Port of Entry

Driving towards Antioch today we stopped in Cevlik, site of the ancient (that term is getting redundant on this blog) city of Seleucia. Founded by one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus I Nicator needed a port--so he dug an artificial one.

Due largely to a pesky sediment-bearing stream the port is almost completely filled in today. Remains however, still, um, remain.









No storm, and not quite a port.





The Roman general Titus realized that the port was filling because of the aforementioned pesky stream. Having freshly minted a new batch of slaves by destroying Jerusalem, he put them to work digging a massive chunnel to redirect the stream in an entirely new direction.





















Check out these digs . . .






So of course, we, as brave explorers, set out to explore, bravely.























Clambering was involved.






Roamin' around, you spot evidence of Romans around.














Bridge. As an arch.
Or, 'Arch as Bridge'.





The further you went, the deeper the channel went.
























Until it became a true tunnel.






Which meant less light.
























Also making it harder to see where you were going.





But there was, of course, light at the end of the tunnel:





















The concept worked well, until an earthquake caused enough of the tunnel to collapse to convince the stream to its original port-filling course.