Hevsel Gardens

Coordinates: 37°54′27″N 40°14′51″E / 37.90750°N 40.24750°E / 37.90750; 40.24750
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Hevsel Gardens
Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape
CriteriaCultural: (iv)
Reference1488
Inscription2015 (39th Session)
Coordinates37°54′27″N 40°14′51″E / 37.90750°N 40.24750°E / 37.90750; 40.24750
Hevsel Gardens is located in Turkey
Hevsel Gardens
The gardens in 2010

The Hevsel Gardens (

Diyarbakır Fortress and the river. The fortified city was enclosed by a two-part system of defensive walls, and the gardens, fed by springs on the steep slope below, played a vital role in keeping the city provisioned and watered. The gardens were added to the UNESCO tentative list in 2013,[1] and they became a World Heritage Site in 2015, along with the walls of Diyarbakır Fortress.[2]

History

The Hevsel Gardens are first mentioned in

Tigris River. In 866 bc, the city was besieged by the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II and when it fell, the gardens were destroyed as a form of punishment. The fortified city has been of importance in the region during the Hellenistic period, and during the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman Empires up to modern times.[2]

The Hevsel Gardens were created between the city and the river, with the objective of providing water and food for the inhabitants. Numerous springs emerge from beneath the basalt and the gardens are divided into five terraces above the present Tigris floodplain.[3] The terraces have been formed over millennia as the river meandered in its wide valley and sometimes carved itself a deeper channel. The uppermost part of the garden will have been critical to the siting of the city; the gardens were regarded as sacred because of their important provisioning role, and have been compared to the Garden of Eden.[4]

By 1655 the gardens included both banks of the Tigris and were said to be filled with fragrant

Mulberry trees were grown to support a silk industry in the city, and timber was produced, from poplar and willow trees, and shipped to Mosul Province on rafts.[4]

Nowadays, about one third of the gardens is used for growing poplars and the rest for cultivation of a great range of produce; cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radish, green onions, parsley, watercress, eggplants, squashes, tomatoes, peppers and beans, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, figs, mulberries and nuts.[4]

Conservation

The Hevsel Gardens are still cultivated to this day, but their integrity is threatened by unauthorised businesses and dwellings that have been established at the base of the fortress. Other concerns are blocked drainage channels and water quality. Extraction of water higher up the Tigris Valley has reduced waterflow in the river and decreased periodic inundation of the floodplain. Buffer zones have been established, but the gardens are considered vulnerable.[2]

References

  1. ^ Giriş Tarihi (25 October 2013). "Hevsel Bahçeleri de UNESCO'ya aday" (in Turkish). Seyahat Haberleri. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape". UNESCO. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  3. ISBN 978-3-030-03515-0
    .
  4. ^ a b c Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape (2016) Karadoğan, Sabri; Alper, Berrin; Soyukaya, Nevin
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