Ancient City of Perre

One of the five large cities of the Kingdom of Commagene, lying on the road from Samosata to Melitene, five kilometres north of present-day Adiyaman. Its heyday came in Roman times, when a stream of pilgrims and traders passed through Perre and the city was famous for a spring of cold water — still in use today. The main thing that has been excavated is the necropolis: about two hundred burial chambers cut straight into the rocky slope. Each is a room with loculus niches along the walls, the entrance designed as a portal, and some of the chambers are connected to one another. Local people used part of them as dwellings and farm buildings right up to the twentieth century. Above the necropolis, stretches of the Roman road, the foundations of public buildings and steps cut into the rock have been uncovered. The site is open, without fences, and people walk about it freely; tour groups are almost never seen here.

Address

Örenli, Adıyaman

On the map