Investigation of historical earthquakes and traces that caused the destruction of the ancient city of Myra/andriake

In this study, the ancient city of Myra/Andriake were affected by the earthquake of AD 60-68, 141, 529-530 and 7 century. The region is located in the Teke Peninsula, in southeast of the plain of Demre. Completely autochthonous rocks have been identified that groups of rocks outcrop in the region. The study area has an active geological background, incorporates many different tectonic events and structures. In the structural geology section, in order to identify structural development of the region all structural data at the working area are ascertained and plotted on the 1/100.000 and 1/25.000 scale map. The study area was the bedding planes by measuring. After drawing ? diagram the main stress directions in the region were determined. The development of the Demre plain was interpreted with the help of geographic information system techniques. In the content of geoarcheaology, damages resulting from earthquake affects were identified on the structures located at ancient city of Myra/Andriake. Some of the very strong structures constructed with considerable amount of workmanship cracked, strongly deformed and some of them felt down in certain directions. In the ancient city, collapses in structure walls, pieces by cracking, column?s trends of fall, warping and collapses on the walls, tilts and pushes on wall pieces, systematic cracks and their aperture and skeletons under the ruins were ascertained. It was tried to identify geoarcheaological development of the ancient city by identifying and dating all these damages on the structures. At the end of all off these studies, field works were conducted related active tectonics of the ancient city of Myra/Andriae and its close vicinity which located on Demre plain. Also, faults that affected the region in the past and have a probability to affect the region in the future were identified. The relationships between these faults and happened earthquakes were revealed.