LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| PHOTOGRAPHS | |||
| Plate | To face page | ||
| I. | Bulghar-Madên: Approaching the Taurus Mountains, | [Frontispiece] | |
| II. | (i) A Valley in the Taurus, | [4] | |
| (ii) Headwaters of the Halys near Sivas, | |||
| III. | Aleppo: View of the city from the citadel, | [6] | |
| IV. | Karakul: A Kurd family at home, | [8] | |
| V. | Kartal: | (i) Verandah of a house, | [12] |
| (ii) Group of Turkoman women, | |||
| VI. | Bogche: A chief pass over the Amanus Mountains, | [14] | |
| VII. | Beilan: Summit of the pass, | [16] | |
| VIII. | Woodland on the south slopes of Taurus, | [18] | |
| IX. | Cæsarea: Cloister of a school, and citadel, | [22] | |
| X. | Injesu: Mosque and town, | [24] | |
| XI. | Halys River, between Chok Geuz and Bir Geuz, | [26] | |
| XII. | Yeni-Han, near Sekkili: Nomad encampment, | [28] | |
| XIII. | (i) Chesme Keupru: Interior of the han, | [30] | |
| (ii) Sekkili (near): Yuruk encampment, | |||
| XIV. | (i) Nefez-Keui: Women drawing water at the Spring, | [32] | |
| (ii) Tyana: Turkish women and child, | |||
| XV. | (i) Yuzgat: Dervish and vagabonds, | [34] | |
| (ii) Kulakly Keui: Types of inhabitants, | |||
| XVI. | Angora: Old houses on the outskirts, | [36] | |
| XVII. | Nefez-Keui; Carpet-weaving, | [38] | |
| XVIII. | (i) Nefez-Keui: Minaret of the village mosque, | [40] | |
| (ii) Anatolian Horses: Noonday halt, | |||
| XIX. | Bor: Bridge over the Kizilja-Su, | [42] | |
| XX. | Approaching the Cilician Gates, | [44] | |
| XXI. | Entrance of the Cilician Gates, | [46] | |
| XXII. | (i) Going south through the Cilician Gates, | [48] | |
| (ii) Tarsus: The gardens and the town, | |||
| XXIII. | Tarsus: | (i) The walls of Dunuk Tash, | [50] |
| (ii) Sacred stone at an Arab shrine, | |||
| XXIV. | (i) Bey-Keui: The Royal Road, | [56] | |
| (ii) Dimerli: A fallen Lion, | |||
| XXV. | (i) Dimerli: The Lion tomb, | [60] | |
| (ii) Ayazîn: Tomb with Lions, | |||
| (iii) Tyana: Phrygian inscription of Midas, | |||
| XXVI. | View near Sardis: Valley of the Pactolus, | [64] | |
| XXVII. | Cilicia: Roman aqueducts over the Eastern plain, | [68] | |
| XXVIII. | Kyrrhus: | (i) Roman Tomb, and | [70] |
| (ii) Ruined Bridge, | |||
| XXIX. | Baalbek: Sculpture and Temple Ruins, | [72] | |
| XXX. | Ephesus: The Library of Celsus, | [74] | |
| XXXI. | Angora: Temple of Rome and Augustus, | [76] | |
| XXXII. | Nigdeh: Portal of the White-Midresseh, 1223 A.D., | [78] | |
| XXXIII. | Nigdeh: Tomb of the Seljûk period, | [80] | |
| XXXIV. | (i) Ephesus: Mediæval fortress with Seljûk Remains, | [82] | |
| (ii) Konia; Zazadîn Han, of Seljûk work, | |||
| XXXV. | Rowanduz Kaleh; Mediæval fortress, | [84] | |
| XXXVI. | Cæsarea: Old Turkish cemetery, | [88] | |
| XXXVII. | Hamath: Inscription in Hittite hieroglyphs, | [94] | |
| XXXVIII. | Aleppo: Fortress on the Acropolis, | [98] | |
| XXXIX. | Sakje-Geuzi: Royal hunting scene, | [104] | |
| XL. | (i) Killiz: Bronze figures, | [106] | |
| (ii) Denek Maden; Ivory seal, | |||
| XLI. | Aintab: Inscription on sculptured corner-stone, | [108] | |
| XLII. | Marash: Architectural Lion corner-stone inscribed, | [110] | |
| XLIII. | Rowanduz: Camp scene in the Qurt Dagh, | [122] | |
| XLIV. | Malatia: | (i) Priest offering to lightning-god on bull, | [138] |
| (ii) Priestess offering to winged deity, | |||
| XLV. | Palanga: Inscribed columnar statue, | [142] | |
| XLVI. | Ekrek: Hittite inscription with Christian emblems, | [148] | |
| XLVII. | Fraktin: The rock-sculptures, | [150] | |
| XLVIII. | Bogche: Hittite inscription on round-topped stone, | [154] | |
| XLIX. | Yamoola: Giant eagle standing upon lions, | [156] | |
| L. | Angora: The acropolis, | [162] | |
| LI. | Ayazîn: Rock-hewn tombs and church, | [164] | |
| LII. | ” Roof of the church with dome, | [166] | |
| LIII. | Sipylus: Image of the Mother-goddess, | [168] | |
| LIV. | Kara-Bel: The Hittite God of Arms, | [172] | |
| LV. | Tyana: Ruined Roman aqueducts, | [184] | |
| LVI. | Bor: Hittite inscription and relief, | [186] | |
| LVII. | Ivrîz: Giant sculptures on the rock, | [192] | |
| LVIII. | Boghaz-Keui: Site of Pteria, | [200] | |
