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The Castle of Vahga

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. G. Dunbar  and
W. W. M. Boal
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Extract

The castle of Feke, formerly known as Vahga, stands at a height of 1,250 m., less than 10 km. NE. of the modern town of the same name, and about 60 km. NNE. of Kozan. The site is a prominent rock outcrop overlooking the right-hand bank of a principal tributary of the River Seyhan, the Gök Su, whose valley here carries one of the lesser passes of the Anti-Taurus range southwards into Cilicia.

The castle played an important part in the establishment of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. The fortress appears to have been among the first to fall into Armenian hands, Constantine, son of Roupen, capturing the castle from its Byzantine garrison by a stratagem during the last decade of the 11th century, at a time when the Armenian princes were consolidating their positions in the mountain passes of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus preparatory to their descent upon the Cilician plain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 14 , December 1964 , pp. 175 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1964

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References

1 Except where otherwise stated, the following historical summary is based upon references to Vahga contained in the two volumes of Documents Arméniens (1869 and 1906) in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades. The wider political background is conveniently outlined in Runciman, Steven, A History of the Crusades (1951–1954Google Scholar) and Sirarpie Der Nersessian, The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia (Setton, K. M., A History of the Crusades, II (1962), 630 ff.Google Scholar).

2 The account of the siege given in Choniates, Nicetas, Historia, cap. 6, p. 29 ffGoogle Scholar. (in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae XIV), accords well with the topography of the site.

3 Chamich, M., History of Armenia, translated by Avdall, J. (1827), II, 321Google Scholar.

4 Schaffer, F. X., “CILICIA,” 91Google Scholar, in Petermann, A., Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes' Geographischer Anstalt, Ergänzungsbad XXX, No. 141 (1903Google Scholar).

5 Russeger, J., Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika —— (1841–1847), I, 544Google Scholar; Récit de la Première Croisade extrait de la Chronique de Matthieu d'Edesse, ed. Dulaurier, E., 166 ff.Google Scholar, in Mémoires de la Société Archéologique du Midi de la France, VI (1847–1852)Google Scholar; Langlois, V., Voyage dans la Cilicie (1861), 407 ffGoogle Scholar. Alishan, P. L. M., Sissouan ou l'Arméno-Cilicie (1899), 172 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 V. Langlois, op. cit., 443.

7 Leo is said to have adopted the device of a lion rampant as the royal emblem at his coronation, this device being retained by his successors (M. Chamich, op. cit., II, 215).