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<< Our Photo Pages >> Ortatastepe - Ancient Temple in Turkey

Submitted by davidmorgan on Friday, 06 July 2012  Page Views: 2457

Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: Ortatastepe
Country: Turkey
NOTE: This site is 11.366 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Keşan  Nearest Village: Koyuntepe
Latitude: 40.771767N  Longitude: 26.330359E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3
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Ortatastepe
Ortatastepe submitted by davidmorgan : View of Ortatastepe from a distance. Photo by Engin Beksac. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Temple in Edirne Province, Turkey

An Ancient Sun Temple in The Eastern Thrace.

Ortatastepe (The Middle Stone Hill) is a most interesting archaeological site, near the Village of Koyuntepe, in the Region of Ipsala, in the province of Edirne, and not far from the borderline of Turkey and Greece. The native people call it as Horatepe. It has identified by Prof. Dr. Engin Beksac, University of Thrace, and Mr. Hasan Karakaya, the Director of the Museum of Edirne, as a rock sanctuary, in the month of July of the year 2008 at first.

And after the first identification, it was studied by Prof. Dr. Engin Beksac, more specifically, in that year. According to all the available data, it is possible to declare it, as a cultic monument in which contains the archaeo-astronomical functions. And of course, a sacred place of great importance.

All the data gathered from the field, showed that it was an important place of worship from the Early Bronze Age (and even more, the Chalcolithic) to the Roman Period. And also, it is possible to identify a relationship to the ancient practice of Haruspex and Augury, in the middle of the specialities of its own landscape.

Ortatastepe is a high rocky hill among the swamps and the land. On the field that is on the highest rocks of the hillsides, there are many sherds all of which are fragments of the potteries created by the prehistoric and protohistoric and historic peoples of the Thrace. The sherds show some specialities, affiliated to the cultic aims and uses.

All the astronomical and geographical data, together with the archaeological ones, show that Ortatastepe was an ancient shrine, dedicated to solar worship at the first place, and then, the different cults, related to the different Stars and the Sky (which have been focused on the horizon of the South ). A tiny votive bronze figurine of Helios or Helios Apollon, found by the illegal diggers, on the highest level of Ortatastepe, is an important proof for the Cult of the Sun. The figurine is currently, on the exhibition of the Museum of Edirne. And the pose of the figurine shows an affinity to a horse (and / or a wagon) that does not currently exist, for the present. Ortatastepe might be also, perceived by the earlier peoples, as an omphalos (similar to the other rock-cut sanctuaries) and a Temple of Sun, between the land and the wetlands, and also, the sky and the underworld, along with the calendrical functions, as well.

Author: Engin Beksac.
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Ortatastepe
Ortatastepe submitted by davidmorgan : A Thracian figurine found at Ortatastepe. Photo by Engin Beksac. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ortatastepe
Ortatastepe submitted by davidmorgan : Another view of Ortatastepe. Photo by Engin Beksac. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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"Ortatastepe" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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Re: Ortatastepe by davidmorgan on Friday, 06 July 2012
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Comment from Engin Beksac:

Ortatastepe is regrettably going to destroy. The stone mining activities realized by DSI ( The Governmental Organization Of Water Management ) are going to destroy and demolish it and all her landscape. It was possible for us to create a limited protection area. However it is so limited to protect all the monument and her lanscape. It is necessary to create the larger area of protection urgently. The responsibles of DSI would not like to stop all their activities there. We try to stop them. We try to save it and her landscape. It is actually, an important monument to call the World Heritage of The Humanity.
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