A Landsat Thematic Mapper image, WRS: 176/032, September 21, 1990, was obtained from the Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems Laboratory of the Mineral Research Exploration Institute (MTA) at Ankara. The image covers a 40 by 40 km block around Kerkenes. Preliminary processing, in this case high pass filtering to enhance edges, was done in 1995 by Hayati Koyunlu. In the Geology Department of Hacettepe University, Ankara a part of this image covering the Kerkenes Dag and its environs was draped over a digitised map. The result is a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). By exaggerating the vertical scale of the DEMs the relationship between the topology of the mountain and the line of the city wall is graphically demonstrated. The city walls on Kerkenes show clearly because of the reflective nature the broad line of stone rubble that marks its course. The bright blue feature at centre top is an opencast coal mine.

The processed Landsat thematic images also show the extent of the granitic batholyth that comprises the Kerkenes Dag, the alluvial fill of the Egriöz Su (the “Winding Stream”) to the north and the pattern of drainage from the Kerkenes Dag into the Egriöz Su valley). Agricultural land to the east and south-east of the Kerkenes Dag appears largely as browns.

This satellite thematic imagery will be used in combination with geomorphological survey and coring in the valley floor. Aims include assessment of the impact of the construction of the city on the landscape and alterations to the landscape since the destruction of the city.