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image of the area surveyed taken from the air

The area

The Isparta Archaeological Survey (IAS) is based in the area between the modern city of Isparta, the northeastern spit of Lake Burdur, and the northwestern shore of Lake Eğirdir. In antiquity this region was known as Pisidia and then, as now, it consisted of the rugged landscape of the southern folds of the Taurus mountains intersected by various plains. From north to south these plains are the Senirkent Ovasi, the Gönen Ovasi, and finally the Isparta Ovasi.

While the geological features of the region will be studied in depth in the future, some preliminary comments on the landscape can be made. Above all else, topographical diversity is the hallmark of the region. The high peaks of the Barla and Tınaz Mountains frame the valley to the north, gently descending through alluvial fans into the plain of Gönen, which forms an east-west corridor linking Lake Eğirdir to the districts of Milyas and Kibyratis beyond Lake Burdur. Discrete, low relief massifs hedge in the plain to the south, thus giving this basin its secluded character. Limestone with interspersed flysch, sandstone, and conglomerate are the geologic signatures of these mountain systems, while sedimentation on the piedmont and the plain has not completely obscured the archaeological record. The hydrology of the region, in recent years it has undergone drastic transformation. In particular, two small dams east and west of Gönen have created hydrological basins to collect waters from the adjacent massifs.