The challenge of crossing the Cilician Gates

The Cilician Gates is the name of a strategic pass in the Taurus Mountains that was used for centuries. Before Alexander, Cyrus the Great, with Xenophon and his Ten Thousand, had marched over this pass, and after him, we know that the Romans, the Mongols, and even the Crusaders were here. As recent as the 20^th century, the railroad engineers working on the train connection between Istanbul and Baghdad had to find their way over the Taurus Mountains at this point.

Xenophon mentions that the pass consisted of a “carriage track,” although the road must have been paved then. The passage through the Cilician Gates was very narrow, saying that it was wide enough for a four-horse chariot, meaning that four horses abreast could move over it at the same time. Yet the road was exceptionally steep and a near-natural barrier for any army to pass unopposed. It was and is frequently crossed by streams trickling from the walls on either side.

As mentioned by Xenophon, the width of a four-horse carriage is hard to match Curtius’ statement that it was wide enough for four armed men to walk abreast. The landscape is very rugged and inhospitable, even today, and in my first passage, I tried in vain to imagine how an army could move over such a terrain. Curtius says that the natural formation resembles fortifications made by human hands – how true that is!

The route Alexander followed out of Cappadocia must have run past modern Kemerhisan, Çiftehan, and Pozantı to arrive at the Gülek Boğaz Pass, as the Cilician Gates is called today.

The Romans, great road builders as they were, have left records of their improvements together with a series of milestones all along the road, like the lonely one standing in front of the local roadside restaurant. The stone carries an inscription stating that Caracalla repaired and improved the Via Tauri, as this road was called around 217 AD. Another milestone in this same area was erected by Severus Alexander, giving the distance to the Gates, the confines of the Cilicians, which matches the figure mentioned in the inscription at the Cilician Gates further down the road.

It is fascinating to find that wall inscription off the main highway down on the adjacent valley floor, knowing that it was initially engraved high above the ancient Via Tauri that led down to the coastal city of Tarsus. It is hard to imagine that W.M. Ramsay, who visited this area in 1882, had to use a telescope to read this inscription on the cliff above the stream (now tunneled underneath the modern road). The text can be translated as “Caracalla (with the addition of his real full name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) made the road wider by cutting through the mountains.” It is a miracle that this inscription has survived modern construction works as it now seems to stand on the valley floor, squeezed between the supportive wall of the highway, the narrow stream, and the mountain slopes on the other side.

When Alexander arrived at the spot known as Xenophon’s encampment near the Gates (probably less than three kilometers away), he investigated the situation. The narrow pass was pretty easy to defend from the high overhang above the road, where a small force could destroy the approaching enemy. It is clear, once again, that Alexander was not taking any chances. He ordered his light-armed Thracians ahead to occupy the different access paths and check them for enemy forces. At the same time, a band of bowmen was posted on the ridges above the access road, ready to attack if needed. It is so easy to see them mentally while moving over this road! Alexander left Parmenion with the heavy infantry near Cyrus’ encampment while he himself marched towards the Gates under cover of darkness to take the enemy by surprise. That surprise did not work out as his approach was noticed, and the small force supposed to defend the Gates fled at first sight of Alexander and his men. This was much easier than Thermopylae!

The following day at the crack of dawn, Alexander marched his men through the narrows. The operation lasted a full day, but the road to Tarsus lay open to him. Justin is so optimistic as to write that Alexander reached the city in one full day, but this is a distance of some 75 kilometers which Xenophon covered in a four-day march instead.

Before reaching Tarsus, walking over a reasonable stretch of said Via Tauri for about five or six kilometers through an unforgiving landscape of rough rocks and spiny bushes is still possible. A delicate arch is still spanning the road at the horizon, but this is a mere reconstruction since the original collapsed after repeated explosions at the mining site in the valley below. The mining company was ordered to rebuild it - thank Zeus for that.

