Donuktaş (literally “Pale Stone”) is a
Roman temple in
Tarsus ilçe (district) of
Mersin Province, southern Turkey.
Location
Donuktaş is in the urban fabric of Tarsus at . It is to the east of other historical places of Tarsus and to the north of Turkish state highway . Its distance to
Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
is about .
Exploration history
The first written document about Donuktaş dates back to 1545. According to a member of the
Venetian
Venetian often means from or related to:
* Venice, a city in Italy
* Veneto, a region of Italy
* Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area
Venetian and the like may also refer to:
* Venetian language, a Romance language s ...
Barbaro family, who was the
Bailo of Constantinople
A bailo, also spelled baylo (pl. / ) was a diplomat who oversaw the affairs of the Republic of Venice in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and was a permanent fixture in the city around 1454.
The traumatic outcomes of Venice's w ...
, Donuktaş was a palace. But according to later accounts in the 19th century, it is a
mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
. The French historian
Victor Langlois
Victor Langlois (20 March 1829 – 14 May 1869) was a French historian, archaeologist, professor, numismatist, and orientalist who specialized in the study of the Middle Ages. Langlois was particularly known for his work on Armenian history and cu ...
(1829–1869) in his book ''Voyage Dans la Cilicie et Dans la Montagnes du Taurus 1852-1853'' described Donuktaş as the mausoleum of
Sardanapalus
Sardanapalus (; sometimes spelled Sardanapallus) was, according to the Greek writer Ctesias, the last king of Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotami ...
(612-605 BC), the last
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n king. The German archaeologist
Robert Koldewey (1855–1925) supported this assertion. British orientalist
William Burckhardt Barker
William Burckhardt Barker (1810?–1856) was an English orientalist.
Life
Barker was born about 1810, at which time John Barker, his father, was consul at Aleppo. From both his parents he inherited a singular linguistic aptitude. He was the god ...
(1810?–1856) on the other hand, believed that Donuktaş is a mausoleum of another king. However, during the systematic exploration between 1982 and 1992 by Turkish archaeologist Nezahat Baydur, Donuktaş was defined as a temple built in the 2nd century, during the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, much later than the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
(911–609 BC). Originally, It was a temple of
Sandon, an ancient
Hittite deity. Later, Sandon was identified with the
Roman god Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
, and the temple became a Temple of Jupiter.
[ The exploration continued after 2007 by the German archaeologist Winfried Held.Paper by Ali Akın Akyol, Yusuf Kağan Kadıoğlu and Winfried Held pg. 83 ]
/ref>
The building
The building is huge construction without a roof. It has a rectangular form oriented in northeast to southwest direction. Its length is and the width is . It is surrounded by -thick walls. The walls are about high. The building material is Roman cement
Roman cement is a substance developed by James Parker in the 1780s, being patented in 1796.
The name is misleading, as it is nothing like any material used by the Romans, but was a "natural cement" made by burning septaria – nodules that are ...
.[Marsin Valiliği: ''Mersin Ören Yerleri'', İstanbul, 2009, p.87] Although the wall is presently naked, it was originally covered by marble.
See also
* Temple of Jupiter (Silifke)
The Temple of Jupiter is a ruined Roman temple in Silifke, Turkey. It was built in the 2nd century, and presently one column still stands.
Silifke is an ilçe (district) in Mersin Province. Although the city which was founded by Seleucus I Nicator ...
References
{{Mersin Province
History of Mersin Province
Ancient Roman temples
Archaeological sites in Mersin Province, Turkey
2nd-century religious buildings and structures
Temples of Jupiter
Tarsus District