Discovered in 1998 and only partially excavated kazıp çıkarmak, the nearly 2,000-year-old city of Allianoi was home to baths and natural springs favored by the Romans for their health benefits.
Today, however, the well-preserved ruins lie in the path of a proposed dam that would flood sel basmak the region to create an artificial suni reservoir su deposu. The Yortanli Dam will provide water for thousands of acres of agricultural tarımsal land, and farmers living near Turkey's Aegean coast strongly support the project.
Turkish officials say that covering kaplamak Allianoi with sand kum before the flooding will protect the site for the future, and earlier this month teams completed the reburial yeniden gömme. But the dam project is still being ,challenged meydan okumak both in the courts mahkeme and among conservationists doğacı and other opponents muhalif.
Allianoi, one of the world's oldest existing bath and spa settlements uzlaşma, began to disappear under the sand—one wheelbarrow el arabası at a time aynı zamanda—in September 2010.
The decision to rebury the site, near the modern-day city of Bergama, was made in August by a local preservation koruma board komisyon, and it has been hotly protested karşı çıkmak by activists eylemci and archaeologists.
"The method is obsolete modası geçmiş and it will destroy tahrip etmek, rather than protect, the ancient site," İlker Ertuğrul, a member of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review newspaper.
Columns sütun rise from shallow water amid ortasında the ruins of Allianoi in a February 2008 photo. Roman notables saygın kimse once flocked to the city's pools, bathhouses, and other structures to enjoy the health benefits of the natural springs.
Architect Ertuğrul told the Hürriyet newspaper that covering Allianoi with sand will provide little protection from floodwaters.
The region's relative bağıntılı warm water will cause chemical reactions that will destroy metals, mosaics, and even stone walls at the site—all of which have so far been remarkably dikkat çekecek derecede preserved, Ertuğrul asserted ileri sürmek.
Some opponents of the dam believe that increased tourism might be one reason Allianoi is worth saving.
There's also the potential imkan for finding unknown treasures. By some estimates, as much as 75 percent of the site has yet to be excavated.
It's unclear how the ruins of Allianoi will fare olmak if the dam project proceeds ilerlemek. The University of Chicago's Moeller is optimistic that the city might not be destroyed by flooding, but she's not so sure about Allianoi's future prospects olasılık as an archaeological site.
"I think if it's covered, it could stay pretty well preserved," she said. "Obviously belli ki water damages things like wood or painted frescoes fresk that wouldn't survive. But the structures and other things like pottery çanak çömlek I think will stay.
"But once there's a dam and a lake on top, when is anyone ever going to see it or excavate it again?"