STANDING FOR YEARS

When American archeologist Friedrich Karl Dorner did exploratory drilling in 1967 at the Karakus Tumulus not far from the bridge in Kahta township of Adiyaman in southeastern Turkey, he soon realized not only that there was a tomb here but that its blocks of hewn dolomite had been stolen. Who could have taken these stones, and why? Suspicion focused on the Cendere Bridge. It soon became apparent that the stones had been used in the reconstruction of the bridge in 198-200 A.D. by the 16th Roman Legion, which was based at Samosata. The bridge, 7 meters wide and almost 120 meters long today, allowed travelers to cross from one shore to the other of the Cendere, known as the Chabinas in antiquity when two columns stood at each end of it. One of these columns is no longer standing today. The two columns at the southwest end bear inscriptions for the Emperor Septimius Severus and his wife while that at the opposite end bears an inscription for his son, the Emperor Caracalla.