HISTORICAL PLACES OF TARSUS

History of Tarsus and its walls

Tarsus, located in the region known as Cilicia Pedias in Antiquity (modern south-central Turkey), was an important city during both the ancient and the medieval eras. It was the capital of Roman province of Cilicia. In 41 BC, Mark Antony during his struggle against Octavian, allied himself with Cleopatra VII in Tarsus.

Tarsus was enclosed by a pair of concentric defense walls . According to 17th century-Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi, there were three gates; a mountain gate to Toros Mountains in the north, a port gate to theMediterranean coastline in the south and the Adana Gate to the neighbouring city of Adana in the east. In 1835, the walls were demolished by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, following the Egyptian–Ottoman War of 1831–1833 Only the port gate survived up to the present time, albeit because of alluvial deposits from the riversBerdan and Seyhan, the coastline is currently 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south of the port gate.

Cleopatra's Gate

Cleopatra entered Tarsus via the port gate The history of the gate after Cleopatra is not documented, but by analyzing the building stones and the cement, it is usually believed that the original gate was rebuilt during the Middle Ages, either by the Byzantine Empire or by the Abbasids. The popular name of the gate wasKancık Kapı (feminine gate) during the late Ottoman period. However from the early 20th century, the nameCleopatra kapısı ("Cleopatra's Gate") replaced the former name.

The outer height of the gate is 8.53 metres (28.0 ft) and the inner height is 6.17 metres (20.2 ft). The length of the passage is 6.48 metres (21.3 ft)  The mortar used in the original gate was khorosan mortar. The gate was used on the street up to 30 years ago, when it was put under restoration, which resulted in the partial loss of its original appearance.

Mythology (Shahmaran)

Form and function

The Shahmaran is often depicted as a wise and benign woman, having female features above the waist and those of a serpent below. She is held to be queen of the snakes. When the Shahmaran dies, it is said that her spirit will pass to her daughter. The legend is as follows: Once there existed a woman, "Shahmaran", who loved a man named "Tasmasp. He was in love with her and would listen to her stories, but when she had no more to tell he went back to his country, taking Shahmaran with him. . When Tasmasp came back to his land, the king there became very ill and one of the king's helpers told him that the only way to get better was to eat Shahmaran. They took people, one by one, into the hamam to see if snake scales would come up, and when Tasmsp went, he was forced to tell where Shahmaran was hiding. When they found her, she said, "Whomsoever takes a bite from my snake scales will gain the secrets of the world, but whomever takes a bite of my head will die instantly." Tasmasp took a bite of the head and the evil helper took a bite of the scales, but the helper died, and Tasmasp was not affected at all. Shahmaran had helped her lover while simutaneously killing her enemy. 

In Turkey, Shahmaran is believed to live in the Mediterranean town of Tarsus. A similar legend is told in the Mardin region. In this region she is depicted with famous Shahmaran pictures.

Legend

Thousands of years ago, there were snakes living in the underground. Their names in Persian are maran and they were all wise and caring. They lived in peace. The queen of marans is called Shahmaran. She is a young and beautiful lady. According to legend, Cemshab is the first human being to have seen them. He sells wood for a living. One day he and his friend explored a cave with full of honey; but his friends are badly persons so they leave him in cave so they can take more honey. After Cemshab see a hole in cave there is light. He enlarged it he encounter a garden that is magnificent. He enters the garden. There are flowers and snakes. One of them is coloured milk-white, and is the most beautiful. He gain her trust, he live for long years there. After years he insisted to go for seeing his family. So Shahmaran let him go providing that he won't tell anyone where she is. He keep his word for long time. But one day sultan of land get sick, vizier says that only cure is eating meat of Shahmaran and Cemshab shows the way. She says to şehmab "make me boil in earthenware dish.let the sultan eat my meat and make vizier drink my boiled water". When it happens vizier died, sultan keep living. Cemshab become vizier. According to legend snakes don't know Shahmaran is dead. One day snakes will occupy Tarsus when they learn it.

