A Rock-Working at Cursat Castle

Abstract

The castle of Cursat, modern Koz Kalesi, situated ten kilometres south of Antakya in Turkish Hatay, has been well covered: van Berchem (1914/5), Jacquot (1931) and Deschamps (1977). They draw attention to the conspicuous visible features, largely of 13th century Frankish origin, in the western and southern walls of Cursat, in particular salients A and B of the plan (Fig. 1). However, none of these previous investigators reports anything of significance on the eastern flank of the site, marked C on the plan, beyond noting the existence of a cistern, and several subterranean apartments.As a result, they overlook two interesting features which this writer discovered in the Spring of 1989. These consist of a vertical shaft, cut in the rock, which descends from the level of a subterranean complex below the eastern terreplein, and a lower chamber at the level of the base of the castle ramparts, which receives the shaft.The complex, comprising a Firing-platform, cistern and another apartment, possibly a bath, was noted by van Berchem and his successors. But the shaft and the lower chamber have not been recorded.