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A Secret invitation Antiocheia



 
 
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Old March 7th, 2008, 06:16 AM posted to rec.travel.budget.backpack,rec.travel.europe,soc.culture.turkish,rec.travel.asia
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Default A Secret invitation Antiocheia

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x0x A Secret invitation Antiocheia

By NEZAHAT TURKAN

Downing Taurus toward mid-February, Leo will bring
plenty to the plain of Yalvac as the prophets pass
through Antiocheia of Psidia.

The first time my travels brought me to Isparta it
was May, and like most Sagrak villagers museum
week took me to Adada to enjoy the festival. In
Turkish 'ada' means island, so the name of this
city makes you think of waves and the sea, but as
one of the 12 cities of Psidia it is up in the
mountains and thus has been protected from the
ravages of time. As I watched young girls dancing
out in front of the Temple of Emperors-like the
'poppy' trees of these mountains they were decked
in purple and pink-the old men of Sagrak village
sitting in the rows ahead of me in their thick
glasses and prayer caps kept murmuring the same
word like an incantation: "Yalvac, yalvac,
yalvac..." Yalvac is the largest county of Isparta
province and contains the ancient city of
Antiocheia. The root meaning of 'yalvac' was
supplicant, but over time the word took on new
meanings to signify abettor, messenger of god,
herald, and prophet.

THE HISTORY OF THE BELIEVERS

Ever since, whenever I go to Isparta I have
answered a secret invitation and made my way to
Yalvac. It is a place where believers made
history. Alexander on his great expedition, who
passed through Psidia on his way to Phrygia to
link up with the other half of his army; the
Crusaders, pouring down to Antakya (Antioch) from
Iznik (Nicaea) in the firm conviction that they
could take Jerusalem; the Arabs, pressing up from
Antiocheia to the walls of Istanbul; St. Paul,
patiently waiting for the day to come as he spent
days in Antiocheia with a weaver in the quest to
spread the word of his secret religion to all
mankind; Battal Gazi, kicking up the dust as his
horse galloped into Yalvac; the two armies
clashing in the battle of Myriokephalon; all of
them contributed to writing this history. Everyone
had a reason for coming to, or passing through,
Yalvac. As a meeting point for civilizations, and
because the roads around it had military and
commercial importance while its soil was fertile,
Yalvac was highly strategical. Thus Antiocheia was
a major Roman colony that rose to be capital of
Psidia, and in the Christian era was the seat of a
metropolitan.

COLONIAL STATUS

On a cold but sunny winter's day I pass a
coffeehouse under the branches of an
eight-hundred-year-old plane tree, continue on
through streets lined by Yalvac houses decorated
with ancient artifacts, and enter Antiocheia one
kilometer northeast of the city. From the spot
where the portal should be I look back at Yalvac,
and at the rich soil stretching away behind the
township. Wasn't it this soil that led the emperor
Augustus to settle retired Roman soldiers and
landless Italian villagers here to start a colony?
By mixing soldiers with the people he not only
served the cause of Romanization but at the same
time was able to control the lands in the east. My
eyes seek out the Via Sebaste, a road with
Antiocheia at its heart which the governor of
Galatia built in order to inflict a decisive
defeat on the Homanads.

This road eventually became Rome's most famous
commercial and military artery in Asia Minor, and
its traces may be followed today thanks to the
milestones discovered by archeologists.

This region has been inhabited since Paleolithic
times, and passed from the Hellenistic kings to
the Kingdom of Pergamon, from Rome to the Kingdom
of Cappadocia, thence to the pirate kindoms, and
finally, for a rather long spell, back to Rome.
Various armies took turns camping here until the
12th century, but then the fate of the region was
decided permanently by the battle of
Myriokephalon-the era of the Turks and
Islamization had begun.

THE ARAB INCURSIONS

I pass between ancient stones bearing the reliefs
of helmets, soldiers, shields, hawks, bulls' heads
and the like, where the fragments of the portal
strewn about make up 65 percent of the building's
total. The city is built on seven hills, with a
plan resembling that of Rome, and I commence
walking on its Decumanus Maximus (east-west
avenue), which will lead me to the center. How I
would have loved to say I had seen the ancient
city intact, and to start relating my impressions
of it. But this is impossible due to earthquakes,
the Arab incursions, and particularly the razing
of the city in the 8th century by Abbas, son of
the Caliph Velid.

THE PLAN OF THE CITY

The state of most buildings you see in the ancient
city is just like that of the portal. Apart from
the theater, bath, certain walls, and the columns
left standing on the Decumanus Maximus, everything
is either on the ground or below it. The mounds of
earth you see on the way to the Acropolis-and you
wonder what they conceal-prove that there is still
much to be said about this ancient city. The
avenue that passes by the theater intersects a bit
further on with the city's other main avenue, the
Cardo Maximus (running north and south), and from
here you attain the Tiberia Platea. The
inscriptions that have been unearthed, the altars,
glass goblets, oil lamps, tableware and coins from
almost every period show that this was the heart
of city life. The structure that begins where the
Platea ends and has 12 steps belongs to the
Propylon which provided passage to the emperor's
sacred precinct on the flat ground to the rear. It
was built to honor Octavius, who defeating Marcus
Antonius in the naval Battle of Actium became sole
lord of the Roman world and received the title of
Augustus.

The famous 'Res Gestae' inscription unearthed here
recounts the lifelong exploits of Augustus, who
brought universal peace to his empire. Climbing
the stairs you reach the highest point of the
city, Antiocheia's most impressive site, the
sacred precinct of Augustus carved in the rocks.
Turning back takes you to the central church
directly opposite the Platea, and from there a
northward route brings you to the nympheum or
fountain. From here you can see the aqueduct,
which has virtually become the symbol of Yalvac
and brought water 800 meters from the Sultan
mountains to this fountain, from where it was
distributed to the city. As for the building in
the northwest corner of the city, which for the
time being is called the bath, circular holes may
have collapsed in its roof, but it is still the
best-preserved structure in the city, made of
large, regular blocks of stone.

THE LONELINESS OF THE PROPHET (YALVAC)

Our last stop in the ancient city is the Church of
St. Paul.

Here he delivered his first official sermon, and
he spread the word of Christianity from Antiocheia
to the entire world. For hours I have been
wandering through the ancient city without seeing
anybody but a few local tourists, or hearing
anything but the sound of the wind and pigeons'
wings. But suddenly the silence was broken, as I
saw some 50 Japanese tourists come and enter the
church single file, find places for themselves and
begin to pray. Their heartfelt "Amens" resounded
even outside, and without visiting a single other
place they left the city, once again in single
file. Now I leave the ancient city to go to the
temple of Men in the Gemen grove at 1,600 meters.
I reflect on the loneliness of Antiocheia, and it
seems like the loneliness of a prophet, one word
for which in Turkish, you must remember, is
'yalvac.'
 




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