Cercetări privind rocile utilizate la construirea cetăţii medievale de la Enisala
Studies on the types of rocks used for the constructing of the medieval fortress of Enisala

Summary/Abstract: The fortress, located on a stony hill overlooking Enisala village, was built in the 14th century. Enclosed within a high wall, two-meter thick, it was for long time a ruin with large collapsed sections. Trapezoidal in outline, the fortress impresses with a vaulted and arched gateway, close to a polygonal guard tower, seven curtains and three bastions at the eastern, northern and north-western corners. The stone masonry brings together several rock types, many of them from the surrounding area, but larger quarries have long since disappeared from the landscape. Few of these rocks are rather exotic, recycled from earlier use. The most prominent construction stone (A1 type) was a hard, dense, coarse calcarenite with Lithothamnion, dated to Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian). Large, raw blocks of this gray rock were used in more than 63% of the whole enclosure. The vast majority of this stone was transported from nearby. The area of geologic interest with traces of supposed man-made cuts – also clearly visible in aerial photographs – is Golovăr Hill, at some distance to the south. In a lesser amount (only 4.2% of the whole), softer, yellowish, Cenomanian limestones (A2 type) were used. In modern times, there are large quarries of encrinitic limestones near Babadag town, on Sultan Tepe Hill. This rock type is also found at Cape Iancila, in combination with Lithothamnion calcarenites. Although good building stones, the streaky-laminated, light-tanned Turonian spongolites and sandstones (B1 type) were used only in low proportion (5.5%) in the whole edifice. Other Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) rocks (B2 type) of less good quality for stone masonry are cherty limestones and sandstones with silicisponges, used in lesser amount (15.7%). Both B1 and B2 rock types are well exposed in the sheer-cliffed Cape Doloşman and extend inland up to and beyond the town of Babadag. C and D rock types encompass gray and brick-red Triassic limestones as small blocks interspersed in the stone masonry and used to fill in the emplecton. Gray limestone (C type) was preferred (7.6%), while reddish limestone (D type) is scarce (1%). The source of the gray limestone blocks is the hill under the fortress, showing small, man-made digs. Reddish, Triassic limestones occur only in Taşburun Hill, in the south-east. Foreign blocks, recycled from an earlier use (herein named exotic) are less frequent (under 3% of the whole). The weathered walls show less regular courses of subrectangular, relatively small, blocks bound by mortar made of lime and sand. Cementing mortar was also used in the emplecton to hold together the pieces of broken stone. The mortar was a mixture of lime and 15% to 50% coarse sand. The coarse, quartzose sand is red-brown in color and comes from a section of Razelm Lake beach situated between Iancila Cape and Călugăra promontory, 8-10 kilometers south-east from Enisala. Rezumat: Cetatea medievală, situată pe o culme stâncoasă ce domină satul Enisala, a fost ridicată

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