The Historic Murat Bridge

The Murat River finds its source near Mount Ararat in the northeast and slowly winds its way south-westward till it joins with the Karasu and becomes the Euphrates. Long before ever reaching the Euphrates the Murat River is already large enough to form a major barrier in the ancient landscape of eastern Turkey.

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The Murat Bridge was built to cross the river barrier and connect the region’s numerous cities. The exact date of construction is unknown though there is record of the bridge being here by the 13th century, and it may be even older. Some sources point to a Seljuk Era construction while others claim Armenian which would require a construction date before the Seljuk conquest of the area in 1071 at the battle of Malazgirt which was to the northeast of the Historic Murat Bridge.

Whatever the origin of the bridge, it has undergone numerous reconstructions and repairs over the past 800 years. The bridge deck runs very crooked and its width is inconsistent. Today, the bridge consists of twelve pointed arches of varying sizes with the largest near the center. The bridge deck rises gently to a peak above the largest of the arches and spans 190 meters.

Murat Bridge underwent largescale restorations in 1871, then, most recently in 2004 following the collapse of two spans in 1993 (for photos of the collapsed bridge see the work of local photographer Adem Sönmez who has spent decades documenting the traditional way of life of local herders and farmers). Its not clear what exactly caused the collapse though it was the arches not the piers that collapsed which would suggest a breakdown of the arch itself or the spandrel walls and infill.

According to local legends the bridge was built by a rich Armenian woman, who when watching the work, became annoyed with one of the builders for constantly lighting matches where she was sitting. The worker accused the rich woman of being too stingy so the woman, in order to prove that she was not stingy, promised to hide a box of gold in one of the piers.

According to the same storytellers this has led to the bridge being damaged by treasure hunters looking for the fabled buried gold. Whether or not the bridge has actually ever been damaged by treasure hunters is unknown though legends of buried Armenian gold abound in this area.

The Murat Bridge was also the site of the death of Gevorg Chaush, an Armenian resistance fighter who died in 1907 making the bridge an important site for Armenians.

The area around the bridge has been overrun with kitschy cafes and replica Seljuk encampments intended to celebrate the Seljuk conquest of the region though they mostly sit there mouldering and taking away from the natural beauty of the plain.