Mount Ilifos (Lifos/Kifos)
Historical information on Ilifos and their Evaluation

Famous geographist Strabon has provided the earliest available information on geological and partial historical information on Mount Erciyes.  His findings are 2000 years old. Obviously apart from the personel geographical information on Erciyes, very little information is present other than Strabon’s. In his novel “Geographica”, he states “..altough no timber is present in the entire Cappadocia, Argaios is surrended by woods and timber is widely available. Fire and cold water are present by the woods but neither of them are on the surface. This is why most of the land is just covered by grass. Some areas are swamps and fire can be observed at night. People familiar with the enviroment can work on the timber but who are not familiar and cattles can fall into invisible fire pits. (1) “

He further states “… “Mazaka” (Kayseri) is where the “Kilikia” state is.” And he continues “… this town is also called “Eusebeia” and “near Argaios”. This is placed near a very high mountain “Argaios” (Erciyes) who always have snow on the top, and the very few people who have climbed it have stated that the seas of Pontos and Issikos are visible in clear whether from the top. In general terms Mazaka is not suitable for the settling of a town because there is no water, it is not naturally protected and the Governer’s have stakein not having any walls around the city. (2)”

Another source of information on Erciyes and its enviroment is well known Evliya Celebi from the 17th Century. The majority of his information however are roumors and have no scientific value.

The first important research belongs to Arnold Penter for the Museum of Wien (1902), which is not available.

Another research on Erciyes was made by Dr. Gerhard Bartch for Hannover Geographical Society during 1930 – 1932. Dr. Bartch spend months in Kayseri and have constructed maps of Erciyes in various scales.

Prof. Dr. İsmail Yalcinlar talks about Erciyes’ geographical structure in his book “Structural Morphology”. (3)

Ernest Chaput mentiones geographical position of Erciyes in his book “Geological & Geomorphological Survey Trips in Turkey”. (4)

Dr. Sirri Erinc specificly provides information on the glacier at Erciyes in his book “Geomorphology”. (5)

Prof. Dr. Resay Izbirak underlines the importance of Erciyes on enviromental resources. (6)

Halit Erkiletoglu talks about Erciyes and Kifos in his book “The History of Kayser” as follows :

“ During the Ancient Bronze Age 2500 – 2000 B.C. habitant sites used to be placed on mounds and one of the most important ones is located at the northeastern side of Mount Kifos. (7) People lived here were dealing with trading as well as animal feeding, mining and pottery. Following Kanes loosing its popularity, this Mazaka, North of Erciyes becomes the important site state of Taballs.
A number of other civilizations have ruled Mazaka, and Persians also ruled the city for a while. Persians who worshipped fire has chosed Erciyes as a suitable site to settle for their religious needs and constantly lived there. (8)

It is being said that “Mazaka” is derived from “Mazalos-Zeus” in Frigs language and Persians pronounced it as “Mazaka” which meant “Great”. There are also claims that “Mazaka” comes from Cappadocian God Mosoch or Godess Ma. (9)

Halit Erkiletoglu in his book states that this ancient site can be Mazaka, or at least a site belonging to Frigs or Hittites and provides some photographs. (10)

Muvakkat Uyanik, who has personelly studied this site states that this can be a temple site. (11)

We know that a lot of civilizations and cultures were present at Erciyes and its enviroment, and that Erciyes has always been the inspiration for these cultures. This is observable from architecture to fine arts, or from literature to folklore.

It is a pity that no serious researches were made on the flora, animal habitancy, natural resources, history, cultural diversity and like. A typical example of this is Kifos (Lifos) or as commonly referred as Ilifos.

No detailed information on the ruins at mount Ilifos, or who lived when are available. One should accept that the lack of information arises from the lack of archeological studies.

Mount Ilifos

The height of Ilifos, located at the northeastern side of Erciyes is 2,509 meters according to some sources, and 2,503 or 2,501 meters according to others. (12) It is a site used thousands of years ago. (13)

It is rather mandatory the site is religion based and a temple site since high points of Mount Erciyes were used as hermitage both by Persians and Byzantians.  As Erkiletoglu states, this site is also filled with house ruins that can be a site for the Mazakas.

My research although rough, also points out the fact that this is a temple site. It is frequently mentioned in the history books on Kayseri that a temple site existed at the heights of Mount Erciyes. A temple site figure is also present on ancient Roman and Byzantian coins. The existence of priest cave ruins on the summits of Mount Erciyes proves that the summit were used for religious purposes.

Todays Status of Mount Ilifos

Kifos, one of the most important mountains around Mount Erciyes has two peak heights at the South and North edges, and has a large crater in between.

