The monument stands at the place called Kuşkayası on the Amasra–Bartın road, four kilometres from Amasra. It was made between AD 41 and 54 by Gaius Julius Aquila, who had commanded the construction army of the eastern provinces in the reign of the emperor Claudius and was then appointed governor of Bithynia and Pontus for life.
Part of the Roman road network and raised in the emperor's memory, the monument takes in a statue of the ruler and the Roman eagle of dominion, both cut into the rock in low relief, two inscriptions that complete one another, seating benches and niches cut in the rock. The heads of the statue and of the eagle have been destroyed.
One inscription stands above the niche that frames the figure of the ruler, the other away from the reliefs to the west. Together they read that, in memory of peace and friendship between states and for the glory of the emperor Germanicus, G. J. Aquila cut through the mountain and had this resting place made at his own expense.
In front of the monument the last traces of the Roman road, up to five metres wide, can still be seen, worn by centuries of use. The remains show that a monumental fountain, a nymphaeum, probably stood beside the monument when it was made and collapsed in time.
Traces of another Roman monument of the same kind, but far plainer, can be seen on the Savrankaya hill above Amasra.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Bartın as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.2 °C in January to 22.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (133 mm) and lightest in May (54 mm). Long-term means for 1961-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
