62 ARCHAEOLOGY • March/April 2018Turkish Friendship Park, which
was established to mark the sultan’s
500 th birthday. But archaeological
excavations had never revealed any
conclusive evidence of Ottoman
settlement—much less a mausoleum
complex—in these places. “There were
lots of arguments but no one could
find evidence,” Pap says.
In 2012 , he and his team decided
to take a different approach to the
question. Rather than rely on local
tales about where Turbek used to
stand, they gathered data from old
maps, crop records, and other sources,
and used geographic information
systems technology to reconstruct the
landscape and topography of the area
around Szigetvar in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. “How much
had changed since then was shocking,”
Pap says. “And it quickly became clear
that Turbek could not have been at the
church or the Friendship Park because
those areas were way too marshy back
then.” Rather, the landscape model
indicated that the long-lost settlement
likely sat in the middle of what todayis a vineyard, about 2. 7 miles northeast
of the castle.
According to Pap’s reconstruction,
this area would have been on a small
hilltop, a detail recorded by Suleiman’s
aides in their descriptions of where
tents were placed during the battle.
That area also offered a view of the
castle, another detail reported by
Suleiman’s aides—and something
not available at the proposed church
and Friendship Park locations. When
Pap visited and talked to the owners
of the vineyard there, they offered
him a glass of “Szemlohegy” wine.
“I was shocked,” Pap recalls. This is
the same name that Suleiman’s aides
had recorded for the hill where they
set up the tents for the Battle of
Szigetvar. “The name of this place had
survived in the name of the wine.”
In 2015 , geophysical examinations
revealed the foundations of five
structures spread out over 10 acres
just over a foot below the surface
of the vineyard. Furthermore, the
layout of the buildings was consistent
with the 1664 sketch of Turbek that
Esterhazy had made.
The team began excavating in2016 , first uncovering the foundations
of a large square building. “We had
more and more evidence that this
building must be a tomb, because it
had no mihrab and no minaret,” says
Erika Hancz, an archaeologist at the
University of Pecs who oversaw the
dig. The team found several small
artifacts within the foundation of this
square building, including carved stone
palmettes, popular as a decoration and
seen on many Ottoman structures,including Suleiman the Magnificent’s
burial chamber and mosque in
Istanbul. “The building materials and
techniques and the objects of daily use
confirmed that the site belongs to the
Ottoman period in Szigetvar,” Peker
says. The fact that the layout matches
Esterhazy’s drawing, along with the
absence of other known Ottoman
settlements in the area proves, at
long last, that this is, indeed, the
mausoleum of Suleiman.
Another building—identified as
the dervish monastery—contains
many small chambers, and excavationLETTER FROM HUNGARY
(continued from page 60 )Now the site of a monument to friendship between Turkey and Hungary, this spot
near the Almas Stream was also long believed to be a possible location of Turbek.
The Roman Catholic St. Mary’s Church
was, according to one legend, built on
the site where Suleiman’s heart was
buried. But archaeologists have found
no evidence of Ottoman buildings or
monuments there.