Bridge near Kemer

Bridge near Seydikemer
The western ramp of the Bridge near Kemer
Coordinates	36°41′36″N 29°21′43″E / 36.693333°N 29.361944°E / 36.693333; 29.361944
Crosses	Xanthos river (Koca Çayı)
Locale	Near Xanthos, Lycia, Turkey
Characteristics
Total length	500+ m
Width	4.5 m
History
Construction end	Presumably 3rd century AD
Location

The Bridge near Seydikemer was a

Structure

The visible remains still allow the identification of some, for their time, unusual construction techniques. The extant ramp features three arches of 4 to 4.45 m clear span, two of which, with an apex height of only 1 m, show a particularly flat profile.^[3] Segmental arches are known only from a limited number of Roman bridges, and came into widespread use not until the late medieval period (see e.g. Ponte Vecchio). The third arch, in contrast, possesses the typically Roman semi-circular shape, with a span-to-rise ratio of 2 to 1.^[3]

The arch vaults were constructed from locally hewn limestone ashlar which was bound by mortar; the interior of the bridge body was built of a rock-hard mixture of rubble and fluid mortar, which today lays bare at many places, shining through the crumbled facing.^[3] The mortar consists of hard building lime with an admixture of fine gravel.^[3] The pavement of the roadway has completely disappeared, but the constant gradient of the ramp indicates that the ancient paving stones lay directly on the present-day surface.^[3]

Another remarkable feature of the Seydikemer Bridge is the hollow chamber above the third arch vault, where the 2 m large gap between the arch crest and the roadway is not filled with the mortar mixture, but features in its interior a cut-out chamber measuring 3.5 m in length, 3.2 m in width and 1.5 m in height;

Circular ducts with a diameter of approximately 26 cm, which run through the length and width of the bridge, are interpreted as hollow forms of round construction timber of the Roman scaffolding and falsework.^[7] In the third pier, which stands closest to the river bed, a small, arched floodway is integrated to let water pass.^[7] Although the surviving ramp does not allow to determine the number and type of the arches of the bridge proper, the ancient structure must have been a rather impressive engineering feat, judging from its current height of 8 m above the sediments and the 500 m wide river bed which needed to be spanned.^[7]

A well-preserved example of an ancient segmental arch bridge in Lycia is the twenty-eight arch

• 
  View from the western ramp
• 
  Remains seen from river
• 
  View from west
• 
  Hollow chamber below roadway
• 
  Second segmental arch

See also

• List of Roman bridges
• Roman architecture
• Roman engineering

References

Sources

• O’Connor, Colin (1993), Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, p. 126 (E22),
  ISBN 0-521-39326-4
• Wurster, Wolfgang W.; Ganzert, Joachim (1978), "Eine Brücke bei Limyra in Lykien. Anhang: Reste einer Brücke oberhalb von Kemer am Oberlauf des Xanthos", Archäologischer Anzeiger (in German), Berlin:
  ISSN 0003-8105

Media related to Kemer Seydikemer at Wikimedia Commons