Columns of Septimus Severus Bridge / Cendere Köprüsü - Burmapinar (Adiyaman Province, East Turkey)
N 37° 55.946 E 038° 36.517
37S E 465606 N 4198390
Three corinthian columns you can find at the one of the best preserved Roman stone bridges in Turkey, called Severan Bridge or Septimus Severus Bridge or Cendere Bridge (Cendere Köprüsü), near small village Burmapinar in Adiyaman Province.
Waymark Code: WME8A8
Location: Türkiye
Date Posted: 04/17/2012
Views: 8
Three corinthian columns you can find at the one of the best preserved Roman stone bridges in Turkey, called Severan Bridge or Septimus Severus Bridge or Cendere Bridge (Cendere Köprüsü), near small village Burmapinar in Adiyaman Province.
This bridge over the Cendere creek is 120 m long and 7 m wide, with one large central arch measuring 30 m and one small arch on the east side. The bridge is constructed of 92 stones without mortar, each weighing about 10 tons as a simple, unadorned, single majestic arch on two rocks at the narrowest point of Cendere river at end of the canyon. At 34.2 m clear span, the structure is quite possibly the second largest extant arch bridge by the Romans. It is 120 m long and 7 m wide.
According to an inscription on the bridge, Emperor Septimus Severus had it built in 198-200 by the Legio sexta decima Flavia Firma (16th Steadfast Flavian Legion) at Samosata (Samsat).
There were originally four ca 10 m high marble Corinthian columns on the bridge. The inscription at the top of the pair of columns at the south-west end states that the bridge was dedicated to Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211 AD) and his wife Julia Domna, whose honorary title was mater castrorum, or the mother of soldiers by the cities of the local Commagene kingdom. From the pair of columns on the opposite bank only one has survived. The inscription at its top states that it was dedicated to Lucius Septimius Bassianus Caracalla (later Emperor Caracalla) and Publius Septimius Antoninius Geta, sons of Septimus Severus and Julia Domna.