A 2800-year-old secret: an ancient water reservoir will be opened to tourists in Turkey
Kyiv • UNN
The restoration of an ancient Urartian cistern has been completed at Harput Castle. The 30-meter-deep tank, carved into the rock, will soon be available to visitors.
The restoration of an almost 2800-year-old cistern discovered by archaeologists in Harput Castle, where a settlement existed 3,000 years BC, during the period of the ancient Urartu state, has been completed.
Writes UNN with a link to the Anadolu Ajansı news agency.
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The restoration of an almost 2,800-year-old water tank has been completed in Turkey. The artifact was discovered in the Harput fortress in the Eastern Anatolia region. The object is an important archaeological find not only for Turkey but also for the world. The site was home to a settlement dating back to the ancient Urartu state.
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Urartu is an ancient country in southwestern Asia, located in a mountainous region southeast of the Black Sea and southwest of the Caspian Sea. Today, the region is divided between Armenia, eastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran.
Archaeological excavations and restoration work in Harput Castle began in 2004. After the Urartians, traces and finds of Roman, Byzantine, Sassanian, Artukid, Seljuk, Seljuk, Dulqadirogullar, Safavid, and Ottoman civilizations have been unearthed here.
The secret will soon be revealed to tourists
Ismail Aytach, head of archaeological work in Harput, assured that the 2,800-year-old water reservoir will be open to visitors after an access road is built to it.
The reservoir is carved into the rock, with 52 steps leading to it.
The diameter is about 4.5 meters. The reservoir is 30 meters deep.
According to archaeologists, it is “the largest carved in natural rock in Turkey.
“When it ran out of water, it was used to store food,” said Ismail Aytach.
The expert noted that there are many smaller tanks in the fortress, but only two large tanks with stairs.
In the Seljuk period, one of them was used as a dungeon where the Crusader king was kept.
