{{short description|Mountain in Manisa, Turkey}} {{Infobox mountain | name = Mount Spil | other_name = Mount Sipylus | image = Ağlayan Kaya, Spil Dağı.jpg | image_caption = The "Weeping Rock" associated with Niobe on Mount Sipylus | elevation_m = 1513 | elevation_ref = see section | prominence_m = | prominence_ref = | listing = | location = Manisa, Turkey | map = Turkey | range_coordinates = | coordinates = {{coord|38|34|02|N|27|27|17|E|type:mountain_region:TR_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | coordinates_ref = | type = Shield volcano | age = | last_eruption = }}
'''Mount Spil''' ({{langx|tr|Spil Dağı}}), also known as '''Mount Sipylus''' ({{langx|grc|Σίπυλος}}) (elevation {{convert|1513|m|ft|0|abbr=on|disp=or}}), is a mountain in Manisa Province, Turkey.
It is located near the modern city of Manisa as well as over the road between İzmir and Manisa. The contiguous mass of Mount Yamanlar, also located close to the Gulf of İzmir, has often been considered an extension of the Mount Sipylus massif, although it is actually an extinct volcano and a distinct geographical formation.
==History== The Manisa relief, a full-faced statue carved into a cliff face, is found near Mount Sipylus, several kilometers east of Manisa. According to the Byzantine commentator John the Lydian, the unknown author of the 7th-century BCE epic poem, the ''Titanomachy'', placed the birth of Zeus not in Crete but in Lydia, which should signify Mount Sipylus.
The names "Sipylus" or "Sipylum" are mentioned by Pliny the Elder, supported by other sources, as the site of a very celebrated city called "Tantalis"<ref>{{cite book | title = History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia |page= 62 |ISBN=978-1-4067-0883-7 |author= George Perrot |publisher=Marton Press|year= 2007|language= fr, en}}</ref> or "the city of Tantalus", after the name of its founder. Presumably located on or very near the mountain, the city's ruins were reportedly still visible around the beginning of the Common Era.<ref>{{cite book | title = Pausanias, and other Greek sketches, later retitled Pausanias's Description of Greece |ISBN= 978-1-4286-4922-4 |author= James George Frazer |author-link= James George Frazer |publisher=Kessinger Publishing Company|year= 2010 |orig-year= 1900-1913-1965}}</ref>
The same Tantalus is famed throughout Greek mythology thanks to the accounts that he had cut up his son Pelops and served him up as food for the gods. His son Pelops is said to have later migrated to the Peloponnese, named after him, and to have founded a kingdom there. Tantalus' daughter was the tragic Niobe, who is associated with the "Weeping Rock" (''Ağlayan Kaya'' in Turkish), a natural formation facing the city of Manisa. The Greek deities Apollo and Artemis were said to have killed all 14 children of Niobe at Mount Sipylus, whereupon the grief-stricken Niobe was turned to stone.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheke'', iii.46.</ref><ref>Quintus Smyrnaeus, i.390ff [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisWrath.html Theoi.com on-line quotation]</ref><ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' VI.145–310.</ref>
Later in ancient times, Mount Sipylus ({{langx|grc|Σίπυλος}}) rose above the site of Magnesia ad Sipylum (the southern portion of modern Manisa), whose existence is traced back as far as the 5th century BCE. Magnesia was located along the Hermus River (Gediz River) on the plain below and was the scene of the defeat of Antiochus III "the Great" by the Romans at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BCE. The city of Smyrna lay nearby.
==Spil today== An important reforestation effort was begun in the 1960s, covering thousands of hectares on and around the mountain.<ref>{{cite book | title = A survey of Sardis and the major monuments outside the city walls |page= 171 |ISBN= 978-0674857513 | author1= George Maxim Anossov Hanfmann |author2= Jane C. Waldba | publisher= Harvard University Press| year= 1975}}</ref> Since then, '''Spil Dağı National Park''' has attracted many foreign and domestic tourists. The famous "Weeping Rock" is still widely visited.
The mountain as a whole presents an area of dense forests and is known for its wild tulips. The mountain is also a common spot for camping, parachuting, hiking and other mountain sports.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}
The motorway connecting the two regional metropolitan centers, İzmir and Manisa, crosses between the two neighboring masses of Mount Sipylus and Mount Yamanlar through the Sabuncubeli Pass, which was much described by ancient travellers and writers and which descends from an altitude of 600 m to sea-level in only a few kilometers. The highest point of the pass corresponds to a point near the boundary between İzmir Province and Manisa Province. To bypass the steep and twisted Sabuncubeli Pass, the {{convert|6480|m|ft|adj=on}}-long Sabuncubeli Tunnel was built from 2011 to 2018.<ref name="z1">{{cite news |url=http://www.zaman.com.tr/gundem_sabuncubeli-tuneli-uzatilinca-acilisi-2016-sonuna-kaldi_2111324.html |newspaper=Zaman |title=Sabuncubeli Tüneli uzatılınca açılışı 2016 sonuna kaldı |author=Kuşen, Mustafa |date=2013-07-17 |language=tr |access-date=2014-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419013522/http://www.zaman.com.tr/gundem_sabuncubeli-tuneli-uzatilinca-acilisi-2016-sonuna-kaldi_2111324.html |archive-date=2014-04-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="mm">{{cite news |url=http://www.manisamanset.gen.tr/11105-haber-sabuncubeli-tuneli-ranta-mi-donusuyor |newspaper=Manisa Manşet |title=Sabuncubeli Tüneli Ranta mı Dönüşüyor? |date=2013-07-19 |language=tr |access-date=2014-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419025108/http://www.manisamanset.gen.tr/11105-haber-sabuncubeli-tuneli-ranta-mi-donusuyor |archive-date=2014-04-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="vaa">{{cite news |url=https://www.trthaber.com/haber/gundem/izmir-manisa-arasini-15-dakikaya-indiren-sabuncubeli-tuneli-ulasima-acildi-369630.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715094728/https://www.trthaber.com/haber/gundem/izmir-manisa-arasini-15-dakikaya-indiren-sabuncubeli-tuneli-ulasima-acildi-369630.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2018-07-15|newspaper=TRT Haber | title=İzmir-Manisa arasını 15 dakikaya indiren Sabuncubeli Tünelleri ulaşıma açıldı |date=2018-06-11|language=tr}}</ref>
==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |title=Aegean Turkey: An archaeological guide |ISBN=978-0-510-03200-5 |date=1967 |author-link=George E. Bean |author=George E. Bean |publisher=Ernest Benn |location=London |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/aegeanturkey0000bean }} {{refend}} {{Commons category|Mount Sipylus}}
==External links== * {{cite web|url=http://www.manisacevreorman.gov.tr/spil.htm|title=Information page|author=Mount Spil National Park|publisher=Manisa Directorate of Environment and Forestry|language=tr|access-date=2007-04-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040821232042/http://www.manisacevreorman.gov.tr/spil.htm|archive-date=2004-08-21|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web | last = Sheridan | first = Paul | title = The Locust Plagues of Mount Sipylus | publisher = Anecdotes from Antiquity | date = 2015-09-05 | url = http://www.anecdotesfromantiquity.net/the-locust-plagues-of-mount-sipylus/ | access-date = 2015-09-05 }} {{Ancient Greece topics|state=autocollapse}} {{National parks of Turkey}} {{Mountains of Turkey}}
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Category:Geography of ancient Greece Spil Category:National parks of Turkey Category:Landforms of Manisa Province Category:Landforms of İzmir Province Category:Tourist attractions in Manisa Province Category:Tourist attractions in İzmir Province Category:Niobe