Southern Türkiye's Antalya remains dismayed that its historic Clock Tower, one of the city's iconic landmarks that was stolen years ago and replaced last year with an investment of TL 3.6 million ($126,000), stops and often shows the incorrect time due to power outages.
Dating back to the Hellenistic period and located on the walls that were built during the Byzantine era, it was constructed as a clock tower during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II in the early 1900s. Restoration work, which began in February 2023, was completed last year.
The restoration and excavation works at the tower were carried out under the supervision of the Directorate of Foundations and the Antalya Museum, based on a project prepared by associate professor Esin Kuleli from Antalya Science University, and with the approval of the Antalya Cultural Heritage Protection Board. During excavation works in the tower, which had been filled with concrete up to a height of 8 meters (26 feet) from the ground in previous years, two lead pieces, each weighing 40 kilograms (88 pounds), were found about 1 meter deep.
One of the pieces was related to the operation of the clock mechanism, and the other was associated with the bell at the top of the tower, which rings every hour. The campana and other parts of the tower were also delivered to the Antalya Museum Directorate for conservation.
It was discovered that the clocks on all four sides of the 22-meter-high tower were not original, with the clocks likely stolen in 1985. The replacement clocks were found to be plastic, and the iron frames used to attach them had caused cracks in the historical stone over time due to their weight. After the plastic clocks were removed, a long search was conducted to find an exact replica of the stolen clocks.
Restorers reached out to Recep Gürgen, a rare craftsman in Istanbul specializing in repairing historical clocks. He repaired and manufactured a clock, donated by a collector, that matched the original from the 1900s and rings every hour. The clock and its internal mechanism were placed in the tower using a crane.
The project, which took three years to complete, cost a budget of TL 3.6 million. However, almost one year after the clock was placed, it has been observed that it occasionally stops, causing time discrepancies of up to one hour. Thousands of local and foreign tourists passing by the clock every day have noticed this issue. It was discovered that the clock is not connected to an uninterrupted power supply, and the occasional power outages cause it to stop. After the power is restored, the officials must climb to the clock tower to reset the time, a process that takes some time.
