Other_Fortresses

Labraunda

In the hilly country below Labraunda five defensive towers have been found. Starting from the west they are Burgaz Kale, Tepesar Kale, Ucalan Kule, Kepez Kule and Harap Kule. All except Burgaz can be seen from the Akropolis Fortress, and there is also clear sight between them. These fortresses, which probably date to Early Hellenistic times, were evidently built to protect the area against intruding armies in those unsafe times, when there was much competition for power over this border area between the coast and the mountainous inland.

The Ucalan tower is closest to the shrine, only 800 meters to the south-west, and just above the Sacred Way. The tower is rectangular and measures ca 9 by 7 meters. It is divided into two rooms by a partition wall with a preserved door opening.

View of Burgaz Kale from the south-east.

The next tower is Kepez Kule, ca 1.2 km south of the sanctuary; it has approximately the same size as Ucalan. Third comes Tepesar Kale, ca 1.9 km south-west of Labraunda; it is slightly larger and divided into four rooms separated by substantial partition walls.

Further south-west of Tepesar, ca 3 km from Labraunda, comes Burgaz, the largest fort, which is more like a castle. It consists of two rectangular buildings connected by a courtyard. The eastern building measures 18.8 x 7.45 meters and consists of three rooms: two catapult towers on either side of an entrance room. In the western building there is another square catapult tower to the southwest, measuring 7.45 x 7.7 meters. Connected with this tower along the western side, there is a row of three rooms, measuring 15.10 x 6.20 meters. Their walls are less substantial, with a wall thickness of 0.70 meter, whereas the wall width of the catapult towers is 1.25 meters. These three rooms on the western side probably served as barracks for the soldiers on duty in the fort. The square rooms in northeast, southeast and southwest were defensive towers of an advanced design, all measuring about 7.45 x 7.7 meters. The fifth and last fortress is Harap, of which no study has yet been made; it is situated ca 3 km to the south of Labraunda.

The fortifications were not built using the same technique. Burgaz and Tepesar are the most well-built of the group and employ blocks sometimes measuring over three metres in length. The walls are built in such a way that there are many headers, blocks laid perpendicularly to the course of the wall and covering the entire thickness of the wall. Important is also the projection of these headers, about 5-10 cm from the surface of the wall. The blocks are often rusticated (having a rough face) on the exterior with drafted margins around the blocks. The forts of Burgaz and Tepesar seem to be more sophisticated than the fortress on the acropolis and they employ a larger number of headers with projecting faces. The blocks used in the towers at Ucalan and Kepez are not ashlars but have polygonal shapes. Those blocks are also of a smaller size. The dating of these fortifications is so far very tentative, but a relative chronological sequence can be reconstructed as follows: The first to be built was the fortress on the acropolis, then the forts of Tepesar and Burgaz were built, and finally the towers at Ucalan and Kepez.