Bridges that Bridge Civilisations(Contd.)

The Limyra Bridge of Turkey
 
Built over 1800 years ago and not in the notice of the world at large till late, this antiquated and largely neglected bridge with its unique structure representing old world architecture and engineering, commands an uncommon and unusual value as a precious piece of antiquity.
Located near Lymra in Lycia, Turkey, in a world that belonged to the mighty Byzantium empire, the bridge is a proud and exquisite relic of designing and engineering skills of a bygone era.
It is a stone bridge and believed to be one of the oldest segmented arch bridges in the world. A segmented arch is a type of arch with a circular arc of less than 180 degrees. Also referred to as a Scheme arch sometimes, it is considered one of the strongest arches because of its capacity to resist thrust. It also gives the bridge an unusually flat profile, typical of the Roman engineering of those times.
The time of its construction is uncertain, largely because of the absence of any information in the literature of that time and much later. But irrespective of its exact antiquity, this bridge remains one of the finest examples of bridge engineering and architecture of once mighty Romans.
Limyra
Limyra is a small city in Lycia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, on the Limyrus River, and twenty stadia (one stadia equals 600 feet) from the mouth of that river. It was once a prosperous and one of the oldest cities in Lycia. The city had rich and abundant soil, and gradually became one of the finest trade settlements in Greece.
Pericles adopted it as the capital of the Lycian league. It finds mention in the works of scholars Strabo, Ptolemy and several other Latin authors. Gaius Caesar, the adopted son of Augustus, died in this town.
 
Limyra lies in ruins now. People and travellers, tourists and occasional historiographers visit these ruins, which are about 5 km northeast of the town of Finike (ancient Phoenicus) in Antalya Province, Turkey. The ruins consist of a theatre, tombs, sarcophagi, bas-reliefs, Greek and Lycian inscriptions etc. and, of course, the Roman bridge about 3 km east of Limyra.
The Bridge
The Bridge near Limyra or the “Bridge of the Forty Arches” spans the Alakır Çayı river over a length of 360 meters (1,181.1 ft.) on 26 segmental arches. As the name suggests, probably the bridge originally had forty arches. Only 26, however, seem to survive. These arches, with a span-to-rise ratio of 5.3:1, give the bridge an unusually flat profile, and were unsurpassed as an architectural achievement until the late Middle Ages. The Limyra bridge used a composite mix of of brick, stonemasonry, and rubble. Its appearance may seem modest but it hides behind its ruggedness the architectural excellence and creative genius of Romans.
Discovery
The bridge was almost unknown to the rest of the world till 19th century. In May, 1840 British Archaeologist Charles Fellows undertook the first exploration that was followed intermittently by other explorations. But the credit to extensively document the site and bringing the details to the notice of outside world must go to the German Archaeology Teams and mainly to Wurster and Ganzert. An otherwise intact bridge, may have been imperilled but for these discoveries and reports. Long overdue attention and measures to preserve and protect the site saw palpable and tangible action only lately.
When Wurster and Ganzert, the German archaeologists visited the site, it was all but covered by earth and mud, only one arch visible only a few feet above the ground. They did not attempt any excavation but meticulously recorded the measurements and observations offering a wealth of information. Subsequently efforts place substantially more information in public domain.
Heritage imperilled
Yet, the structure even today is largely buried by river sediments and surrounded by greenhouses. The fertile bottomland around the bridge encouraged locals to do large scale citrus fruit plantations and constructing greenhouses for early vegetables, causing serious danger to the bridge. The locals even stripped the still intact bridge surface for stones; bulldozers employed to build irrigation canals rip the structure apart and crush the stone pavement with their caterpillar tracks.
Fortunately, the exploration has brought out all the details of construction and the documentation is extensive and thorough. The Lymra bridge seems to have survived a predation, for the present.
Yet, it will indeed be a tragedy of monumental proportion if this site of such rare value and vintage is lost for ever owing to the disturbing apathy and transient and mindless avarice of the local people.