NEW RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE CITY PLANNING OF SALAMISCONSTANTIA: CARDO AND DECUMANUS

It was necessary to carry out researches and excavations in order to understand city planning in Salamis-Constantia, since the location of the main streets connecting the buildings in the city were not known. Two main streets of the city have been found during the excavations carried out by Prof. Co􀃻kun Özgünel between the years 2002-2010. One of these streets is the cardo which connects the northern part of the city where the public buildings like gymnasium, theatre and Roman bath were located, to the southern part of the city. The other one is the decumanus which crosses the cardo at the city center and connects the east and west from the seaside to the inner parts of the city. As much as we could determine, the total length of the cardo from the north to the intersection point is 397 m and the total length of the decumanus from the the cardo has two pavement layers indicating two different construction phases that one paved on the other while west to the east is 273 m. The width of the cardo at its north is 4,70 m, and 5,60 m at the intersection point while the width of the decumanus varies between 4,35-4,50 m, from intersection point to the east. Based on the archeological findings during the excavations, it was found out that the decumanus has got only one phase. The first phase of the cardo was constructed as a colonnaded street and can be dated to the 2nd century AD. The colonnaded street had been damaged and lost its level in the two big earthquakes in the 4th century AD and it was repaired by paving the second phase pavement. While it was a colonnaded street in its first phase, the spaces between the colonnades had been covered by rubble stone walls in its second phase and it lost its character of being a colonnaded street. Taking into consideration of the architectural and technical characteristics, the pavement of the decumanus resembles to the second phase of the cardo and can be dated to the same periods with the cardo. At the intersection point of the cardo and the decumanus, it was found out that two towers and a gate belonging to a late city wall were constructed against the Arap raids in the 7th century AD.