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| Samsat | |
|---|---|
  Samsat | |
| Coordinates: 37°34′46.4″N 38°28′52.7″E / 37.579556°N 38.481306°E / 37.579556; 38.481306 | |
| Country |  Turkey |
| Governorate | Adıyaman Province |
Samsat (Template:Lang-hy Samosata) is a small town and district in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river.
The current town of Samsat is comparatively new, being built only since 1989 when the old town of Samosata was flooded during construction of the Attaturk Dam. Indeed to some extent the re-construction of the town is still ongoing
Despite the flooding of the Old town the even more ancient Tell known as Samsat Castle has survived to the current day.
Archeology
Archaeological research on the hill of Şehremuz in Samsat has uncovered relics from the 7000 BC Paleolithic era; the 5000 BC Neolithic, 3000 BC Chalcolithic and 3000 to 1200 BC Bronze Ages. The ancient city of Ḫaḫḫum (Hittite: Ḫaḫḫa) was located nearby; it is recorded as a source of gold for ancient Sumeria.
The old town of Samosta was not excavated
History
In the Sumerians time, the name Semiata or Samsat is known from records. The town was a center of the Hittite kingdom in the Iron Age. The region was conquered by Sargon in 708 BC and became a province of Assyria. In 605 BCE, the Babylonians took over. Then, respectively, the Medes, the Persians (533 BC). Alexander the great extended the kingdom of Macedonia in 333 BC from which the town was ceaded to the domination of the Seleucids. After which Samsat was later the walled capital of the Commagene kingdom founded in 69BC, the civilisation that built the statues on top of nearby Mount Nemrut. During the 150 years of this short lived kingdom, 4 kings held the throne. King Antichos III was defeated by the to the Romans in 72 AD, During the classical era the town was known as Samosata and in Roman times was the home to the satirist Lucian, and became a science center.
The Arabs to the city from the Byzantines. Safwan bin Muattal died and is buried in Samsat. The 13th century was very hard for the town. Rüknettin Süleyman II of the Anatolian Seljuks took the town in 1203, and Samsat was looted in 1237 by the Harzemşah and was invaded by the Mongol Emperor Hülagü Han in 1240 and later by the Dulkadiroğulları.
It was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire by Yıldırım Beyazıt in 1392 and in 1401 it is destroyed by Timur. In 1516, Yavuz Sultan Selim retook it for the Ottomans. It lost its old importance in the Ottoman administration and became the center of the sanjak.
During the republican period, it became smaller and became a center of the parish. In 1960, Samsat was transformed into a district center and connected to the province of Adıyaman.
The city of Samsat was evacuated from the old settlement on 05.03.1988 due to the Atatürk Dam being left under the lake waters and the center was changed and moved to its present location with the law numbered 3433 dated 21.04.1988. The old town of Samsat and all its history were flooded behind the Atatürk Dam in 1989. The new town was built beside the new waterline by the Turkish government to house the displaced residents.
Name
It is said that Samsat was called ler Semizata at the time of Sumerians.
The Egyptians are again said to have called it ”Şamşuata or Şemşiata am.
The name in Syrian and Hebrew is called Simsat, and this name is called “Sun bu ims Solar Land” because in the early part of the Middle Ages, at the beginning of the 4th century, the Armenians were the sun worshipers before they accepted Christianity. Armenians who had preserved these old religions lived intensively in the town until the 14th century. Therefore, it should be known as the "land of the sun worshipers" and not "the Sunland".
Another account is that the city was named after King Samos, the grandfather of Antiochos Epiphanes I, who was one of the Commagene kings. However, the meaning of this name is not known
The Islamic conquest bought he Arabisation of this name as Sümeysat İslam and the Ottomans called it Samsat.
Geography
The new Samsat district is a peninsula surrounded on the three sides by the Atatürk Dam Lake. The distance from the sea to the city center is 47km. The district is a plain that descends to the south.
In the hot summers and dry winters, while the Mediterranean climate is warm and rainy, it is similar to the South East Anatolian climate due to the low relative humidity. However, due to the Atatürk Dam Lake in recent years, the humidity has increased relatively.
References
| Samsat in Adıyaman Province of Turkey | ||
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| Districts |   | |
| Metropolitan municipalities are bolded. | ||
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