Qualla: Mağlova Aqueduct

Mağlova Aqueduct: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Csubasi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Historian Semavi Eyice chose his words carefully when he called the partial submersion of the Mağlova Aqueduct "the greatest crime in terms of Turkish art history." He was not exaggerating. When the Alibeyköy dam was built in the 20th century, rising waters swallowed a quarter of a structure that Mimar Sinan — the same architect who raised the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne — had spent seven years designing and building at the command of Suleiman the Magnificent. The aqueduct is still there, still standing, still carrying water. It is also partially drowned.

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Image: Csubasi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mağlova Aqueduct: Sinan's Other Masterpiece

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Canercangul, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mimar Sinan is remembered above all for his mosques: the Süleymaniye completed in 1557, the Selimiye in Edirne completed in 1575, soaring domes and slender minarets that became the visual signature of Ottoman civilization at its height. Less celebrated is the fact that Sinan was ...

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Image: Canercangul | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mağlova Aqueduct: The Architecture of the Arches

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Canercangul, CC BY-SA 4.0. The structural logic of the Mağlova Aqueduct is worth understanding because it is not simply a matter of piling stone upon stone. The lower tier carries eight large arches — four of them wider than the others at 18.4 meters across — which bear the weight of the upper tier's eight...

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Image: Canercangul | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mağlova Aqueduct: The Dam That Came Later

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Mahoniehopkins at Turkish Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. The Alibeyköy reservoir, created when the Alibey Creek was dammed in the 20th century, is both the aqueduct's context and its partial undoing. The dam lake now covers roughly a quarter of the aqueduct's base and lower piers, fluctuating with the water level. During dry periods, w...

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Image: The original uploader was Mahoniehopkins at Turkish Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mağlova Aqueduct: Stone, Coin, and Memory

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Canercangul, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2005, Turkey minted 1,250 commemorative coins worth 20 Turkish lira each bearing the image of the Mağlova Aqueduct — a small acknowledgment of the structure's cultural weight. The number is telling: only 1,250 coins for a monument that stands in the same artistic league, accor...

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Image: Canercangul | CC BY-SA 4.0