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Engineering Carved in Stone in the Kahta Creek Valley

In the Kahta district of Adıyaman, the road to Nemrut Dağı runs through a valley where the first thing you notice is not history but stone.

Radar TürkiyeRadar Türkiye6 Kasım 2026
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Engineering Carved in Stone in the Kahta Creek Valley

In the Kahta district of Adıyaman, the road to Nemrut Dağı runs through a valley where the first thing you notice is not history but stone. Rock has been cut, hilltops have been shaped, and huge blocks have been set against one another without mortar. This article looks at four sites around Kahta Creek through an engineer's eye: a bridge, a rock-cut tunnel, a tumulus and the water remains of an ancient city. The aim is less to list dates than to explain how things were built and how to look at them today.

The bridge that joins two banks

The Cendere Bridge stands on the road between Kahta and Sincik, over the Cendere Creek, known in antiquity as the Cabinas. The Culture Portal records that it was built under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (AD 193-211) by the Sixteenth Legion, which had its camp at Samsat. According to the same source, the name comes from the structure itself: the bridge joins the two sides of a creek flowing through a magnificent canyon, and so it was called a cendere.

The dimensions are impressive. The Culture Portal gives the bridge as 7 metres wide, 30 metres high and 120 metres long. It has two arches, one main arch and one relief arch. The relief arch lets surplus water pass when the creek rises, and the Adıyaman Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism likewise describes the bridge as having these two arches.

The most striking feature is that it was built without mortar. Evenly cut stones, each weighing many tons, were laid against one another with nothing between them. The bridge rises from both ends in a ramp shape and meets in the middle. The source says this form both increases static strength and gives the structure a monumental look. What carries the load here is the weight of the stones and the way they press on each other.

Columns in the Corinthian order stand at both ends. Two columns at the southern entrance carry inscriptions, one dedicated to the emperor who commissioned the bridge and the other to his wife. Another column stands at the northern entrance. These names help us only to date the structure; the real story is in the stone.

Repair marks on the parapet

When a structure approaches two thousand years of age, it is natural to expect that someone looked after it. The Culture Portal states that the bridge was repaired at various times in the Roman period, as the inscriptions on its parapet show. The inscription therefore records not only the monument but also its maintenance.

The Provincial Directorate says the bridge is still in use today. Before you go, it is wise to ask the local authorities whether you can approach it on foot and where vehicles may stop; we make no claim on this point here. For photographs, views from a distance work best. Early morning and the afternoon bring out the colours of the stone more clearly.

A tunnel descending into the rock

When you move from Cendere to the Arsameia Ancient Site, engineering goes inside the stone. The muze.gov.tr page for the site describes a tunnel that begins just below the long inscription and descends by steps at a steep slope. Its length is 158.1 metres. The Culture Portal gives the same tunnel as roughly 158 metres.

Both official sources agree on one point: the purpose of the tunnel has not been fully understood. This article will not add an interpretation to that uncertainty. What is known is that the steps are cut into the rock, the slope is steep and the length runs to hundreds of paces.

According to the sources, Arsameia was founded east of Kahta Creek, opposite the old Kahta Castle, as the summer capital and administrative centre of the Commagene Kingdom. The Culture Portal places its founding in the early second century BC. The platform on the hilltop holds the remains of the palace and the monumental tomb, while reliefs such as the handshake stele let you see at close range how the stone was worked. As you walk the site, notice that the ground under your feet is bedrock and that the structures lean on it.

In this valley water is part of the architecture too. The muze.gov.tr page for the Kahta Yenikale site notes that the castle has water channels and a cistern. How a fortress on a mountaintop solved its water supply is a question that keeps returning along the valley. Visiting the castle as a separate site is not the subject of this article; we only note that its water system helps us read the valley.

The afterlife of tons of stone

The Karakuş Tumulus lies in the Kahta district and has been designated as the entrance point of the Nemrut Dağı National Park. The Culture Portal says it was built for the women of the Commagene dynasty and that King Mithridates II had it made for his mother Isias. The tumulus is roughly 110 metres in diameter, was 30 metres high when first built and is described as about 20 metres high today.

A tumulus is an artificial hill: earth and stone are heaped according to a plan and the perimeter is ringed with columns. On the south side stands a column topped with an eagle statue, which local people call karakuş. This column, which gave the monument its name, is about 2.5 metres tall. The source also describes a column with a headless bull statue in the northeast, and in the northwest a column bearing a relief tablet along with a lion statue lying on the ground.

The interesting engineering point is the later life of the stone. The Culture Portal writes that after the Roman Empire annexed the kingdom, the tumulus and its chambers were damaged and that tons of stone from the hill were used in building the Cendere Bridge. We report this according to the source; because it appears only on that page, it should not be read as settled fact. If it is true, it is a case of one structure becoming another, a deliberate recycling of stone.

For the current state of the site, please ask the Provincial Directorate before your visit.

The city's water and its fountain

The Perre Ancient City lies in the Adıyaman Merkez district, in the Örenli neighbourhood. The Culture Portal says it was one of the five great cities of the Commagene Kingdom and that its position on important road routes gave it geopolitical weight. The same page notes that ancient sources praise its water and that the city served as a resting place for caravans, travellers and armies.

Here water is not only in the story but visible on the ground. The source reports that the Roman Fountain, where the praised water flows, is still in use today. A fountain that has worked for two thousand years shows that the source and the road were chosen well. The page also mentions a cistern and walls from the Byzantine period.

Another technical achievement at Perre is its rock-cut chambers. The Culture Portal says the largest necropolis area of the region is here. Looking at how the chambers were opened into the rock, and how walls and entrances were smoothed, is a good way to understand rock architecture.

Reading the route

You can visit these four structures as one route, from west to east, from Adıyaman Merkez towards Kahta and the Nemrut road. According to the Culture Portal, Perre lies on the Malatya road, while Karakuş, Cendere and Arsameia follow each other in the Kahta district.

A private car or a tour is the practical choice. The Culture Portal says Cendere and Arsameia are reached by private car or by tours.

On muze.gov.tr there are pages for the Arsameia and Perre sites, while Karakuş does not appear to be registered there. Before your visit, check muze.gov.tr and the Adıyaman Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism for current information.

Small rules for looking at stone

The first rule is to slow down in front of the structure. On the bridge look at the joints between stones, at the tunnel entrance at the slope of the steps, at the tumulus at the column bases. The engineering is in the detail.

The second rule is safety. Rock surfaces, steps and road edges can be slippery or unstable, so wear sturdy shoes and stay on marked paths.

The third rule is not to move any part of a structure or write on it. These stones have been moved once already; let them not be moved again.

Finally, do not rush the valley in a single day. Read each stop as a separate chapter: the bridge at Cendere, the rock at Arsameia, earth and stone at Karakuş and water at Perre.

Sources

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