RUMKALE
Rumkale,which once used to serve as a border between two provinces Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep,located near the village of Kasaba, is perched on a steep bluff on the banks of Euphrates river where It intersects Merzimen stream in the immediate vicinity of Rumkale.Thus it’s accessible by boat from Kasaba and Halfeti.In the present day,It is a peninsula which is surrounded by an emerald reservoir on 3 sides
The architecture of Rumkale has such a characteristic in harmony with nature that when the German general Moltke visited the site in 1838 said that ‘It’s hard to tell apart where the rocks end and the man-made work starts’ (see below)
Moltke ‘It’s hard to tell apart where the rocks end and the man-made work starts’
Two different curtain walls constitute the fortress.The first one was formed as a natural rampart by carving the rocky outcrop vertically.The second one was made as a defensive wall by building hard limestone blocks on top of the natural rock mass
There are 7 rectangular bastions along the North and East curtain walls and numerous embrasures.(see below)
The rocky extension in the south part of the castle was shaped into a cliff by carving a width of 20metres and a depth of 30 metres in the 12.century.By doing so,the castle was disengaged from the its land extension for defensive purposes. The castle encloses an area of 120-meter in width and 200-Meter in length. (see below for the man-made cliff)
In the present day,It’s a peninsula surrounded by a reservoir on 3 sides
The bridge,only whose remains of abutments are present today,used to connect the land,where the entrance of the castle is accesible through a path
The four gates which were built in the form of tower by 20-meter intervals along the path on the West front provided great convenience in terms of defense.Beginning from the North,the first gate is rectangular on the west ramparts.
Theodor NÖLDEKE mentioned that there was a tomb and a pier by the first gate.The second gate is semi-circled rectangular The third gate has been destructed. The fourth one is a cross vault square gate .The fifth gate is in the East front of the castle that is facing the Euphrates.This rectangular gate is placed between two niches ,one with a round arch inside and another with a sharp point (for some gates see below)
Apart from the ramparts and bastions in the castle ,The Barshavma monastery,The church of St Nerses,cisterns and a water well as well can be named among the ruins that can be sighted today
The barshavma monastery
Located in the North part,inside the ramparts.The Saint Barshavma had this monastery built on his behalf in the 13th century.Some parts of the two adjacent structures remain standing to this day. A rock mass contitutes the northern facade.The square shaped structure was covered with cross vaults.Large cut stones on the walls ,smooth cut stones on the piers and the door ,brick-like cut stones in the arches and the covering,were used. There is also a water well nearby
The visible structures in the castle are believed to date between the 12th and 14th centuries.It is stated that the ditch is the oldest one of them
The Barshavma Monastery (see below)
The water well,stairs of which descend steeply into the reservoir below,is 8-meter in width and 75-meter in depth.(see below)
The well,which was built to ensure the supply of water from the river Euphrates,is also deemed to be a hidden passage .A spiral stairway was formed by carving the rock formation in the cylindirical inner surface of the well.
Besides these,Quite a few ruins of structures,whose functions haven’t been identified yet,are present in the castle .The majority of the structures in the castle were built by carving and smoothing the main rock outcrop.
Rubble stones as stacking, hewn stones as surfacing were utilized in the construction of the ramparts and bastions,as well as the hewn stones that are brick lookalike in the construction of the arches.
The church of St.NERSES
Located in the South part of Rumkale ,St. Nerses,who died in Rumkale had the sovereignty church built in 1173. Richard Peacock,who visited Rumkale in the 18th century, described this building as a small but beautiful church in “Gothic” style.
The church in the East-West direction has a rectangular form with three naves ansd three apses and there is a narthex in the West side.Only a part of the eastern front of the apse is above the ground.There are similarly-embossed stone tablets on the both sides of the silled-frame in the middle of the east facade. On the left tablet,below the embossment with cross and rumi ornaments,two lions are facing one another with their heads turned-back ,On the right tablet,there is an eagle relief between two palmettes with its head facing right and the wings spreaded.This church was used as a mosque in the Islamic period
Tools made of flint stones as well as the other remains unearthed along the Euphrates River prove that human beings had settled in and around Rumkale since the Paleotic period.Other than this period,in the Euphrates Valley. We observe the settlements dating between the Bronz and Chalcolithic Age.We unveil the initial findings regarding Rumkale and its surroundings in ancient sources with the ‘Şitamrat’ settlement which was captured by Shalmaneser III the king of Assyria.This settlement is believed to be the present Rumkale,and the area around Rumkale was also inhabited in theMedian,Persian,Hellenistic and Roman periods thanks to its strategic location.
That Johannes,who was one of the apostles of Jesus,settled in Rumkale in the Roman period and made copies of the bible in a room carved out of rock mass and took the copies to Beirut is narrated.
Rumkale was in a good position under the name of Hromgla in the 11th century. In 1113 Grigoris III purchased Rumkale from Joscelin’s widow wife and placed the jurisdictional authority of archbishopiric here. St Nerses held meetings in Rumkale with the imperial ambassadors,head patriarch from Kaysum and Yakubi due to the unification of the creeds. The patriarch of Yakubi II. Ignace had a church built for the large number of people in Rumkale In the 13th century and later on he declared the castle as patriarch authority
The Mamalukes,who besieged the castle in 1279,could not defend it.However,Mamluk Sultan El-Melik El-Esref besieged the castle again and conquerred it,Upon the order of Sultan, Rumkale,which was repaired by Syrian regent Sancar Suca,was named as Kal’at El Muslim and later as Kale-Zerrin Although Rumkale was used as a castle during Mamluks,It never regained its heyday again
Rumkale,which was captured by Ottomans in 1516,was then turned into a district under the Birecik banner of Aleppo province.In the 17th century the Turkish explorer and write Evliya Çelebi came here and described Rumkale as a well-preserved fortress with a mosque,inn,hamam,as well as a marketplace,and Katip Çelebi also emphasized the abundance of fruit and the gardens of this place
Rumkale is a natural and a man-made wonder that is surrounded by steep,rugged rocky hills with emerald-green reservoir on its 3 sides and inaccessible rocks on the remaining
FURKAN KERECİ
