Mount Spil (), the ancient Mount Sipylus () (elevation ), is a mountain rich in legends and history in Manisa Province,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, in what used to be the heartland of the Lydians and what is now Turkey's Aegean Region. Its summit towers over the modern city of Manisa as well as over the road between

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

and Manisa. The contiguous mass of Mount Yamanlar, also overlooking the Gulf of İzmir, has often been considered an extension of the Mount Sipylus massif, with which it shares much history, although it is actually an extinct

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

and a distinct geographical formation.

History

The Manisa relief, a full-faced statue carved into a cliff face, is found near Mount Sipylus, several kilometers east of Manisa. According to the Byzantine commentator John the Lydian, the unknown author of the 7th-century BCE epic poem, the ''Titanomachy'', placed the birth of

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

not in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

but in

Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...

, which should signify Mount Sipylus. The names "Sipylus" or "Sipylum" are mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, supported by other sources, as the site of a very celebrated city called "Tantalis" or "the city of Tantalus", after the name of its founder. Presumably located on or very near the mountain, the city's ruins were reportedly still visible around the beginning of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

. The same Tantalus is famed throughout

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

thanks to the accounts that he had cut up his son Pelops and served him up as food for the gods. His son Pelops is said to have later migrated to the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, named after him, and to have founded a kingdom there. Tantalus' daughter was the tragic Niobe, who is associated with the "Weeping Rock" (''Ağlayan Kaya'' in Turkish), a natural formation facing the city of Manisa. The Greek deities Apollo and Artemis were said to have killed all 14 children of Niobe at Mount Sipylus, whereupon the grief-stricken Niobe was turned to stone. Later in ancient times, Mount Sipylus () rose above the site of Magnesia ad Sipylum (the southern portion of modern Manisa), whose existence is traced back as far as the 5th century BCE. Magnesia was located along the Hermus River ( Gediz River) on the plain below and was the scene of the defeat of Antiochus III "the Great" by the Romans at the

Battle of Magnesia The Battle of Magnesia took place in either December 190 or January 189 BC. It was fought as part of the Roman–Seleucid War, pitting forces of the Roman Republic led by the Roman consul, consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus and the allied ...

in 190 BCE. The city of

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

lay nearby.

Spil today

An important reforestation effort was begun in the 1960s, covering thousands of hectares on and around the mountain. Since then, Spil Dağı National Park has attracted many foreign and domestic tourists. The famous "Weeping Rock" is still widely visited. The mountain as a whole presents an area of dense forests and is known for its wild tulips. The mountain is also a common spot for camping, parachuting, hiking and other mountain sports. The motorway connecting the two regional metropolitan centers,

and Manisa, crosses between the two neighboring masses of Mount Sipylus and Mount Yamanlar through the Sabuncubeli Pass, which was much described by ancient travellers and writers and which descends from an altitude of 600 m to sea-level in only a few kilometers. The highest point of the pass corresponds to a point near the boundary between İzmir Province and Manisa Province. To bypass the steep and twisted Sabuncubeli Pass, the -long Sabuncubeli Tunnel was built from 2011 to 2018.

Footnotes

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Ancient Greek geography Spil National parks of Turkey Landforms of Manisa Province Landforms of İzmir Province Tourist attractions in Manisa Province Tourist attractions in İzmir Province