Die Felsgräber der Könige von Pontos in Amasya

The five large tombs in the rocks above Amaseia (Amasya), which this volume deals with comprehensively, are already mentioned by the geographer Strabon in the description of his hometown. They belonged to the fortified royal residence, were built in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and housed the first four kings of the Mithradatid dynasty originating from Iran. The fifth king, Pharnakes I, moved his residence from Amaseia to Sinope on the Black Sea; the tomb originally intended for him remained unfinished.
Until the present day, the tombs were considered to be pillarless, but dowel holes, cast-iron channels, and other traces reveal that three of them had separately carved columns and pediments on the fronts, none of which have survived. While in other landscapes of Anatolia, such as Phrygia and Caria, the older native forms of rock tombs were followed by columned facades of the Greek type, in Pontos the development was the reverse. The latest and largest tomb, which was to house Pharnakes I, shows the local form crowned by an archivolt fully developed. It was subsequently imitated by a number of non-royal rock tombs, some of which surpassed their model in monumentality, but some of which are considerably smaller. After the end of the independent kingdom of Pontos, under the rule of the Romans, these complexes found no successor. Already under the victor Pompeius many of the associated castles were destroyed and the stair tunnels leading deep into the mountain and serving the water supply were rendered useless.