The Aksu (

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

name in Hittite: 𒁉𒋻𒀀𒅀, ''Kaštaraya'',

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

name in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Κέστρoς, ''Kestros''), is a river in

Antalya Province Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visit ...

(southwestern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

), which rises in the mountains of

Toros Toros may refer to: Sports *Rio Grande Valley FC Toros, an American soccer team in Edinburg, Texas * Austin Toros (2005-2014) a minor league basketball team from Austin, Texas *Western District Toros, a soccer club from Adelaide, South Australia ...

. The course of the Aksu is between the Düden to the west and of the Köprüçay to the east.

History

A treaty between the Hittite Great King

Tudhaliya IV Tudhaliya is the name of several Hittite kings: *Tudhaliya (also Tudhaliya I) is a hypothetic pre-Empire king of the Hittites. He would have reigned in the late 17th century BC ( short chronology). Forlanini (1993) conjectures that this king corres ...

and his vassal, the king of Tarhuntassa, defined the latter's western border at the "Kastaraya River", near "Parha". Parha is likely the future

Perga Perga or Perge ( Hittite: ''Parha'', el, Πέργη ''Perge'', tr, Perge) was originally an ancient Lycian settlement that later became a Greek city in Pamphylia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, now located in ...

. As Kestros, the river is mentioned by

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...

as navigable, as far upriver as Perga, 60

stadia Stadia may refer to: * One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums" * The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes''). * Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey * Stadi ...

(about ) from its mouth, according to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

. It silted up over the Byzantine era, and Perga declined as a result.

Today

The Aksu is wide at its mouth, and deep within the bar, which extends across the mouth, and so shallow in places in its delta as to be impassable to boats that draw more than of water. The swell from the sea meeting the stream generally produces a violent surf. At its headwaters is the Kovada Lake and just below that the

Karacaören Dam Karacaören (literally "roe deer ruins" in Turkish) may refer to several places: Dams in Turkey * Karacaören-1 Dam * Karacaören-2 Dam Places in Turkey * Karacaören, Aksaray, a village in the district of Aksaray, Aksaray Province * Karacaö ...

reservoir.

References

* Smith, William (editor); ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'' is the last in a series of classical dictionaries edited by the English scholar William Smith (1813–1893), following ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' and the ''Dictionary of Gr ...

''
"Cestrus"

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, (1854)
Glover, Clare P, Robertson, Alastair F (March 1998) "Role of regional extension and uplift in the Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the Aksu Basin, SW Turkey" ''Journal of the Geological Society'' 155(2): pp. 365-387Çapraz, Soner and Arslan, Naime (2005) "The Oligochaeta (Annelida) Fauna of Aksu Stream (Antalya)" ''Turkish Journal of Zoology'' 29: pp. 229-236
*Wildekamp, R.H. (1997) "First record of the eastern Asiatic gobionid fish ''Pseudorasbora parva'' from the Asiatic part of Turkey" ''Journal of Fish Biology'' 51(4): pp. 858–861 Rivers of Turkey Landforms of Antalya Province {{Turkey-river-stub