Kanlıdivane (''ancient'' Canytelis,
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 ...
: Κανυτελής) is an ancient city situated around a big
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
in
Mersin Province
Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...
,
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 ...
.
Geography
Kanlıdivane is in the rural area of
Erdemli
Erdemli is a town and district of Mersin Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, west of the city of Mersin.
Geography
Erdemli is located between the districts of Mezitli (to the east) and Silifke (to the west). In the north, Erdemli i ...
district, which is a part of Mersin Province at . It is to Erdemli and 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 ...
. Its altitude is approximately . It is close to the town
Kumkuyu
Kumkuyu is a town in Mersin Province, Turkey.
Geography
Kumkuyu is a Mediterranean coastal town in the rural area of Erdemli ilçe (district) which is a part of Mersin Province. It is on the Turkish state highway which traverses south Anatolia ...
at the coast and just few hundred meters to
Çanakçı rock tombs
Çanakçı is a town and a district of Giresun Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
Çanakçı is a small town of 1,848 people in a district of forest and scattered villages inland from the Black Sea coastal town of Görele.
It was foun ...
.
The sinkhole is quite wide; the longer dimension being . The depth is about
History
There are ruins of antiquity around the sinkhole. They were unearthed and surveyed by
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 ...
and
Semavi Eyice
Mustafa Semavi Eyice (9 December 1922 in Istanbul, Turkey – 28 May 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey) was a Turkish art historian and archaeologist, who specialised in the study of Byzantine and Ottoman art in Istanbul. Professor Eyice is widely re ...
.
Pre Roman era
Kanlıdivane was a part of the
Olba Kingdom in the ancient age. In the northern
necropolis
A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead".
The term usually im ...
, there is a mausoleum, which was built by the Queen Aba for her husband and sons. On the inscription of the tower at south-west it reads;
"Built by Teukros, the son of priest king Tarkyaris of Olba for
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
."
Roman era
By the first century, Olba kingdom became a vassal of 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 ...
.
Byzantine Emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...
Theodosius II
Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''Augustus (title), augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after ...
rebuilt the city as a Christian religious center and renamed it Neapolis.
There are ruins of basilicas, cisterns, rock cut graves etc. around the sinkhole.
Kanlıdivane in popular culture
The current Turkish name Kanlıdivane may be a corrupt form of the ancient name Canytelis. It means "bloody crazy". It may refer to the red color of the surrounding soil. The name may also refer to a dreadful legend according to which the criminals had been executed by throwing into the sinkhole during Roman times.
Travel guide
/ref>
Kanlıdivane in Mersin Music Festival
Every year during Mersin International Music Festival
Mersin International Music Festival ( tr, Mersin Uluslararası Müzik Festivali), merfest for short, is a music festival held annually in Mersin, Turkey. In addition to Turkish artists, performers from Spain, Italy, United States, Hungary, German ...
, one or two outdoor concerts are held in Kanlıdivane. The audiences and performers sit at the opposite sides of the sinkhole. (During such concerts Metropolitan municipality of Mersin add free bus trips to Kanlıdivane.)
See also
* List of sinkholes of Turkey
* Kanytelis
References
External links
Photographic visit to the site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanlidivane
Ruins in Turkey
Archaeological sites in Mersin Province, Turkey
Music venues in Turkey
Sinkholes of Turkey
Landforms of Mersin Province
Olba territorium