Historic towers to rise again in ancient Perge

ANTALYA

Two towers in the ancient city of Perge, visited by thousands of tourists every year in the southern Turkish province of Antalya, have been undergoing a restoration process. The original stone blocks of the towers are now being placed in the towers.

Works have been ongoing in the ancient city under the inspection of the Antalya Directorate of Surveying and Monuments for the towers, and nearly 2,000 stones have been classified for the completion of the towers.

Director Cemil Karabayram said works had been continuing for four months, yielding good results so far as the stone blocks have begun to be placed in the eastern and southern parts of the towers.

“Each stone was given a number. We make classifications to find which stone belongs to which tower as some blocks were in different parts of the field. We carried out 3D scanning on the stones. The towers will rise again with their original stones,” Karabayram said, adding that they had waited for allocation for the towers for seven years.

“When the work is done, the towers will return to their heyday. The original structure of the towers is protected during the work, which has been overseen by the architect Saadet Sarı,” he said.

The ancient city of Perge has been dubbed as “Turkey’s second Zeugma” for the alluring appearance of the mosaics that have been unearthed so far.  

The city of Perge is situated 17 kilometers east of Antalya, within the borders of Aksu. The important monumental structures of the city have been excavated since 1946 and due to the excavated sculptures, the Antalya Museum has one of the richest collections of Roman sculptures.