DOCUMENTATION FOR PRESERVATION OF THE FERHAT WATER CANAL IN AMASYA
Journal Name:
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi
Keywords (Original Language):
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Abstract (2. Language):
The Ferhat Water Canal was built in the Late Hellenistic - Early Roman
Period, with the objective of meeting the water needs of the town of
Amasya, by boring into the rock and building stone-vaulted canals that run
across the riverbeds (1). H. Hüsâmeddîn mentions about the origin:
It is an 18km long canal that starts in front of the ‘Şahin’ Rock located at
a distance of about 15km to the south of Amasya, which passes the front
of ‘Ferhat Arası’ and ‘Memi Dede’, winding around the ‘Gökmedrese’,
‘Şâmîce’, ‘Receb’, ‘Çeribaşı’, ‘Acem Ali’, ‘Uzun Mustafa’, ‘Gümüşlü-zâde’,
‘Mehmet Paşa’ and ‘Sevâdiye’ districts and reaches a hole of square crosssection,
4 meters at sides at ‘Kibrithane’, which is in the ‘Bayezid Paşa’
district. (Hüsâmeddîn, 1911-12, 36-37).
The major part of the 6 km section of this canal, which runs from the
‘Helvacı’ District (the Prison Point) at the west of the town to the ‘Bayezid
Paşa’ district’s old industrial zone ‘Kibrithâne’ on the east, runs as a
tunnel under the present city settlements. The portion of the canal which
is around 675 meters in length, runs around a curve at the ‘Ferhatarası’
point, located at the eastern foot of the ‘Ferhat’ Mountain, lying above
the ground. This open part of the canal was registered as “a monument
and an immoveable cultural artefact” (T.R. Ministry of Culture the High
Committee for Ancient Real Estate and Monuments, 1975; T.R. Ministry of
Culture Ankara Commission for the Conservation of Natural and Cultural
Entities, 1988) (Figure 1, 9). However, the monument was not the object of
any analytic investigation since its registration in 1975 and no study was
carried out for its preservation until 1997. The Amasya City Governor, the
Amasya Mayor and the Amasya Museum Director in 1997, all aware of
their responsibility of preserving cultural heritage of the city, initiated the
studies for the preservation of the over ground and registered section of
the canal and assigned this task to the Gazi University faculty members
Işık Aksulu and Gediz Urak, to obtain the ‘Amasya Ferhat Water Canal
Preservation Proposals and the Environmental Reorganization Project’ (Aksulu and Urak, 1998) (2). This project was realized for the 675m long
registered portion of the canal that is located in the Central Amasya
‘Helvacı’ District’s ‘Ferhatarası’ region, which runs parallel to the Amasya -
Tokat highway, and is the most suitable part for the canal preservation and
for reorganization purposes.
The initial analyses were carried out prior to the start of the project, to
identify the canal’s inherent potentials; a problem defining outline and a
field-research project was developed in order to preserve all the potentials,
proposing solutions for possible problems. In this context, the below
mentioned potentials and problems of the Ferhat Water Canal and its
location were determined as below:
• The over ground and registered portion of the Ferhat Water
Canal, which is the scope of this project, has an important location
recognized as the entry of the Town of Amasya from the Tokat
direction.
• The large piece of land between the canal and the road may provide
convenient recreational space for the Town of Amasya, which is
topographically restricted between two mountains and the river of
Yeşilırmak, offering a linear urban settlement.
• The area is easy to reach, because of its proximity to the town.
• The study area poses a rare cultural entity, as an object of the World
Cultural Heritage, that documents the urban history, the historic
waterway planning, the old technology and the materials employed,
and even, the environment approached as an object of aesthetics
during the Late Hellenistic and the Early Roman periods.
• There is a local plant cover, or the specific flora.
• The preservation of the canal could help develop the cultural and
preservation consciousness of the townspeople and its future
generations, once they are acquainted with their cultural heritage.
• The preservation of the canal environment and opening it to publicuse
could contribute the increase of potential in urban touristic
development.