| LIX. | ” Gorge of the Beuyuk Kayanin Daresi, | [202] | |
| LX. | ” The Lion Gate, | [204] | |
| LXI. | ” | (i) The Fortress called Yenije-Kaleh, | [206] |
| (ii) Remains of the Lower Palace, | |||
| LXII. | ” Bird’s-eye View of the Lower Palace, | [208] | |
| LXIII. | ” | (i) Camp at the foot of Beuyuk Kaleh, | [210] |
| (ii) Iasily Kaya: Sculptures on the left, | |||
| LXIV. | ” General view of Iasily Kaya, | [212] | |
| LXV. | ” Central sculptures at, | [214] | |
| LXVI. | ” Group of two monstrous figures, | [218] | |
| LXVII. | ” One of the female figures, | [222] | |
| LXVIII. | ” The King-Priest at Iasily Kaya, | [224] | |
| LXIX. | ” | (i) The Small Gallery: view, | [226] |
| (ii) Hittite portraits, three figures, | |||
| LXX. | ” The dirk-deity, | [228] | |
| LXXI. | ” Hittite God embracing the priest, | [232] | |
| LXXII. | Eyuk: Sculptures decorating frontage of palace, | [252] | |
| LXXIII. | ” | (i) Shrine of the Mother-goddess, | [260] |
| (ii) Musicians with bagpipe and guitar, | |||
| LXXIV. | Coast Route round the Gulf of Issus, | [270] | |
| LXXV. | Sinjerli: | (i) Ceremonial Feast, | [280] |
| (ii) Warrior with spear, | |||
| LXXVI. | ” Sculptures of gateway in situ, | [286] | |
| LXXVII. | ” | (i) Hittite God of the Skies, | [292] |
| (ii) God of the Double Axe, | |||
| LXXVIII. | Sakje-Geuzi: Entrance to Palace, | [300] | |
| LXXIX. | ” Lion corner-stone (left), | [302] | |
| LXXX. | ” Lion and adjoining sculptures (right), | [304] | |
| LXXXI. | ” | (i) Sculptures of left flanking wall, | [306] |
| (ii) Continuation of the series, | |||
| LXXXII. | ” Sphinx-pedestal to central column, | [310] | |
| LXXXIII. | Hittite Allies: | (i) Mongoloid, | [318] |
| (ii) Proto-Greek, | |||
| LXXXIV. | Surviving Types: | (i) Amorite | [320] |
| (ii) Hittite, | |||
| LXXXV. | Nomads passing into Asia Minor, | [322] | |
| LXXXVI. | Cæsarea: Types of Semitic settlers, | [334] | |
| LXXXVII. | Yeni-Han: Group of nomad women, | [340] | |
| LXXXVIII. | Battle of Kadesh: Hittite chariotry charging, | [344] | |
| PLANS | |||
| Boghaz-Keui: Plan of the Rock Sanctuary called Iasily Kaya, | [221] | ||
| Eyuk: Plan of the Sphinx-Gate, | [247] | ||
| Sinjerli: Sketch Plan of Gateway, | [278] | ||
| MAPS | |||
| Hittite States after the Revival of the Tenth Century B.C., | [375] | ||
| Submergence of the Hittite States (Eighth Century B.C.), | [385] | ||
| Map of Hittite Sites in Asia Minor and Northern Syria, | [To face 390] | ||
I
A CHAPTER OF GEOGRAPHY
At the outset of our undertaking we are faced by a considerable perplexity, in that the land we are setting forth to examine is practically undefined. We are guided indeed by vague and scanty historical references towards the north of Syria and the east of Asia Minor, but for a wider and surer delimitation, however incomplete, we must rely on the evidence afforded by the disposition of the Hittite monuments themselves. These cannot fix for us any certain boundaries, nor does the area throughout which they have as yet been found coincide with any great natural landmarks such as are wont to form the frontiers of nations. On the other hand, their curious disposition, and the very disunity of the tract they indicate, awaken our interest by a suggestion of unusual circumstances that could weld together, in political unity, peoples whose conditions of life so differed. And though mostly in the heart of a peninsula washed by the blue waves of two great inland seas, no part of the long coast-line can be included, upon present evidence, in our territory. Maybe the cause is only that the conditions there are not favourable to the preservation or recovery of monuments; but none the less it is to be noted that no trace of Hittite handiwork has yet been found around the coast, whether along the wooded shores of the Black Sea in the north, on the fertile inlets of the west,[1] or on the rocky passes of the Syrian seaboard; nor has any clear connection yet been shown between the Hittite confederated peoples and those sea-rovers who, from their harbours under the southern shelter of the Taurus, made piratical descents upon the Egyptian Delta in the thirteenth century B.C.[2]
