Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "KORYKOS Ancient city TURKEY" .
KORYKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Corycus (Korukos: Eth. Korukios, Korukiotes). The name of a promontory
on the coast of Cilicia Tracheia. (Strab. p. 670.) Cape Corycus is now Korghoz,
plainly a corruption of the ancient name. After mentioning the Calycadnus, Strabo
- whose description proceeds from west to east - mentions a rock called Poecile;
then Anemurium, a promontory of the same name as the other; then the island Crambusa,
and the promontory Corycus, 20 stadia above which - that is, 20 stadia inland
- is the Corycian cave. Beaufort found it difficult to select a point which should
correspond to this Anemurium. North of the mouth of the Calycadnus he found two
decayed and uninhabited fortresses, called Korghos Kalaler (castles); the one
standing on the mainland, and connected with the ruins of an ancient town; and
the other covering the whole of a small island close to the shore. He thinks that
the little fortified island may be Strabo's Crambusa, and that Cape Corycus is
perhaps a small point of land towards which the ruins of the city extend. (Karamania,
p. 240, &c.) Leake supposes the island to be what Strabo calls the promontory;
and the castle on the shore to stand on the site of Corycus, a town which Strabo
has not noticed. But a town Corycus is mentioned by Livy (xxxiii. 20), and by
Pliny (v. 27), and Mela (i. 13), and Stephanus (s. v. Korukos).
The walls of the castle on the mainland contain many pieces of columns;
and a mole of great unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress about
a hundred yards across the bay. (Beaufort.) The walls of the ancient city may
still be traced, and there appear to be sufficient remains to invite a careful
examination of the spot. There are coins of Corycus.
In the Corycian cave, says Strabo, the best crocus (saffron) grows.
He describes this cave as a great hollow, of a circular form, surrounded by a
margin of rock, on all sides of a considerable height; on descending into this
cavity, the ground is found to be uneven and generally rocky, and it is filled
with shrubs, both evergreen and cultivated; in some parts the saffron is cultivated:
there is also a cave here which contains a large source, which pours forth a river
of pure, pellucid water, but it immediately sinks into the earth, and flowing
underground enters the sea: they call it the Bitter Water. Mela has a long description
of the same place apparently from the description of the same place, apparently
from the same authority that Strabo followed, but more embellished. This place
is probably on the top of the mountain above Corycus, but it does not appear to
have been examined by any modern traveller. If Mela saw the place himself, he
has more imagination than most geographers.
This place is famed in mythical story. It is the Cilician cave of
Pindar (Pyth. i. 31), and of Aeschylus (Prom. Vinct. 350), and the bed of the
giant Typhon or Typhoeus. (Mela, i. 13.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A small town of Cilicia Trachea, near the confines of Cilicia Campestris, on the sea-coast, and to the east of Seleucia Trachea. It appears to have been a fortress of great strength, and a mole of vast unhewn rocks is carried across the bay for about a hundred yards. It served at one time as the harbour of Seleucia, and was then a place of considerable importance. About twenty stadia inland was the Corycian cave (Korukion antron), celebrated in mythology as the fabled abode of the giant Typhoeus. In fact, many writers, as Strabo reports, placed Arima or Arimi, the scene of Typhoeus's torments, alluded to by Homer, in Cilicia, while others sought it in Lydia, and others in Campania.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city 3.5 km W of Elaeussa. First mentioned as taken by Antiochos
III from Ptolemaic control in 197 B.C., it minted autonomous coinage in the 1st
c. B.C. and shared the fate of Elaeussa under the Romans until ca. A.D. 72. It
was noted as a port in Roman times, and was extremely important in the Byzantine
and mediaeval periods. Taken by the Turks in 1448, it slowly declined in importance
as a port until the 19th c. when it was practically deserted. Its ancient name
was never lost.
The scanty remains are apparently confined to two small peninsulas
ca. 425 m apart and a narrow gentle slope inland from them. On the E peninsula
and inland are some undescribed remains of buildings. The W peninsula is filled
by a large Armenian castle and has a mole extending from it, protecting a small
harbor to the W. Incorporated in the SE wall of the castle is a well-preserved
single-arched Roman gateway, which led from the quay probably to a market, which
may lie under the castle. East of the castle about 100 m are the foundations of
two buildings, perhaps temples, with column fragments and wall blocks lying around.
A line of bases, perhaps from a colonnaded street or stoa, is oriented NW-SE,
about 100 m NE of the temples (?).
Inland from the city, along the ancient road from Elaeussa, and along
the steep slope a little way inland is the ancient necropolis, clusters of sarcophagi
and rockcut chambers, numerous inscriptions, and one conspicuous relief of a warrior
with sword and spear. One grave chamber constructed of polygonal masonry may be
Hellenistic or Roman; the rest of the necropolis is of the Roman and Christian
periods.
The Byzantine (?) city wall can be traced in an arc from the shore
1.25 km E of the castle to the slope 375 m NW of the castle. Just S of the modern
road to the E of the wall can be seen the ancient water course leading from Elaeussa
and Lamus. Inside the wall and out are a number of churches, some very well preserved,
of the 5th and 6th c., and one of the Armenian period. About 0.75 km S of the
mainland castle and close to shore is a small island (ancient Krambusa?) with
a wellpreserved Armenian castle of the 13th c., built perhaps over a Byzantine
predecessor.
About 3 km from the site on an ancient road to Kambazli are two watchtowers
and behind them a cluster of buildings within a wall of polygonal masonry, just
above the sheer wall of the Seytan Deresi (Verev D. or Karyagdi D.) gorge. The
towers and fort (?) may be part of a Hellenistic Olban defense system, or a retreat
for Korykians. Below the fort (?) are several rock-cut memorial reliefs of the
Roman period and an inscription probably of the 3d c. B.C.
Five km W of Korykos, 1 km inland, is the Korykian Cave, a natural
limestone pit, opening out as a cave. Above it is a Temple of Zeus, perhaps ainphiprostyle,
with a peribolos wall of elegant polygonal masonry. An inscription on the temple
gives a list of priests (?), the first name apparently of the late 3d or early
2d c. B.C. A myth concerning Zeus and Typhon was localized at the cave; the original
Hittite or Luvian myth and cult may have been placed here as early as the 2d millennium
B.C. In the mouth of the cave at the bottom is a wellpreserved chapel to the Virgin,
perhaps of the 4th c. Less than a kilometer N of the cave another Temple of Zeus
was reported.
T. S. Mackay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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