The perimeter of this area at the peak of Mount Kifos is surrounded by walls.

The length of the surrounding walls are 1,050 meters. The width of the walls are between 1,5 to 2 meters, with foundations still burried underground, and have an average height of 1 meter. Looking at the ruins today and taking into consideration the damage they had ove the centuries, one can estimate that the height of the original walls were 3 to 4 meters. The walls accomodate observation towers at once in every 66 meters.

There are a total of 16 observation towers on the wall. The long side of the wall is 250 meters and the short side of the wall is 212,5 meters in length. The total area perimetered by the walls are 74,305 square meters. Ilifos has two peaks in North and South sides, the larger peak is in the North, facing Kayseri. The distance between the two peaks is approximately 250 meters.

The buildings are located at the sides of these two peaks, starting from the walls, from top to bottom and from West to East.

The multi room buildings are at the center. The building with the most number of rooms and size is close to East. Single room buildings exceed one hundred in numbers.

Four water reservoirs adjacent to the walls are present at the East side, the lowest point of the mountain on Erciyes side. It is possible that the ducts are still functioning since there is water in two of the reservoirs and in the big building.

It is clearly observed that these ruins were attacked by treasure hunters at different times.

The site plan of the 74,375 square meter area is as folows

The stone blocks used in the buildings vary 70, 67,62, 45 and 47 cms in length, 43, 40, 34, 32, 26, 21 cms in width, and 20 to 40 cms thick. The blocks used at the walls have almost the same dimensions. The walls however accomodate bigger and smaller stones as well.

The sides of the mountain except the East and North do not have any trees. The North side is very slippery due to the steep angle and bushes. East and North sides accomodate chuncky poplar and oak trees. Hisarcik groove is located from North to East.

Hacilar Municipality about ten years ago built an asphalt and makadam roads of a couple of kilometers which made it easy to access the mountain.

Vehicle access is possible up to roughly 2,300 meters. The remaining 200 meters can be climbed on foot between 10 to 40 minutes depending on age and health conditions.

This is unfortunately a very easy access for potential treasure hunters to destroy the remaining ruins in the near future.

Associate Professor Dr. Ali Çavusoglu

Explanations :

1. Strabon, Geographica, Istanbul University Faculty of Literature 1969, Book 12, p. 10
2. Strabon, Geographica, Istanbul University Faculty of Literature 1969, Book 12, p. 10
3. Prof. Dr. Ismail Yalcinlar, Structural Morphology, Tas Printhouse 1969, Vol II, p. 713-716
4. Ernest Chaput, Geological & Geomorphological Survey Trips in Turkey, Istanbul University Press1976, p.102
5. Dr. Sirri Erinc, Geomorphology, Istanbul University Press 1971, p.198
6. Associate Prof. Dr. Resat Izbirak, The Value of Mount Erciyes, Erciyes Periodical 1948, No. 68, p. 6
7. Visual
8. Halit Erkiletoglu, History of Kayseri, Province Cultural Directorate, Kayseri 1993, p. 10-14
9. Halit Erkiletoglu, History of Kayseri, Province Cultural Directorate, Kayseri 1993, p. 20
10.  Halit Erkiletoglu, History of Kayseri, Province Cultural Directorate, Kayseri 1993, p. 10-14
11.  Muvaffak Uyanik, Our Mountains, Sureyya Bukey Printhouse, İstanbul 1948, p. 212
12.  Muvaffak Uyanik, Our Mountains, Sureyya Bukey Printhouse, İstanbul 1948, p. 212
13.  I must state that no official and healhty information is available on the height of Erciyes and the surrounding mountains. The heights of Erciyes and neighbouring mountains has to be remeasured and officially announced so all scientific studies will use these values. Today we are aware that the height of Erciyes is not 3,916 meters because we know that altimeters are useless after 3,870 meters. Muvaffak Uyanik, Our Mountains, Sureyya Bukey Printhouse, İstanbul 1948, p. 185

References

Ernest Chaput, Geological & Geomorphological Survey Trips in Turkey, Istanbul University Press1976
Dr. Sirri Erinc, Geomorphology, Istanbul University Press 1971
Halit Erkiletoglu, History of Kayseri, Province Cultural Directorate, Kayseri 1993
Associate Prof. Dr. Resat Izbirak, The Value of Mount Erciyes, Erciyes Periodical 1948
Strabon, Geographica, Istanbul University Faculty of Literature 1969
Muvaffak Uyanik, Our Mountains, Sureyya Bukey Printhouse, İstanbul 1948
Prof. Dr. Ismail Yalcinlar, Structural Morphology, Tas Printhouse 1969