25.ULUSLARARASI ORTAÇAĞ VE TÜRK DÖNEMİ KAZILARI VE SANAT TARİHİ ARAŞTIRMALARI
AN EVALUATION ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF ISPARTA CISTERNS IN CISTERN STRUCTURES IN WESTERN ANATOLIA
Yayıncı:
Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi Yayınları
Water is one of the most important elements of life not only for human beings but also for all living things. Throughout history, people have built their settlements around water or have stayed around water. When the ancient cities are examined, it can be seen that almost all of them had at least one cistern, and in some ancient cities many cisterns were built. Again, regarding the importance of water, the belief in “Yersu” in Turkish culture in the pre-Islamic period in Central Asia can be remembered. In the religion of Islam, the subject of “water” is included in some verses and it is emphasized in the hadiths that water is important and a reason for doing good. For this reason, it is understood that a large number of water structures were built, especially from the fact that verses and hadiths were written on the fountains. The fact that cisterns were built in city centers and even on roads at certain distances during the TurkishIslamic period in Anatolia can be considered as an indicator of this. When the locations of these cisterns are examined, it can be easily said that they were built in order to meet the water needs in places where water is scarce. Cisterns can be built to meet the water needs of people, as well as to irrigate animals and plants. In the researches and publications made to date, it is seen that the cistern structures belonging to the Turkish-İslamic period have been classified in various ways. Among them; Some criteria such as the ones carved into the rock, the number of floors, the condition of the reservoir sections according to the soil level, the top cover systems, locations, were taken as a general basis. Today, there are many studies and publications on cistern architecture, and it is not overlooked that most of these studies and publications are based on the province or region. Considering the results of some researches carried out in the Western Anatolia Region, it is understood that there are cisterns in large quantities and with various features, and those built in some forms and plans on the basis of provinces come to the fore numerically. On the other hand, the existence of different types of cisterns in the same provinces draws attention. In this study, the architecture of the cisterns examined in the province of Isparta is explained, taking into account the classifications of previous researchers; The structures were classified according to criteria such as firstly the plan and then the top cover units. As a result, some inferences were made about the architecture of the cisterns identified in the region by making comparisons with the cisterns belonging to the TurkishIslamic period that have survived to the present day in the Western Anatolian Region.