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Geoffrey & Françoise
Summers |
The most impressive of the monuments inside the city is the huge complex on the high part of the south-west sector. The imposing entrance, if that is indeed what it is, faces towards the "Cappadocia Gate" and is flanked by two huge towers or buttresses with skins of well fitted, uncut, sloping stone in the same manner as the glacis that encases the city defences. Late construction of tumuli and shepherds shelters on the ruins obscures much of the plan. Interpretation of this complex as a palace rests on the following precepts: it occupies the most desirable position, commanding a fine view, close to and perhaps originally embracing a spring; its unprecedented size, the imposing aspect of the entrance and the obvious contrast with the monument at Karabaş. The complex, if indeed it is all one, measures some 200 by 50 m. A small test trench, designed to help interpretation of a geomagnetic plan, revealed part of a substantial building destroyed by an intense fire. Further elucidation of this impressive complex is planed for future seasons.
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