Kanlıdivane (''ancient'' Canytelis,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Κανυτελής) is an ancient city situated around a big

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

Mersin Province Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Geography

Kanlıdivane is in the rural area of

Erdemli Erdemli is a town and district of Mersin Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, west of the city of Mersin. Geography Erdemli is located between the districts of Mezitli (to the east) and Silifke (to the west). In the north, Erdemli ...

district, which is a part of Mersin Province at . It is to Erdemli and to

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and district governorates: Akdeniz, Mezitl ...

. Its altitude is approximately . It is close to the town

Kumkuyu Kumkuyu is a town in Mersin Province, Turkey. Geography Kumkuyu is a Mediterranean coastal town in the rural area of Erdemli ilçe (district) which is a part of Mersin Province. It is on the Turkish state highway which traverses south Ana ...

at the coast and just few hundred meters to Çanakçı rock tombs. The sinkhole is quite wide; the longer dimension being . The depth is about

History

There are ruins of antiquity around the sinkhole. They were unearthed and surveyed by Victor Langlois and

Semavi Eyice Mustafa Semavi Eyice (9 December 1922 in Istanbul, Turkey – 28 May 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey) was a Turkish art historian and archaeologist, who specialised in the study of Byzantine and Ottoman art in Istanbul. Professor Eyice is widely re ...

Pre Roman era

Kanlıdivane was a part of the

Olba Kingdom Olba Kingdom was an ancient kingdom in south Anatolia. It was a vassal of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucid and Roman Empires. Geography The kingdom was a small state situated in Cilicia Trachea (present Mersin Province, Turkey). It was bounded by the ...

in the ancient age. In the northern

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

, there is a mausoleum, which was built by the Queen Aba for her husband and sons. On the inscription of the tower at south-west it reads; "Built by Teukros, the son of priest king Tarkyaris of Olba for

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 religion, ...

Roman era

By the first century, Olba kingdom became a vassal of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as l ...

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his ...

rebuilt the city as a Christian religious center and renamed it Neapolis. There are ruins of basilicas, cisterns, rock cut graves etc. around the sinkhole.

Kanlıdivane in popular culture

The current Turkish name Kanlıdivane may be a corrupt form of the ancient name Canytelis. It means "bloody crazy". It may refer to the red color of the surrounding soil. The name may also refer to a dreadful legend according to which the criminals had been executed by throwing into the sinkhole during Roman times.Travel guide
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Kanlıdivane in Mersin Music Festival

Every year during Mersin International Music Festival, one or two outdoor concerts are held in Kanlıdivane. The audiences and performers sit at the opposite sides of the sinkhole. (During such concerts Metropolitan municipality of Mersin add free bus trips to Kanlıdivane.)

References

External links

Photographic visit to the site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanlidivane Ruins in Turkey Archaeological sites in Mersin Province, Turkey Music venues in Turkey Sinkholes of Turkey Landforms of Mersin Province Olba territorium