Turkey to have unique ancient city sitting atop of car tunnel

The ancient Greek city of Paleo Gargara near the northern Aegean coast will be crossed with a tunnel after a highway project was stalled by a first-degree archaeological site, where no construction is permitted by law, in its path.

Faced with the challenge of not transgressing the law, Turkey's highways authority has approved the construction of a tunnel passing beneath Paleo Gargara, which will connect the coastal town of Ayvacık with the small resort village of Küçükkuyu.

After the work is completed, Paleo Gargara may possibly become the only ancient city that sits atop a tunnel.

Two of the three companies constructing the highway, Kolin and Kalyon, are also partners in the consortium that won the right to build Istanbul's contentious third airport. Kolin İnşaat has also been the focus of controversy recently for felling trees prior to a definitive judicial ruling on construction of a coal plant project near the Aegean coal capital of Soma.

Although a very small project comparatively, the highway between Ayvacık and Küçükkuyu has also managed to garner some controversy of its own. Experts have pointed out that there are often historical artifacts deep underneath the surface of archaeological sites.

"As no excavation has been conducted on the site before, we don't know whether there are historical artifacts there or not. The city was located in the area according to ancient documents," said Reyhan Körpe, an archaeologist from Çanakkale's March 18 University.

The construction of such a large roadway, with double lanes on each side, undertaken by companies which usually carry out larger-scale projects has also raised a few questions.

"The master plan to build such large roads was prepared with the...