2089395,36.1818282,301m/data=!3m1!1e3
- This is one of the few tangible remnants in situ of ancient Antioch, the 3rd largest city in the Roman empire (although this is Byzantine). There are some overgrown, low-lying Roman ruins in the city's vicinity that I've read about since I was here, but the famous mosaic museum and the alleged cave church of St. Peter et al. are the focus for most tourists interested in the city's important ancient Roman history.
- "Among the early churches in Antioch was the octagonal Domus Aurea (Golden House), a magnificent structure thought to have been Constantine the Great’s palace chapel, built in 327 CE. Destroyed by fires and earthquakes in 588, its exact location is lost to us today, but it is known through the description of contemporaries to have served as the prototype for the octagonal Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, from where the Emperor Charlemagne took his inspiration for his own palace chapel at Aachen, Germany." (D. Darke)