It takes the modern traveler a lot of imagination since today’s highway across the Taurus Mountains has been widened and leveled compared to the narrow ancient passage. However, it still follows the same course. Then as now, the road runs downhill from here onwards into the coastal plain, and gradually the landscape becomes much friendlier with cultivated fields and blossoming orchards along wide rivers. Xenophon had also noticed the difference, saying that once across the pass, Cyrus entered a beautiful, well-watered plain that produced sesame, millet, wheat, and barley – easy to picture!

Still marching on the Via Tauri, Alexander received notice that the governor of Tarsus no longer wished to hold the city for Persia and was ready to give up the town. The townspeople clearly got scared, not of Alexander, but of their governor, who might be plundering Tarsus on his way out. Alexander clearly understood this, and he immediately rode up at full speed to the people’s rescue, just in time before the man could take any booty with him as he hurried for the Persian court.

Another ancient road was discovered near the village of Anavarza (Roman Caesarea). During the first and second centuries, it was the most important city of Cilicia and larger than Ephesos. The town has suffered severely from repeated earthquakes over the centuries, the last one as recent as 1945. The most striking element, however, is a double-columned highway, approximately 35 meters wide and 2.7 kilometers long. It has been established that the columns were of the Corinthian order and were erected at 2.15 meters intervals. So far, 1,360 columns have been unearthed, and plans are to restore them and the entrance gate. I wonder how much and in what shape this portion of the road existed in Alexander’s days.

Heading for Dascylium and Sardes

After contemplating the Battle of the Granicus, I am taken further north on this trip with Peter Sommer In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, heading for Dascylium. I am a little surprised because Alexander never went to Dascylium, as he sent his seasoned general Parmenion instead. Well, I suppose it was just part of the campaign, and I take in the same rather dull, flat landscape I met on the road to the Granicus. Yet, so much history has been written in the furrows of this freshly plowed soil. Less than one hundred years before Alexander, Xenophon and what remained of his Ten Thousand marched through this countryside, a detail that cannot have been lost on Alexander.

But the Macedonian king had to press south, well aware of the threat posed by the sizable Persian navy patrolling the coast of Asia Minor. Parmenion took Dascylium, the capital of Hellespontine Phrygia, without trouble, as the guards had abandoned the town. A new satrap, Calas, was quickly put in place. From now on, the tribute Dascylium used to pay to Persia would come to Alexander.

It is hard to imagine the city on this low hill now overgrown with bright spring flowers, yellow rapeseed, and red poppies. Remains of low Greek city walls with neatly cut stones, bits of Byzantine walls in which spolia from earlier ages have been used, and then the scarce ruins of habitation. It is beyond doubt that Parmenion did a thorough job! A lovely place for a city anyway, I think.

From here, we pass but don’t stop at Cyzicus, which Alexander also conquered. It is said that he was responsible for connecting the island to the mainland. I wonder what is left of the huge amphitheater with a diameter of 150 meters, which the Romans built here in the 3rd century BC. It was intersected by a stream, making it particularly fit for naval battles – the only one of its kind in Turkey! It must have been a magnificent sight, and it is mentioned as being one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Apparently, as late as 1444, the visitor could still admire thirty-one of the immense columns in place.

My trip continues through a landscape filled with tumuli, which I am told belong to the days of King Midas (late 8th century BC). It is a long drive to Sardes, the capital of Lydia, for Alexander, a march of nearly 200 km. Apparently, the news of Alexander’s victory at the Granicus had traveled quicker than his army. Before reaching the fortified city, he was met by the leading men and their satrap, Mithrines, who not only surrendered Sardes but also its treasury. The money was most welcome, of course, since Alexander had left Pella with only sixty talents - a very poor financial situation, knowing that he had inherited a debt of 500 talents from his father and had been borrowing another 800 talents to get this expedition underway. For now, he had a financial breather.

The army set up camp on the banks of the Hermus River, about 2,5 miles from Sardes, and Amyntas was sent to take possession of the fortress. Alexander kept Mithrines in his own suite and treated him according to his rank. After taking Babylon, Mithrines was appointed governor of Armenia.

