The Saga-lasun Project

On May 21, the Saga-lasun group won the prestigious Development Marketplace Award of the World Bank. The Saga-lasun group is made up of our site manager, architect Ebru Torun, the director of the Ağlasun Vocational High School Dr. Salih Ceylan, and architect Göze Üner from our team.

The World Bank will provide 20.000 USD for the project, which targets the youth of Ağlasun. The Saga-lasun project will create awareness about the cultural and natural resources of Ağlasun and how they can be used to promote sustainable economic development. The Sagalassos Project and the Turkish Students Union in Leuven (TSL) are partners of the Saga-lasun group.

The Saga-lasun project will develop and implement innovative ways to inform and involve the students of the local Vocational High School (nearly 1300 students this academic year) and local youth between the ages of 15-24. Ultimately, the project hopes to create a youth-run NGO that will work as a cultural 'portal' for Ağlasun by conducting internet-based education and outreach and by running a heritage centre in town.

This project provides a way to link the natural and cultural heritage of the region – studied in detail for the last 20 years by the Sagalassos project – with the younger generations who will determine the future of the town. The aim is to help them discover ways of using these resources in an appropriate and sustainable way to make a living in their hometown, like the Sagalassians did so well in the past.

This collaboration between a foreign archaeological research team and local educational institutions is unique in Turkey. By conducting local public outreach and enlisting public participation in establishing a local heritage-based sustainable development policy, the team hopes to set an example of successful partnership while preserving local heritage over the long term.

► Learn more about community archaeology at Sagalassos:

What is Community Archaeology?
Community Outreach at Sagalassos
Planning for Sustainable Tourism at Sagalassos