Titiopolis

In the maps showing the ancient places in Western Cilicia, prepared by George Evart Bean and Terence Bruce Mitford as a result of their studies in Cilicia between 1964-1968, they marked the location of present-day Kalınören Köyü as TIİTİOPOLİS. The ruins contain remains covering the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. Titiopolis was in a position as a site not connected to Anemurium in ancient times. Structures such as the bouleuterion, nymphaeum, odeon and theater, which are not visible today in the ancient city, have most probably remained under the village settlement. The city walls regularly surrounding the city were made of roughly cut large and small polygonal stones. At the village entrance, on the left, the twisted column of hard gray stone within the gardens must belong to a very important structure. It is not even understood what the functions of the mosaic-floored spaces within the gardens were.

As one climbs toward the hills, the first structure encountered, the bath building, should most probably be a gymnasium building. To the west of the bath is a three-aisled basilica with a distinct narthex. The structure has synthronon steps. On the right and left of the apse are diakonion rooms. These rooms show the multi-purpose basilica type supported by a portico behind the apse. The presence of basilica, bath and necropolis areas within the acropolis remains surrounded by walls, to the north of the village settlement, shows that this place was handled in a way to respond to the needs of a city. The west and east basilicas in the upper city have been completely destroyed. The floors of the structures were decorated with gray and white mosaics with geobotanical ornamentation.

To the east of the religious structures is the necropolis area where magnificent tombs are located. The two-story vaulted tombs here, made of cut stone, are the monumental tombs of a few privileged people who were exalted. On the eastern slope of the Acropolis, on the façade of the sarcophagus, whose lids were carved in a rectangular form from hard gray stone in templum in antis style; an eagle figure with spread wings, bukranion carrying garlands on the sides, and medusa heads are seen. Right next to this sarcophagus, on its front face, the figure of a man seated on a stool holding a staff in his hand is carved on the front face of the sarcophagus. One of the interesting structures in Kalınören is the tylos-type bath with three separate vaulted spaces located at the northern end of the acropolis. The water requirement of the bath was supplied from the nymphaeum 20 metre away.

Source: Mersin Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism archive

Places to Visit in Mersin Address: Ovabaşı Mahallesi Anamur / Mersin