If there is one bridge that has withstood the ravages of time successfully and one that finds a literal permanence and eternity since Homer wrote Iliad, it’s a bridge from the old Byzantium, the present day Turkey. That it is recorded in Guinness Books of World Records as the oldest datable bridge in the world still in use, only adds to its historic aura. However, its own romanticism amply imbued in the verses of Iliad impart to it and the river it spans, an unequalled and unrivalled distinction among the grandest relics of ancient times.
Also known as The Caravan Bridge it is an ancient bridge in the city of İzmir, Turkey. It was built in approximately 850 BC over the Meles river, and is one of the oldest man-made structures in continuous use. This ancient arched stone slab bridge was built strategically to serve as the check post to regulate entry into the city of Izmir. In its present form, it consists of a single 8.5-meter span made of stone.
River Meles
The river Meles (more appropriately described as “Meles Brook”) is a stream charmed by history and famous in literature, especially by virtue of being associated in a popular and persistent legacy with Homer’s birth and works. It flowed by the ancient city of Smyrna then, and continues to do so ever since, though some prefer to describe it as a name sake that traverses the present-day metropolitan centre of İzmir.
The Bridge, Homer and Iliad
The river Meles is known for being the birthplace of the legendary Ancient Greek author Homer. The river and the Caravan bridge find prominently featured in Homer’s work.
As is usual with monuments of such antiquity, the exact location of the Homeric Meles and whether or not that stream corresponds to the one (actually the ones, since different sources, even at official level, have adopted different streams under that name) called Meles today continues to be beset with controversy but has at the same time enlarged and enriched an already abiding curiosity.
The bridge, river Meles and Homer are inextricably linked. Homer was the first fruit of her mother Critheis’s juvenile frailty and misadventure and was born in Boeotia near river Meles and was named Malesigenes after the river. Her mother later married Phemius, a scholar and teacher of literature and music whose influence significantly shaped and refined the young boy’s natural genius, burnishing his extra ordinary talents. This river finds frequent reference in multiple ways in all the creations of Homer. The bridge thus draws its immortality from river Meles as also from Homer.
Living Bridge
‘Familiarity breeds contempt’, is a common saying. To many this bridge is more known in history books than to its locals! The antiquity of the bridge, somewhat intriguingly, is often questioned because the bridge continues to be in use since the very beginning. A recent blogpost, not very laudatory, offers the following description,” This spot was the custom’s gate of Smyrna and travellers would stop here for rest and to enjoy the pretty scenery of the Meles.”
Another traveller’s impressions illustrate the continuing utility of this bridge in the modern time, “…one-arched bridge and two or three large weeping willows hang over its margins. Under the shade of these trees the Turks collect in parties to smoke; and the Meadow of Caravan Bridge, for so the place is called: Mall of Smyra” by Broughton.
Caravan Bridge may not strike the locals for it may not command the grandeur and glamour of many other bridges but seen through the prism of history and tradition, few structures can rival its antiquity and importance among the living bridges of the world.
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