Eurymedon Bridge: A Roman Road Bridge and Seljuq Replacement in Turkey
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval
- Civilizations
- Roman, Seljuk
- Site type
- Infrastructure
- Remains
- Bridge
On this page9 sections
History
The Eurymedon Bridge in Turkey was a late Roman road bridge over the Eurymedon River, now called the Köprüçay, near ancient Aspendos in Pamphylia, an ancient region on the Mediterranean coast of southern Anatolia. Its construction belongs to the late Roman period and cannot have begun before the fourth century, because its outer masonry reused about 250 pipe-shaped stones from the Aspendos aqueduct, which remained in service into that century.
Late Roman construction and destruction
An earlier Roman bridge may have occupied the same crossing. The late antique structure may have been destroyed in the large earthquake of AD 363, an event that also damaged the Aspendos aqueduct. The use of aqueduct stones that had become available after its failure may therefore be connected with a later rebuilding of the crossing. The Roman bridge eventually collapsed, probably because of another earthquake.
Seljuq rebuilding
In the early thirteenth century, Sultan Kayqubad I of the Seljuq dynasty, a medieval Turkic ruling house whose Anatolian sultanate controlled much of central and southern Anatolia, built a replacement bridge over the Roman remains. The builders followed the ancient alignment and incorporated surviving Roman fabric, including sections apparently displaced downstream by the river. The present bridge is officially known as Köprüpazar Köprüsü. Its route retains the line of the ancient piers but makes a conspicuous zigzag, while its pointed arches distinguish it visually from the Roman predecessor.
The Roman bridge’s form and alignment have been reconstructed digitally from surviving approach ramps, both river-bank abutments, and a pier foundation. Other fragments found in the riverbed and along the banks were not used because they had been moved from their original positions. In the late 1990s, the Seljuq parapet was restored after becoming structurally unsound. Stones carrying older Greek and Arabic inscriptions were reused in that work, and some had already been incorporated into the earlier parapet as spolia, architectural material taken from an older building and reused.
Remains
The surviving evidence represents two bridges occupying the same river crossing. The Roman structure was a broad, largely straight bridge with semicircular arches, level passage over the river, substantial ramps, and masonry designed to protect its piers from the current. The later Seljuq bridge is narrower, lower, and built with pointed arches, following the ancient remains through two sharp bends.
Roman bridge structure
Layout and arches
The reconstructed Roman bridge measured about 259.50 metres in length and 9.44 metres in width. It crossed the river at approximately a right angle, although the straight roadway made a slight bend near the right bank, shortly before reaching the ramp. Six arches occupied the level central portion, while three smaller openings in the approach areas allowed floodwater to pass. One of these relief passages had a clear width of 5.11 metres.
The two approach ramps rose at gradients of about 12.3 percent on the left bank and 12.2 percent on the right. Because the inclines ended within the bank areas, the bridge itself crossed the river on a level line. Its central roadway stood approximately 4.1 metres higher than that of the Seljuq replacement.
Piers and river protection
At ordinary water level, the river passed beneath the three largest central arches. The central arch had a clear span of 23.52 metres, and the two adjoining barrel-vaulted arches, continuous tunnel-like vaults formed by extending an arch along an axis, each spanned 14.95 metres. The two piers carrying the central arch were each about 9.60 metres thick.
Double-wedge-shaped masonry reinforcements at the outer central piers narrowed the channel and helped protect the foundations from undermining. The surviving river-bank walls extended approximately 8.15 metres upstream and 4.76 metres downstream. Pointed breakwaters also stood on the upstream and downstream sides of some piers, although this arrangement was not repeated at every support.
Construction materials
The main body of the Roman bridge consisted of Roman concrete, a concrete building material used in Roman construction. This material survives as foundation fabric in at least one Seljuq pier. Openings in the exposed body of the right-hand ramp reveal a hollow-chamber construction system used in several Roman bridges in Asia Minor. Iron tension anchors about 1.5 metres long, connected by hooks and loops, strengthened the lower ashlar courses of the foundations.
About 250 pipe-shaped stones from the pressure conduit of the Aspendos aqueduct were incorporated into the Roman bridge’s outer masonry. Their reuse connects the bridge’s construction with the aqueduct’s disuse and provides the lower chronological limit for the Roman structure.
Seljuq bridge
The Seljuq replacement was built mainly from cut stone and reused as much of the Roman structure as possible. Its width was reduced to roughly half that of the earlier bridge, allowing even partially preserved Roman pier foundations to support the new construction. The Seljuq arches were about 4.1 metres lower than the Roman arches, and the shortened bridge began its new ramp where the Roman roadway had already reached level ground.
The later bridge follows the ancient remains through two successive sharp bends, creating its characteristic zigzag plan. Pointed arches are used throughout, in contrast to the Roman bridge’s semicircular openings. Aqueduct pipe stones were reused for a third time in the Seljuq ramp, continuing the sequence of construction and reuse visible at the crossing.
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