Kuşkayası ( Turkish for ''Bird's rock'') is a roadside monument just outside the town of

Amasra Amasra (from Greek Amastris Ἄμαστρις, ''gen''. Ἀμάστριδος) is a small Black Sea port town in the Bartın Province, Turkey, formerly known as Amastris. The town today is much appreciated for its beaches and natural setting, ...

, in

Bartın Province Bartın Province ( tr, ), a small province in northern Turkey on the Black Sea, surrounds the city of Bartın. It lies to the east of Zonguldak Province. The town of Bartın contains a number of very old wooden houses in a style no longer exta ...

, in the Black Sea Region of

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

. It was erected in the

Roman Imperial 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 ...

age.

Location

The landmark lies in a dense forest, situated to the south of the road connecting

to Bartın at . At a distance of about from Amasra, it overlooks a part of the town as well as the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. The altitude of the monument is about above sea level. It can be reached by a staircase from the road.

History

The Kuşkayası road monument is a unique structure in Turkey. It was built by Gaius Julius Aquila, procurator of

Bithynia et Pontus Bithynia and Pontus ( la, Provincia Bithynia et Pontus, Ancient Greek ) was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation o ...

, in honor of Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Germanicus (AD 41–54). The monument includes a statue of a now headless human figure, the Roman eagle (also headless) and a bilingual inscription, all carved into the mountain. The human figure may represent either the Emperor or the Governor. In the original monument there was also a fountain (which no longer exists).

Inscription

The inscription is in Latin and Greek translations, which allow lacunae in one to be supplemented by the surviving text of the other.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuskayasi Monument Buildings and structures in Bartın Province Archaeological sites in the Black Sea Region Roman sites in Turkey Monuments and memorials in Turkey Steles in Turkey History of Bartın Province 1st-century inscriptions