Eflatun Pınar (, ) is the name given to a spring, which rises up from the ground, and the stone-built pool monument built at the time of the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

. The spring lies inside the Lake Beyşehir National Park, west of

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

, and drains into Lake Beyşehir in central

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

at ancient

Pisidia Pisidia (; , ; ) was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Pamphylia, northeast of Lycia, west of Isauria and Cilicia, and south of Phrygia, corresponding roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey. Among Pisidia's set ...

region. During the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, a sacred pool monument was built here in

trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava (or shallow intrus ...

ashlar masonry dedicated to the sacred spring cult of ancient Hittites. The monument was interpreted as a shrine to

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

during the medieval (Seljuk) period.

Overview

Eflatun Pınar's location near the lake shore corresponds to an almost exact level with other important ruins on the opposite shore, those of Kubadabad Palace, which were built by

Seljuk Seljuk (, ''Selcuk'') or Saljuq (, ''Saljūq'') may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * S ...

s. Eflatun Pınar was briefly examined by the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

archaeologist Dr. Lucia Nixon in her paper on

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (English: Chatalhoyuk ; ; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish language, Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a Tell (archaeology), tell (a mounded accretion resulting from long-term huma ...

, and she makes use of F.W.Hasluck's early-20th century work. The site remains largely unexplored to date. According to ArchaeoNews, Eflatun Pınar "designates the most south-westerly point of the Hittite expansion. The uniqueness of this place is also demonstrated by the fact that this is one of the few discovered places where the Hittites presented human figures from the front." Eflatun Pınar has been on the Tentative UNESCO World Heritage list since 2014. The spring produces cold and clear water. The Turkish name means 'lilac coloured or violet spring', though its name actually means Plato's Spring, stemming from the association between Plato and Konya since Selcuk times. The monument shows "a hierarchical image of the Hittite Pantheon represented on it", according to the UNESCO World Heritage site. The image depicts "five mountain gods with the characteristic skirts with scales forming the bottom row of the fully excavated main monument". Above these are seated a male and female "divine couple", probably representing the storm god and sun goddess, Tarhunna and

Arinniti The Sun goddess of Arinna, also sometimes identified as Arinniti or as Wuru(n)šemu, is the chief Goddess of Hittite mythology. Her companion is the weather god Tarḫunna. She protected the Hittite kingdom and was called the "Queen of all lands ...

. The same figures are probably also represented on the Southern and Eastern walls. Aside from these main images, "several sculptures of reclined animals were found in the filler of the basin, it concerned probably the execution of lions, deer and bulls. This rich supply of sculptures adds to already more long well known remainder of a twin animals group. Votive miniature ceramic vessels very similar to those found in Bogazkoy Hattusa ponds were also uncovered inside the basin together with one bronze pin." According to Somewhere Wonderful, "The site has recently been ‘improved’ by Konya's museum service; in a crass mix of the twee and the totalitarian its operatives have installed willow-pattern wooden bridges while a barbed-wire fence with concrete uprights keeps the cattle out."

References

External links

Anthropology, Archaeology and Heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eflatun Pinar Beyşehir District Hittite sites in Turkey Pisidia World Heritage Tentative List for Turkey Landforms of Konya Province Hittite art Holy springs of Turkey