Thus we see the Hittites as a purely inland people, not taking to the sea more kindly at any rate than do the Turkish peoples of to-day. The centre of their monuments is the mountainous region of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus systems, whence on the one hand they lead us down to the hot plains that lie between the right bank of the Euphrates and Mount Amanus (the Giaour Dagh), with a continuation to the south by the valley of the Orontes as far as its sources in the Lebanon; and on the other hand widen out to embrace not only the northern fringe of the Taurus Mountains, and the basin of the Halys River, but practically the whole broad tableland of Central Asia Minor, with one finger pointing down the Hermus valley past Sardis to the west. The inference to be derived from these preliminary considerations will receive confirmation as we proceed with our inquiry, when we shall find reason to believe that the peoples whose land we are trying to map out were of mountain origin. The problem of their settlement, however, remains obscure; we must await the results of further investigations to determine whether it was a combined movement of peoples, bringing with them the elements of their civilisation, like the Turks in modern history, or whether for ages they endured the rigours of mountain life before they became strong enough to descend upon the hospitable plains below.
The wilder mountains of Greater Armenia, east of the head-waters of the Euphrates, show no definite sign of Hittite settlement;[3] but they form a distinctive boundary to our region, being the culmination of the system of which the Taurus are a part. Here too is the centre of mountain-ranges which, like the rivers rising in their heights, descend in several directions. To the north the towering peak of Ararat, seventeen thousand feet in height, looks down upon the green upland valleys of the Caucasus. Towards the east, the range which skirts the Caspian Sea connects beyond with the systems of Central Asia. Towards the south, another chain holds up as it were the highlands of Asia, on the one hand, giving way on the other to the basins of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and touching eventually the eastern waters of the Persian Gulf.
The Taurus system is another such chain trending westward, dividing Asia Minor from the rest of Asia, skirting the southern coast-line, then breaking and scattering as the level falls towards the west until it descends below the sea, where its hilltops, still projecting, form the Ægean archipelago, until drawn together it rises to dry land on the soil of Greece. In the heart of these mountains, the two main sources of the river Euphrates flow in a westerly direction until they unite above Malatia;[4] thence twisting and turning ever, in its search for a passage through the rocky ramparts that oppose it, the great river makes an easterly contour until nearing the plains. Before reaching Gerger, however, its direction is changed once more, turning westward in a long curve past Samsat towards Aintab, and southward to the latitude of Aleppo: from here its course becomes more tranquil and direct towards the Persian Gulf.
The bend of the Euphrates below Malatia marks for the present the boundary of the Hittite country on the east. The whole mountainous region lying to the west of this landmark is divided by the gorges of the Pyramus, comprising the bleak easterly heights of the main Taurus range on the one hand, and the more broken but less barren regions of the Anti-Taurus which lie within. From the Taurus numerous torrents fall southward to join the bend of the Euphrates, while the northern slopes of the same range look down on the deep valley of the Tochma Su. This river, flowing eastward, is another main tributary of the Euphrates, which it joins not far from Malatia, and it forms our present boundary to the north in that direction.[5] Its sources are found high up past Gurun in the main watershed, from which some rivers flow southward to the Cilician plain, others north-west to feed the Halys.
PLATE II
A VALLEY IN THE TAURUS (See [p. 5].)
HEAD-WATERS OF THE HALYS NEAR SIVAS (See [p. 26].)
