25.ULUSLARARASI ORTAÇAĞ VE TÜRK DÖNEMİ KAZILARI VE SANAT TARİHİ ARAŞTIRMALARI
GEVALE CASTLE CISTERN ARCHITECTURE
Yayıncı:
Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi Yayınları
Gevale Castle, located within the borders of Saray Mahallesi, Selçuklu District of Konya, is located 10 km west of Konya city center, on the summit of the 1675 m high mountain. Gevale Castle, whose history goes back to the Hellenistic period, was one of the two castles on the summit of the volcanic mountains that played a key role in the defense of the city of Konya. Its reconstruction was largely completed in the Byzantine period and it was renovated during the Anatolian Seljuk period and important structures such as palaces and shikarhane were built inside the castle. On the one hand, it consisted of a place of entertainment and hunting for the sultans and on the other hand, a building where political prisoners were kept. As a result of the excavations that started between 2013-2020, in addition to small finds, architectural spaces, rock-carved spaces and tombs, baths and many cisterns were identified, as well as small finds. They are open or closed water tanks, the walls of which are plastered with Horosan mortar or cement to collect and accumulate the water obtained from rain, snow or underground sources, generally built under the ground to collect rain water. The word cistern comes from the Arabic word şahrınc (sıhrıc-plural sahâric), meaning “small pool”. The known example of cisterns in Anatolia was unearthed in the Karataş-Semayük excavations dated to the III millennium BC. The cisterns, which were seen in Anatolia in the pre- and post-Turkish period, were built to meet the water needs of the people, as well as to relieve the water shortage during the occupation of the castle or the city. In this context, it has been determined that many cisterns and water wells were built in the excavations and researches carried out in and around Konya. In this paper, the cisterns unearthed as a result of excavations in Gevale Castle since 2013 will be evaluated in terms of plan, architecture, construction technique and material properties, and information will be given about their place and importance in Turkish water architecture.