Tarsus and the churches

Tarsus, in the Cilicia of the antiquity, in what is now southern Turkey, was an important city during both ancient and medieval ages. The tombs of Daniel of the Bible, and thecaliph Al-Ma'mun (786-833), are both in Tarsus. Saint Paul was a resident of Tarsus. He was born and lived in Tarsus as a Jew named Saul and after converting, made a number of missionary journeys during which he was arrested and beheaded by emperor Nero of Roman Empire in AD 64 or 67 on the 29th of June. After Saint Paul's death, Tarsus continued as an important city of the area. It became a part of the Byzantine Empire, the Abbasid Empire, the Seljuk Empire, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, the Ramadanidsand the Ottoman Empire.

It is not known if there were any churches established by Paul in Tarsus. But in 1704 P. Lucas wrote that there was Roman style church which had been built by Saint Paul. V. Langlois who visited Tarsus in 1851 confirmed this. In his words, thick walls which resemble Roman style, windows which are narrower in outer side than inside, and thick columns are noticeable. But no other records exist to substantiate this claim.

Medieval Mersin's most important Christian sanctuary was the Armenian cathedral of Hagia Sophia, in which Leon I of Rubenid house was crowned by Konrad Von Wittelsbach, the Archbishop of Mainz and the representative of Pope, as the king of Cilician Kingdom of Armenia in 1198.

Saint Paul Church

According to tradition the building date of the Saint Paul Church is 1102, but the present structure, a domeless basilica, was built (or rebuilt) much later, in 1862.The entrance to its grounds is via an ornate gateway. The total area of the church building is 460 m². The longer dimension of the building consists of face stone walls and blind vaults. The interior measures 19.30 m × 17.50 m (63.3 ft × 57.4 ft). In the north east corner stands an elevated belfry. The sides of the central nave window had been decorated by angels and landscape depictions. On the ceiling there are frescos of Jesus in the middle, and Mathew, Mark, Luke and John at the two sides.

Ottoman minelayer Nusret

Nusret (Eng. 'the help of God') was a naval ship of the Ottoman Navy, which served as a minelayer during the Gallipoli Campaign, and later fulfilled various roles in the Turkish Navy; as minelayer (1927–1937), diver vessel (1937–1939) andtender (1939–1955). She was laid down in 1911 and launched from Schiff & Maschinenbau AG 'Germania' at Kiel, Germanyon 4 December of that year.

Service history

Nusret was commissioned into the Ottoman Navy in 1913, captained by Lieutenant Tophaneli Hakki (Güverte Kıdemli Yüzbaşı Tophaneli İbrahim oğlu Hakkı) under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Geehl. Nusret played a pivotal role in the Dardanelles Campaign, laying 26 mines in an unexpected position in February 1915 just prior to the ill-fated invasion which sank HMS Irresistible, HMS Ocean and the French battleship Bouvet, and left the British battle cruiser HMS Inflexiblebadly damaged.

After World War I Nusret was laid up in Istanbul until 1926/7 when she was refitted at Gölcük. In 1937 she became the diving vessel Yardin and in 1939 reverted to Nusret as a tender. In 1955 she was decommissioned and again laid up, with the intention to convert her to a museum ship. However, in 1962 she was sold to commercial buyers who had her converted to a cargo motorship, unrecognisable as the former minelayer, entering service as Kaptan Nusret in 1966. In April 1989 she sank near Mersin Harbour, and lay submerged for 10 years.

Wreck discovery

In 2002 the wreck of Nusret was acquired by the Municipality of Tarsus, Mersin Province for reconstruction ashore as amuseum ship, opened in about 2008.

A replica Nusret has been built by the Gölcük Naval Shipyard to be displayed in Çanakkale by the shore of the Narrows of theDardanelles along with the types of mines that it laid in World War I. In March 2011 this Nusret was commissioned into the Turkish Navy as the museum ship N-16.