Mount Spil (Turkish:Spil Dağı), the ancientMount Sipylus (Ancient Greek:Σίπυλος) (elevation 1,513 m or 4,964 ft), is a mountain rich in legends and history inManisa Province,Turkey, in what used to be the heartland of theLydians and what is now Turkey'sAegean Region.

Mount Spil
Mount Sipylus
The "Weeping Rock" associated withNiobe on Mount Sipylus
Highest point
Elevation	1,513 m (4,964 ft)seesection
Coordinates	38°34′02″N27°27′17″E / 38.56722°N 27.45472°E /38.56722; 27.45472
Geography
Mount Spil Manisa,Turkey
Geology
Mountain type	Shield volcano

Its summit towers over the modern city ofManisa as well as over the road betweenİzmir and Manisa. The contiguous mass of MountYamanlar, also overlooking theGulf of İzmir, has often been considered an extension of the Mount Sipylus massif, with which it shares much history, although it is actually an extinctvolcano and a distinct geographical formation.

TheManisa relief, a full-faced statue carved into a cliff face, is found near Mount Sipylus, several kilometers east of Manisa. According to the Byzantine commentatorJohn the Lydian, the unknown author of the 7th-century BCE epic poem, theTitanomachy, placed the birth ofZeus not inCrete but inLydia, which should signify Mount Sipylus.

The names "Sipylus" or "Sipylum" are mentioned byPliny the Elder, supported by other sources, as the site of a very celebrated city called "Tantalis"^[1] or "the city ofTantalus", 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 theCommon Era.^[2]

The same Tantalus is famed throughoutGreek mythology thanks to the accounts that he had cut up his sonPelops and served him up as food for the gods. His son Pelops is said to have later migrated to thePeloponnese, named after him, and to have founded a kingdom there. Tantalus' daughter was the tragicNiobe, who is associated with the "Weeping Rock" (Ağlayan Kaya inTurkish), 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.^[3][4][5]

Later in ancient times, Mount Sipylus (Ancient Greek:Σίπυλος) rose above the site ofMagnesia ad Sipylum (the southern portion of modernManisa), 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 ofAntiochus III "the Great" by the Romans at theBattle of Magnesia in 190 BCE. The city ofSmyrna lay nearby.

An important reforestation effort was begun in the 1960s, covering thousands of hectares on and around the mountain.^[6] 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 wildtulips. The mountain is also a common spot for camping,parachuting, hiking and other mountain sports.^{[citation needed]}

The motorway connecting the two regional metropolitan centers,İzmir and Manisa, crosses between the two neighboring masses of Mount Sipylus andMount Yamanlar through theSabuncubeli 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 betweenİzmir Province andManisa Province. To bypass the steep and twisted Sabuncubeli Pass, the 6,480-metre (21,260 ft)-longSabuncubeli Tunnel was built from 2011 to 2018.^[7][8][9]

• Mount Spil National Park."Information page" (in Turkish). Manisa Directorate of Environment and Forestry. Archived fromthe original on 2004-08-21. Retrieved2007-04-03.
• Sheridan, Paul (2015-09-05)."The Locust Plagues of Mount Sipylus". Anecdotes from Antiquity. Retrieved2015-09-05.