TOURMAG SAYI 18

Archeology
Germenicia Ancient City
will be the Ephesus of
Kahramanmaraş
Just as İzmir has an ancient city of Ephesus, Kahramanmaraş
also has an ancient city that will make it a brand
in tourism. Two mosaic areas of the Germenicia Ancient
City, which were revealed in the region by chance, were
brought into tourism.
As a result of excavations carried out in the region for
the ancient city to be a touristic area, it was understood
that the ancient city of Germenicia, covering all the
Dulkadiroğlu, Bağlarbaşı, Şeyhadil and Namık Kemal
neighborhoods, was founded in the 1st century A.D. Excavations
carried out so far indicated that mosaics and ruins
of the 4th and 6th centuries A.D. have been reached.
Safinaz Akbaş who has taken part in all the excavation
works of the city since the emergence of Germenicia in
2007 said; ''Towards the end of 2019, our two areas will
meet with visitors with the permission of our Ministry
of Culture and Tourism. There are 150 square meters of
mosaics in these two areas.''
Akbaş, who said that they reached to the Late Roman-Early
Byzantine period works, but it is possible for
them to reach the works of the earlier period after the
excavations in the future, also stated that the residential
area of the city is Bağlarbaşı neighborhood where
there are more mosaics, center of the city is Şeyhadil
neighborhood where the ruins of the buildings are lot,
lastly Dulkadiroğlu and Namık Kemal neighborhoods are
determined as the city's spreading area.
150 SQUARE METERS MOSAIC
Safinaz Akbaş signified stated that there is 150 square
meters of mosaic in total at the two areas which planned
to be opened at the end of this year, and gave the following
information about the mosaic in the Bağlarbaşı
neighborhood: "This floor mosaic is most likely belonging
to the base of a villa in Roman period. After the excavation
of other places in the region completed, it will
become much more clear that which structure belongs to
which part."
ALIKE ZEUGMA AND EPHESUS
Germenicia mosaics that emerged as a result of an
informing were identified in four different houses at the
Bağlarbaşı and Dulkadiroğlu neighborhoods of Kahramanmaraş.
It was indicated that the mosaics in the
floor covering of the hillside villas used by rich people in
Kahramanmaraş's neighborhoods in the Roman period,
had great similarity with the mosaics found in Ephesus
and Zeugma Ancient City.
16 Nisan / Mayıs / Haziran | 2019
April / May / June