As we will see so often afterward, Alexander treated well those who did not defy him. Sardes and Lydia were now declared free from Persian rule but had, of course, to pay the same tribute to their new ruler, yet in exchange, they were allowed to observe their old customs. It was also here that, for the first time, Alexander gave orders for Lydian youths to be trained in Macedonian tactics. This practice would be repeated over the years in Lycia, Syria, Egypt, and Persia. This shows once again that Alexander never doubted he would be victorious!

Sardes, as it has reappeared from archaeology, is definitely worth a visit. On a previous visit, I had walked around the beautifully restored Palaestra and Baths with the Synagogue that was reserved for the Jews and incorporated into the Palaestra by Severus Alexander in the third century.

I was looking forward to seeing it from Alexander’s point of view. The two-story high (restored) buildings are visible from afar, and it is a pleasure to stand in front of this mixture of high Ionic and Corinthian columns, some with spiral grooves turning alternatively to the right and to the left. Inasmuch as possible, the original inscriptions have been reintegrated. It seems this complex was inspired by the Library of Celsus in Ephesus. Behind the Palaestra are the Baths with two distinctive pools, just tempting my imagination. This complex built in Imperial Style, was completed in the second century AD and remained in use till the Sassanid invasion of 616 AD.

In Alexander’s days, neither this sport's complex nor the integrated Synagogue nor the Roman villas and the public buildings across the street existed. Next to the modern road runs the monumental 18.5-meter-wide avenue built on top of the original Lydian road from the 7th-6th century BC, two meters below. So maybe Alexander walked over that Lydian road? Luckily, the modern asphalt road has been planned to run parallel to the south in order to expose the antique marble slabs of this Roman thoroughfare of the 4th-6th century that was wider than the modern road!

With my co-travelers threading in Alexander’s Footsteps, we move further to the impressive remains of the Temple of Artemis, which was never finished. Some columns have been fluted, but many were not. The construction began at the time of Alexander the Great in 334 BC, having a double row of columns surrounding an enclosed inner building.

The altar of Artemis, however, is much older than the temple itself and seems to go back to the sixth century BC. The stepped platform we see today dates from the Hellenistic period. Construction of this temple went in fits and starts and was hit by the earthquake of 17 AD. At some time, Artemis shared her sanctuary with Zeus, as indicated on an inscription honoring both. In about 150 AD, Sardes gained the title of “neokoros,” meaning “temple-warden”, which implied that it was required to have a temple dedicated to the Roman imperial family. This time, the Temple of Artemis was split in two, where Artemis and Empress Faustina were worshiped together in the front part. At the same time, Zeus and Emperor Antoninus Pius shared the back of the sanctuary. With hindsight, the base of the columns looks very much like those of Didyma. This makes sense as it is the fourth largest Ionic temple in the world after Didyma (the largest being the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, followed by the Temple of Hera in Samos).

It makes a huge difference to visit this site under the guidance of a historian like Peter Sommer, as he effortlessly points out the details of the buildings or the reasons for their inscriptions, something that a lone traveler will have a hard time figuring out.

We do not climb to the Acropolis, however, since the visible remains are mainly Byzantine and do not add to Alexander’s exploits. According to Arrian, Alexander went up there and saw the Palace of the Lydian kings and the Persian garrison. He must have been aware of his luck for not having to besiege this impregnable fortress. He decided that this was the right location to build a temple in honor of the Olympian Zeus. While he was considering the best spot, a thunderstorm broke loose, which he took as a sign sent by Zeus himself, and he made his decision accordingly. Whether or not this temple was ever built, we simply don’t know.

Alexander then made all the practical arrangements, leaving Pausanias, one of his Companions, in charge of the fortress and assigning others to specific organizational functions. Then, the news reached him of unrest in Ephesus, and it was time to resume his march south.