The Heracles Sarcophagus In Konya Turkey

The Heracles Sarcophagus In Konya – Chapter 1

The Heracles Sarcophagus In Konya – Chapter 1,

In July 1958 the Director of Konya Museum was showing a group of foreign visitors around the museum one afternoon. The news came that a Konya lawyer was on the telephone and wanted to discuss a very important matter. The director apologized and ran to the telephone. The old lawyer began to talk excitedly. He said that he had been to Beysehir that morning to attend a trial. Afterward, he had caught a bus back to Konya, but 60 km. before reaching the city the bus had a puncture, and the lawyer got off together with the other passengers. A little way ahead a villager was digging a trench. He went over and greeted him. Just then the villager’s spade struck against a stone. Thinking it was an ordinary stone he felt it with his hand and brushed the soil off the top, revealing a carved stone of milk white marble. Our friend asked the man to stop digging in the case of breaking whatever was buried here, and jumping into the meter deep hole they began to clear the soil away together. The upper surface of a marble cover could be seen in all its beauty but at that moment the bus was ready to start off. “Don’t dig anymore. Tomorrow I’ll bring the museum director to see it,” he said to the village and he got on the bus and returned to Konya. The news was very interesting. The museum director puts down the telephone and got in a jeep. The hole which the village had dug was four or five meters from the side of the road, and at a meter deep could be seen the cover of a marble sarcophagus. However, to dig it out would take two or three days work. The director had two gendarmes sent from Beysehir and set them to guard this new find while he got together the equipment and laborers ready to start work the following day. When the sarcophagus was finally dug out it was seen that this beautifully carved sarcophagus ranked among the world’s finest, a masterpiece of art perhaps unequaled among those cf its period. This 7 – 8-ton sarcophagus cut from a single piece of marble was lifted onto a Caterpillar wheeled vehicle using modern winches supplied by the Second Army in Konya. This convoy entered Konya early in the afternoon watched by thousands of people, who had heard the news on the radio, and the sarcophagus was placed in Konya Archaeological Museum.

You will find more details about The Heracles Sarcophagus In Konya Turkey in Chapter 2.

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