In remote places of the planet, many ancient buildings of previous cultures and civilizations are hidden from view. These are hundreds of unknown Mayan cities in South America, palaces in the jungle of Cambodia, discovered from the air by laser scanning (lidar technology). And the unknown, hidden in the sands and partially destroyed pyramids in Egypt. This is part of the examples that were news stories about. There are very few photos and details about this.
For someone from amateurs to get to the ruins of something grandiose, to show interesting details - there are even fewer such examples. And in tourist places, mostly only beautiful views are filmed. And myself against their background.
I propose to see one interesting non-tourist site located north-west of tourist Antalya in Turkey. The place is called: Termessos Ruins (ruins of Termessos).
In the mountainous area there is an ancient ruined amphitheater with 4000 seats. And from the first photographs you can immediately ask the question: there were so many people living in the mountains that for meetings, spectacular performances it was necessary to build such a complex and huge structure? By the way, what did they do in these mountains? There are no fields here, terraces for farming are also not visible. History says that olives were grown.
Promotional video:
The location of the object.
Link to the map.
This is not a tourist destination with a mass visit. Usually, you can meet no more than 10 people here per season. Although from Antalya only 30 km.
View of the amphitheater from the side. Why this particular place was chosen for construction is not clear. I have the following assumption: there was an exit of plastic rock for construction. Yes, all the same geo-concrete. These megalithic blocks were molded from it as in Sacsayhuaman or Cuzco in Peru.
Of course, this place has an official history and legend. History says that at the time of Alexander the Great, up to 20 thousand inhabitants lived here. The thermos was never taken by this conqueror. The thermos is divided into several objects: the amphitheater, basilicas (water tanks), the tomb of Alketa and the necropolis. Where the city was itself is not specified. Remains of stone houses, streets should have remained. But there is not even a trace of them.
The object suggests that this is some kind of technical structure, like our radio telescopes in the mountains:
Radio telescope at Arecibo.
The world's largest radio telescope FAST in China today.
There is a version of the researcher Alexander Makhov that many megalithic structures are objects for space communication of the former highly developed civilization. A civilization that knew how to build such a thing should have had other technologies and capabilities.
But I like the version with a solar furnace for melting metals better:
Solar oven in Uzbekistan. There is a similar installation in France.
The geometry of the amphitheater is very suitable for this structure. Install mirrors, focus them depending on the position of the Sun above the horizon (dynamic focusing) and without fuel for furnaces you can melt any ore to get metals. But these are only alternative versions.
The arrangement of the steps of the amphitheater in a semicircle just speaks of such an opportunity to put and focus the mirrors. There are hundreds of such amphitheaters throughout the Mediterranean.
In this building, not only the amphitheater is made of huge blocks, but also a lot of things nearby:
High quality masonry. In my opinion, its quality is very close to polygonal masonry in Peru. The blocks were made not by mechanical treatment of the rock. And here's why I think so:
Please note: in this photo I have highlighted the protrusions, which in South America in polygonal masonry are called "bare feet", nipples. The mechanism of their appearance was separately analyzed in other articles. They belong to concrete technology. It turns out that the same technology of forming from geo-concrete was applied here. Overflows from the top of the blocks indicate that the top of the formwork was uneven, of poor quality, and the masses were falling out of the formwork.
Here masonry blocks also resemble polygonal ones in their quality and geometry - they are also inflated. Of course, ideally you need to go there and see everything with your own eyes. But for now, we will analyze the available photographs and make, albeit such superficial, observations.
1. A grandiose structure. Probably destroyed by earthquakes.
2. Two levels of masonry. Below - primitive, something was once restored
Remains of antique bas-reliefs. The same as in Rome.
Near the amphitheater is the so-called Odeon - the place where the city council allegedly met. In my opinion, it looks more like a huge hangar without windows. And it was a technical object.
Several underground cisterns, basil. I wonder how they were filled with water? Or was the source once near? And if there were no springs or rivers, then where was water taken for thousands of residents (according to official history) of this city? It does not rain regularly. And rainwater needs to be collected somehow.
Where the necropolis is located, you can see stone sarcophagi. The Roman style can be traced in them. The tombs are carved into the rocks.
If this was one of the cities of the Roman Empire, then why would the Romans climb so high into the mountains? And to build such a complex and large-scale facility in a hard-to-reach place? Is this a fortress? Not! Why was it impossible to build something like this out of the blue in the valley?
On the way to the top, there are many different ruins of something even larger. But these are not residents' houses either. What is this masonry for? This arrangement of megalithic masonry raises questions even more. And the main one, as I said above: who and why once needed to build such a complex structure in the mountains? In general, the place is extremely interesting. If someone is going to rest in Turkey, be sure to visit.
Author: sibved