• from Chat GPT 4o, 24 July 2025
• sources: Pleiades – Anazarbus, Wikipedia – Anazarbus

Anazarbus (modern Anavarza) was a prominent city in ancient Cilicia, located in the Çukurova plain of southern Turkey, near the modern village of Dilekkaya. Originally a local settlement, it came under the control of the Seleucid Empire and later flourished as a Roman and Byzantine urban center. Known variously over time as Caesarea, Justinopolis, and Justinianopolis, it became an important administrative capital and military stronghold due to its strategic position below a dramatic limestone outcrop.

The acropolis, perched on a rugged ridge, overlooks a wide lower city that includes a Roman colonnaded street, a triumphal arch, theater, stadium, baths, aqueducts, and a rare double-towered city gate. Its triple line of Byzantine city walls, along with cisterns and fortifications on the acropolis, reflect extensive urban development and the need for defense during late antiquity.

Anazarbus was repeatedly damaged by earthquakes, including a particularly destructive event in 525 CE. Despite repair efforts under Emperor Justinian I, including extensive fortification works, the city declined under pressure from Arab invasions and seismic destruction in the early medieval period. By the time of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, the site was largely in ruins, though briefly reused.

Today, Anazarbus is one of the most visually striking and least disturbed archaeological sites in the region. Ongoing excavations continue to uncover details of its urban history, seismic damage, and cultural transitions from Hellenistic through Byzantine and early Islamic periods.

• from Perseus

• from Şahin et al. (2021:82-83)

... It is known that Anazarbos was damaged by two major earthquakes that occurred in the Ovalik Cilicia region and was rebuilt in the future. There was a major earthquake in the first half of the Julius Caesar period that was 1st century BC (Sayar 2000). It again suffered major earthquakes in 524 and 561 A.D (Ünal and Girginer 2007). The major earthquakes that continued in 1157, 1170, 1200, 1202 and 1269 AD caused destruction in the city. It is believed that most buildings could not reach the present day as a result of the fact that the stones belonging to the collapsed buildings due to the fact that many buildings were affected by these earthquakes and that the city was abandoned after the earthquake were used as building materials in nearby settlements.