The Penkalas Bridge is a
Roman bridge
The ancient Romans were the first civilization to build large, permanent bridges. Early Roman bridges used techniques introduced by Etruscan immigrants, but the Romans improved those skills, developing and enhancing methods such as arches and ...
over the Penkalas (today ''Kocaçay''), a small tributary of the
Rhyndakos (''Adırnas Çayı''), in
Aezani,
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
(
Çavdarhisar
Çavdarhisar is a town and district of Kütahya Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 13,538 of which 4,687 live in the town of Çavdarhisar. The local Kocaçay stream is still crossed by ...
in present-day
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 ...
).
The 2nd-century AD structure was once one of four ancient bridges in Aezani and is assumed to have been the most important crossing-point due to its central location in the vicinity of the
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
temple and the direct access it provided to the
Roman road to Cotyaeum (
Kütahya).
According to reports by European travellers, the ancient parapet remained in use as late as 1829, having been replaced today by an iron railing.
Around 290 m upstream, another well-preserved, almost identical five-arched Roman bridge leads across the Penkalas.
See also
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List of Roman bridges
This is a list of Roman bridges. The Romans were the world's first major bridge builders. The following list constitutes an attempt to list all known surviving remains of Roman bridges.
A Roman bridge in the sense of this article includes an ...
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Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome ...
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Roman engineering
References
Sources
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External links
Aezani and the Penkalas Bridgeat Romeartlover
Roman bridges in Turkey
Deck arch bridges
Stone bridges in Turkey
Phrygia
Buildings and structures in Kütahya Province
Arch bridges in Turkey
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