Monumental fountain restored in Sagalassos

Excavation and restoration efforts are ongoing to restore the 1,892-year-old Hadrian's Fountain, one of the monumental fountains in the ancient city of Sagalassos, situated in the southern province of Burdur's Ağlasun district.

The Hadrian's Fountain, dedicated to Roman Emperor Hadrian and discovered during 2002 excavations, is being unearthed after the opening of the 1,844-year-old Antonine Fountain in 2010. The ancient city of Sagalassos, dating back to 3000 B.C., is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

Under the leadership of Professor Şükrü Özüdoğru, a team comprising four archaeologists, an architect, a restoration expert and 23 workers has been working on the two-story monumental fountain adorned with goddess reliefs, which stands over 20 meters tall. The goal is to have ancient water flowing through the fountain within two years.

Düzgün Tarkan, deputy head of the excavations at Sagalassos and a faculty member in the Archaeology Department of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (MAKÜ), said that the excavations in Sagalassos began in 1989 under the directorship of Belgian Professor Marc Waelkens.

Noting that the excavations this year started at Hadrian's Fountain, Tarkan explained that Waelkens had partially uncovered the fountain's facade and significant statues from the site are displayed in Burdur Museum.

Tarkan stated that excavation work was not carried out on the fountain's eastern and western wings at the time, and the upper-level blocks had scattered over time. He explained that the steps in front of the fountain have now been reinforced, and the original stones have been replaced.

Tarkan emphasized that inscriptions reveal that the fountain...