Amasya - Rock tombs

Cut into the cliffs below the citadel in Amasya are tombs of the Pontic kings (333 to 44 B.C.), some of the tombs being as much as 12m/39ft high. They are reached by crossing the Alçak Köprü and continuing through the Old Town (Içeri Sehir Mahallesi) by a road where the old royal palace (Kizlar Sarayi) once stood, its walled garden extending down to the river. The five sepulchral chambers, in groups of two and three respectively, date from the third and second centuries B.C. Two of the tombs can be entered. Linked by narrow steps they are hewn from the solid rock, with vaulted ceilings, smooth walls and stone plinths on which the sarcophagi were laid. Dowel holes in the facades and walls point to the tombs having been richly ornamented (marble panels/flagstones). The westernmost tomb also served as a place of burial in Byzantine times. The fifth tomb (Pharnaces I, 185-159 B.C.) was left unfinished. From the western group of tombs a stepped passageway gives access to one of the three tunnels originating in the citadel and leading to cisterns or, in the opinion of some scholars, a Mithraic shrine.