The above defined as the inherent potentials, where the below constituted
the possible problems:
• Currently, the area between the canal and the road that are occupied
by functions incompatible with preservation and the historic site.
These are a quick-lime plant, an auto service station, a tile and brick
storage yard, and a sand-sieving plant and their office buildings with
storage facilities, which are visually and functionally disturbing.
• Parts of the Ferhat Water Canal is covered with debris, parts of it
over ground but filled with loose materials, cracked, caved, and even
plant covered at places.
• There are cracks inside the rocks at the canal’s hill slopes, which
pose a threat to human safety.
• The canal does not have a linear axis, but a curving shape in plan,
posing problems in defining the method of measurement.
As the canal and its environment posed multi-faceted potentials and
problems, a need for an interdisciplianary team study arose, starting
with the architectural survey, to be adopted in the selection of techniques
for detailed procedures of documentation, laboratory analyses, damage
assessment, geological and rock mechanics analyses, for the identification
and preservation of the material properties (chemical, visual and technical
analyses of the materials) and the botanical analyses. This realized, the
cleaning of certain portions of the canal that were filled with stones and
earth at places followed, and excavations were conducted at places where
the canal was totally filled with debris. Findings from these surface studies
were used in developing the proposal for the preservation of the canal, as
well as the stages of intervention.
In this context, the project proposal comprising the documentation to
implementation stages was prepared with a report and drawings at
1/50, 1/200, 1/500 and 1/10 scales, in accordance with the international
rules and techniques, regarding the specific conditions presented by the
structure. The field work and the reports were completed from June 1997 to
June 1998.
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Abstract (Original Language):
Ferhat Su Kanalı, Amasya kentinin su gereksinimini karşılamak üzere
Geç Helenistik - Erken Roma dönemleri arasında bir tarihte, kayaların
oyulması, dere yataklarında ise taş tonozların inşası ile yapılmıştır.
Onsekiz km uzunluğunda bir su yolu olan kanalın, bugün 6 km’si şehir
yerleşiminin altında kalmıştır. Kentin Batı yönü girişinde bulunan
Ferhatarası Mevkii’nde, Amasya - Tokat karayolunun kenarında
kıvrımlar çizerek şehre doğru uzanan 675 m’lik kısım yer üstündedir
ve tescil edilerek koruma altına alınmış bir taşınmaz kültür varlığıdır.
Kanalın bu kısmında, Amasya Valiliği, Amasya Belediyesi, Amasya
Müzesi ile Gazi Üniversitesi’nin işbirliği ile Amasya “Ferhat Su Kanalı
Koruma Önerileri ve Çevre Düzenleme Projesi” gerçekleştirilmiştir.
Makalede, bu antik su yolu için belgeleme, sorunların saptanması, koruma
önerileri ve çevre düzenlemesini içeren bir uygulama projesinin yöntemi
aktarılmıştır. Proje, planlama, çalışma grupları ile belgeleme, rölövenin
elde edilmesi, hasar tespiti, jeolojik etüd, kaya mekaniği / stabilizasyon
projelerinin hazırlanması, kazı çalışmaları, elde edilen analiz sonuçlarının
değerlendirilmesi, sentez süreci, koruma önerileri ve çevre düzenleme
projesinin hazırlanması aşamalarını içermiştir. Yapılan çalışma, benzer
sorunları barındıran kültür varlıkları için yol gösterici bir yöntem
uygulaması olması nedeniyle önem taşımaktadır. Bu projenin hayata
geçirilmesi ile, Geç Helenistik - Erken Roma dönemi su yolu planlaması,
tekniği ve malzeme kullanımı özelliklerini sergilemesi açısından dünya
kültürel mirası içinde enderlik değeri olan bir kültür varlığı gelecek
kuşaklara aktarılarak önemli bir kültürel hizmet yerine getirilmiş olacak;
sıkışık kent düzeni olan Amasya’nın Tokat yönü çıkışında dinlence ve
sosyal etkinlik işlevleri için karşılanacak alanlarla ferahlık yaratılarak,
kentin ve kentlinin nefes alması sağlanacaktır.
FULL TEXT (PDF):
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