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Three Cilician Castles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

G. R. Youngs
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Extract

The 1962 Cambridge Expedition to South-East Turkey spent five weeks in Cilicia studying the castles of Tumlu, Gökvelioğlu, and Yılan. No member of the expedition had any previous experience of this work and this report is therefore confined to facts: descriptions, measurements, plans and photographs. It is hoped that this material may help others, more experienced than ourselves, to make wider generalisations and perhaps to write the architectural history of the buildings.

The castles probably date from the period of the Armenian occupation of Cilicia (1080–1375) during which time numerous castles were constructed and existing Byzantine foundations were strengthened. The castles were frequently built upon precipitous mountain sites and conformed with the sinuosities of the rock, thus making the best of the natural strength of the site. The kingdom of Lesser Armenia was centred chiefly on the Cilician plain and surrounding mountains (Fig. 1).

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 15 , December 1965 , pp. 113 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1965

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References

1 Fedden, R. and Thomson, J., Crusader Castles (1957), p. 22, 35, 37, 96, 101Google Scholar.

2 Barker, W. B., Lares and Penates (1853), p. 265Google Scholar.

3 Langlois, Victor, Voyage dans la Cilicie (1861), p. 136Google Scholar.

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5 Setton, K. M. (Ed.), A History of the Crusades, Vol. II (1962), p. 639Google Scholar and Gazetteer.

6 R. Fedden and J. Thomson, op. cit., p. 101; 12, 36.

7 R. Fedden and J. Thomson, op. cit., p. 37.

8 The floor slopes down toward the west.

9 The two rooms constitute a barbican.

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11 Seton-Williams, M. V., “Cilician Survey,” AS., Vol. IV, 1954, p. 173, 121Google Scholar.

12 R. Fedden and J. Thomson, op. cit., p. 12.

13 V. Langlois, op. cit., p. 468.

14 op. cit., Vol. I, Index and Preface, etc.

15 op. cit., p. 36.

16 Plate XXIIa, on the right.

17 Gough, M., “Anazarbus,” AS., Vol. II, 1952Google Scholar.

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19 ibid., p. 178, 183.