Safeguarding of the Dicle (Ten Eyed) Bridge as Tangible and Intangible Heritage

Cultural heritage, which emerges in the flow of social life and includes the reflections of the collective memory/action which is shaped/transformed within the process, reflects the civilization, beliefs and cultures of people living in the past. Architectural elements of tangible cultural heritage appear as tempo-rary/permanent spaces of intangible cultural heritage. The safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage is as important as the protection of tangible cultural heritage. In this context, the evaluation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage elements together with a holistic approach will increase the awareness of the ‘values and the unity of values’ and will guide the conservation efforts to be made. In this study, bridges from tangible cultural heritage elements were selected; the value in the unity of tangible and intangible cultural heritage is focused through Dicle (Ten Eyed) Bridge, which is one of the important works in Turkey, and the rituals that continue to be performed on the bridge. As the method of the study, literature review in local and foreign oral and written sources, documentation and photography with on-site observation method was determined. Thus, a theoretical infrastructure was created for the coexistence of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, based on the samples in countries in different continents of the world and in Turkey. Within the scope of the study, Mostar Bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Khaju Bridge in Iran; Charles Bridge in the Czech Republic; London Bridge in the United Kingdom; Rialto and Vecchio Bridges in Italy; Love Bridges in France, Italy, Germany and Finland; and Irgandı and Gelin Bridge in Turkey, where rituals are kept alive effectively in the world, were explained. The strong rituals which have been kept alive on these structures from the past to the present are the subject of the study. In this study, the centuries-old swallow dives from Mostar Bridge; the sounds of the songs rising from the bridge used as a dam in Isfahan; wishes made by touching the statues in Prague; high state officials participating in the parade of sheep and little children dressed in lamb costumes in London; architectural configurations of arasta, which is home to craftsmen in Venice, Florence; the authentic rituals on which padlocks are hung and keys are thrown from love bridges to rivers in Paris, Rome, Cologne and Helsinki; and on which the newlyweds throw stones into the river, which is the subj ect of a folk song named ‘Köprüden Geçti Gelin’ in Samsun were described. Dicle (Ten Eyed) Bridge, in Turkey, is located just outside Suriçi region, the first settlement area of Diyarbakır, on the foothills of the Kırklar Mountain which is the subject of legends, located three kilometers south of the Mardin Gate one of the four gates of the city and connects the two banks of Dicle River. Within the scope of the study, the aspects of intangible cultural heritage lived on Dicle Bridge as tangible cultural heritage elements; the role of the bridge in recording traditions, beliefs, cultures, rituals and expressions, social memory, habits and transmitting them to future generations have been provided. Visitors make wishes by throwing papers from the bridge on holy and special days, they play local folk dances (halay) with drums and shrill pipe (zurna) on the bridge, the bridge and its surroundings are used in photography on special days in four seasons, they watch the scenery from the bridge and the sitting areas around the bridge, they go fishing and keep the rituals alive for centuries. The aim of this study is to investigate the contribution of the intangible cultural heritage to the cultural heritage by the more effective using of Diyarbakır historical Dicle Bridge, was closed to traffic after the restoration works and turned into a recreation area for the people of the city and opened to the visit of local people and tourists. It is thought that defining the value added by tangible and intangible elements reflecting this unity and transferring it to future generations will be effective in directing the studies on conservation and social projects and enriching tourism activities.