Guide
The Çevlik archaeological site lies on the coast in the Samandağ district of Hatay, and the structure most people come for is the Titus Tunnel. Floods coming down off the mountains threatened the life of the port city below, and the Roman emperor Vespasian ordered a tunnel cut to run around the city and divert the water. Construction began in AD 69 and was finished in AD 81 by his son and successor Titus. Roman legionaries and slaves did the digging. The Ministry's page opens by placing the tunnel in the 1st century BC and then gives these AD dates for its construction; both statements stand in the source.
Cut entirely through the mountain, the tunnel runs 1,380 metres long, 7 metres high and 6 metres wide. Walking it is the point of the visit: this is engineering at a scale that reads immediately, without needing a reconstruction drawing to understand.
About a hundred metres to the right of the tunnel's seaward entrance is the Beşikli Cave, among the largest and best known of the rock tombs here, holding twelve graves in separate compartments divided from one another by walls. The stone tombs are arranged in bays linked by stone columns and arches, and a stone stair descends into them. Where doorways open in the rock-cut sections, the columns, capitals, steps and the motifs partly decorating the covering above have been made to match their originals.
The site is five kilometres from Samandağ and can be reached on the services running from there, or by car following the signs. Seleucia Pieria, the important ancient harbour city, can be seen on the same visit. The address is Kapısuyu, 31800 Samandağ.
