Via Tauri - Sağlıklı - 2 May 2022

    Via Tauri was a stone road built in the 1st century AD by the Romans. The exact course of the road is not certain. It is known the tract led from the Capaddocian city of Tyana, across the Taurus Mountains, to Tarsos in Cilicia. The other cities connected to Via Tauri were Faustinopolis and Podondos. There is an ongoing discussion as to the location of the former polis. Some scholars place it by the modern village of Başmakçi, other in the vicinity of another rural settlement called Porsuk (Turchetto 2012). Depending on the location of the city, Via Tauri was running either a bit more or a bit less to the west in its Cappadocian part. Today, the Roman tract is almost completely covered by modern ways as the topography of the region leaves now and then builders with the same limited options.

Via Tauri at Sağlıklı *

Approximate course of Via Tauri
 if Faustinopolis was at Porsuk, N↑*

Approximate course of Via Tauri
if Faustinopolis was at Başmakçi, N↑*

Landform at Sağlıklı (Google Earth) N↑*

Gate originally from 5th century was
recently damaged and rebuilt *

One of two imposts supporting arch *

Road is 3 m wide and could take four
 soldiers abreast *

Kerbstones were used to keep
carriages on tract *

Mysterious inscriptions :) *

Outline of some former construction,
rather modern doing *

Road crosses bedrock *

Back on limestone blocks *

Solid, two-millennia-old blocks *

Remains of hero sarcophagus *

Sarcophagus seen from east *

Passage at Sağlıklı is 3 km long *

More stone blocks *

Back at gate which probably marked
border of Cilicia *