With Wolfgang Dorn in Aspendos at Köprü Cay

Tuesday, 28 January 2025 00:00
Written by Portal Editor

Last Saturday we spent a few hours with our co-author Wolfgang Dorn in Aspendos for a meeting that was limited in time but nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of that, very interesting.

This time on a short trip to some places worth seeing in Turkey with his daughter, we had arranged to meet at his hotel in Serik / Beldebi.

Wolfgang Dorn also asked a few specific questions

We first drove to the Seljuk bridge just before the ancient city of Aspendos, where Wolfgang Dorn told us about some structural details that can be traced back to the Romans and the Seljuks. This allowed us to take a close look at damage to the bridge structure near the approach ramp, which must have caused the Roman builders of his time to stop construction work on the bridge over the Köprü Cayi.

The gap between the bridge body and the side ashlar cladding was too wide.

Of course, during the explanation session, Wolfgang Dorn also asked a few specific questions that were meant to "test our brains", such as whether it was basically a Greek or a Roman construction. Of course, we were able to give the right answer to that, because it is clearly a round-arch bridge, which was only technically possible thanks to the Romans.

A striking feature of the bridge completed by the Seljuks, who also used the foundations of the basic Roman construction, is the bend almost in the middle of the bridge, which again led to an explanation.

We brought other Seljuk bridges into play that also had the pointed arch construction and the bend in the bridge, and ultimately, we could only use static reasons for this construction method to justify it.

Georg König to prepare concerts in Turkiye

We then went briefly into the Aspendos Theatre, as Georg Koenig from the group Backdoor Connection, who is in Turkey to prepare for some concerts, accompanied us to demonstrate the excellent acoustics of the theatre building. You could see sheer enthusiasm in his eyes and he would have loved to get out his guitar. No amplifier, hardly any technology is needed here to inspire tens of thousands of people with music. We then went into the ancient city, which is located above the theatre building.

Due to the short amount of time available, we walked quickly to the viewing point, which offers a view of the two water towers of the famous Roman aqueduct to Aspendos. The two water towers rise impressively high into the blue sky, which made the supply of running water and thus the construction of the city possible. The water came from the mountains at high pressure and had to be forced into pipes to the city. Today it is estimated that the water pressure must have been around 6 bar. So how did they overcome the wide valley between the mountains and the city hill of Aspendos?

Water-tower to supply the city with fresh water

Here the Romans showed off their special hydraulic engineering skills. The pipes alone were made of solid stone, because only they could withstand the immense water pressure. The water was brought to the water tower at a height of around 25 metres, then fell about 22 metres down the pipe system, where it was led through the valley in pipes on an arched bridge structure and had to rise again to a height of 25 metres in the water tower opposite. From here it then continued into the city complex on the hill, where it was then distributed underground. An architectural masterpiece that is unparalleled. This technology made it possible to save on a costly viaduct across the entire width of the valley.