Kanlıdivane (Kanytellis, Neapolis)
The
reason why the local people call this antique city Kanlıdivane (Bloody Crazy)
may stem from the fact that during the Antiquity condemned people were thrown
into a hollow on the ground for wild animals to devour them. These are the
ruins of the antique Kanytellis-Neapolis city situated on the 15th
Kilometer of the Silifke road (45 kilometers from Mersin city center) near
Ayas. The ruins can be reached after driving for 3 kilometers, exiting from the
main road. Under the asphalt covering this road now, is an old Roman road
leading to the ruins.
This archeological site spreading around a natural hollow on the ground was discovered by Westerners in the mid 19th Century. This was the sacred site of a kingdom called Olba. Later in the history, in 408 A.D. Byzantine Emperor II. Theodosius resettled the city under the name Neapolis (New City). The city lived its most prosperous period in the 4th Century A.D. Now there is a small grocery shop and a coffee house that also serves snacks at the entrance of the ruins. But the phenomenon that attracts the attention is the huge hollow in the middle, caused by land collapsing because of some unknown reason. Around the hollow, there are basilica-shaped buildings made of hewn stones, rock graves, sarcophagi, bas-relief figures carved on the rocks, cisterns and streets. On the southwestern edge of the ruins there is a Hellenistic tower. The inscription on the western façade of the tower says that it was built by Teukros, the son of Tarkyaris, one of the priest-kings of Olba and dedicated to Zeus. At the middle of the edge where eastern and southern walls of the tower meet, there is a bas-relief of a triskelis, three-legs arranged in the form of a wheel, a figure that is also seen on the coins minted by the Kingdom of Olba.
Partly preserved basilicas are located around the hollow. Basilica number I is on the southwestern side of the hollow and its eastern façade is still standing. Its columns have Corinthian capitals. Basilicas Number II and III are located on the northwestern edge of the hollow. The arch and the entrance of the underground storage room are seen in front of the three-arched narthex. It opens to the courtyard in the west surrounded by the atrium, through three arches supported by two columns each. We understand from a row of stone brackets on top of the western wall of the basilica that there was a wooden second floor above the narthex that did not survive until the present day.
There are necropolises in three different places. On two sides of the main road in the south, grave chambers carved into the rocks are seen. The graves in the western necropolis are generally in the form of tombs carved from rocks. There are men and women’s figures in relief above the entrances of the tombs. Among these figures two men in battle uniform and a women reclining can be fully seen.
The monumental tomb that Queen Alba built for her husband and two sons at the highest point of the northern necropolis is perhaps the most interesting structure of the entire site. Entrance to the square-shaped tomb is through an arched gate. To the west of this monumental tomb there are sarcophagi.
Just
next to the necropolis there are grape presses carved into the rocks and
rectangular cisterns covered with barrel vaults.
There
are remnants of steps descending into the hollow, indicating that people used
go down there perhaps to perform some rituals.
There
are also gravestones left over from the Ottoman period in addition to Roman and
Byzantine tombs showing that human settlements continued to exist here for a
long time.