The routes connecting the north of Syria with Asia Minor make use of these natural channels of approach. Thus the main road from Aintab northwards, after reaching the Pyramus near Marash, follows that river closely to Albistan, whence the bed of a stream leads up to the divide that gives way to the valley of the Tochma Su beyond. Derendeh is thus gained; and up this new valley the road passes by Gurun northward, and so over the watershed to Sivas in the valley of the Halys. From Albistan another route leads eastward to Malatia; and westward a path passing by Izgîn rises over the mountains to the interior.[6] A more direct route, however, from Aintab and Marash leads by the side of streams that feed the Pyramus north-westward up to Shahr (the classical Komana), on the sources of the Cilician Sarus; thence, by one of several passes, among which is the Kuru-Bel, the head-waters of the Zamanti Su are reached, so leading down to Cæsarea at the foot of Mount Argæus. The last-named river is tributary to the Sarus, passing by Ekrek, Tashji, and Fraktin on its course.
It may be judged that a region so broken up by mountain-streams is not altogether barren or inclement. Its very altitude, averaging six thousand feet above the sea, gives respite from the summer heats that make life burdensome upon the Syrian plains. Green patches nestle under the shelter of its heights, protected thereby from the severity of winter blizzards when the mountain-passes may be filled with snow. And in its deeper valleys, though the actual banks are mostly rocky, yet the broad slopes on either side are generally favourable to the cultivation of cereals and other necessaries. The numerous fair towns that have sprung up in favoured spots, mostly upon Hittite sites, with their gardens and vineyards, fruit and olive plantations, their industries in weaving and embroideries, reveal to us something of its attractions and the possibilities of ancient settlement.
Just as the roadways of this region converge upon Marash, so from this centre other lines of communication spread out into the regions of the south. On the one hand the valley of the Pyramus leads down to the Cilician plain; on the other the road to Aintab, which we now follow, brings us to the northernmost parts of Syria, historically the scene of the struggles of the Hittites with the Pharaohs and with Assyria. The whole tract before us as far southward as Aleppo is of twofold character: on the east are the great plains that lie away to the Euphrates, while on the west two mountain-ranges intervene between these and the sea, lying parallel with one another and with the coast.
The plains are really an apex to the Syrian desert, themselves watered sparsely by winter streams flowing to the Euphrates, with some independent rivers which, failing to find an exit, resolve themselves into small salt lakes and swamps. There are no trees or other protection against the withering sun, and the surface is broken only here and there by low ridges and the mounds which mark the sites of ancient settlements.[7] The people are mostly Kurds, mingled with the settled descendants of northern Bedouins, using a primitive Arab speech. Their life is arduous: their crops are parched before they can be reaped; but none the less out of generations of experience they find the means to live and feed their flocks. Except for local routes, the only roads which cross this desolate tract lead from Aleppo and from Aintab to the crossing of the Euphrates now found at Birejik, not far from the site of ancient Carchemish at Jerablus.[8]
PLATE III
ALEPPO: VIEW OF THE CITY FROM THE CITADEL: THE KONAK IN THE FOREGROUND (See [p. 7] and [Plate xxxviii].)
Aleppo itself must be classed as a city of the plain, though its economy is different. Here is the natural centre of commerce for the north of Syria and a great part of Western Asia. So, instead of being a peasant village upon a nameless stream, Aleppo has grown to be one of the fairest cities of the East. Local industries have developed, adding to its resources. Its stone-built houses and public places, its groves and fruit-gardens, as well as the hearty spirit of its people, are the tokens of its prosperity. Another town of considerable interest and importance is Killiz, on the border of the plain, midway between Aleppo and Aintab. In approaching this place the road passes through miles of olive-groves, which form long lines of dark green upon the red loamy soil.
From Killiz as we turn westward the character of the landscape is immediately changed; the plains are left behind, and the mountain country is entered that lies between them and the sea. Of the two ranges mentioned previously, the Qurt Dagh, which is first encountered, is less bold than its western neighbour, and also less continuous, giving way gradually towards the south. It is wild and varied enough, however, to provide a series of memorable panoramas of mountain scenery. Northward the head-waters of the Afrîn[9] River have scoured deep gorges in its wooded heights; and the main stream, flowing southward in a wild and sparsely cultivated valley, has hewn for itself a rocky bed through which it swirls until the hills are left behind, when turning westward it flows on to join the Orontes near to Antioch. In such a country it is not surprising that no Hittite monuments have been placed on record. It is in contact, nevertheless, on either hand, with places where some of the most instructive Hittite works have been discovered; and we are tempted therefore to linger somewhat in this unfamiliar region, seeking in the life and features of its people for living witness of the ancient civilisations in which it must have shared.
The population is naturally scanty, and varies racially according to its disposition. On the basalt plateau which forms the eastern boundary to the valley, leading down to Killiz and Aintab beyond, several villages of Kurdish families are found. Here communication with the towns is frequent, and mingling is not uncommon accordingly with other elements of the Turkish people. The houses are often well constructed of masonry, for stone is plentiful; indeed, the whole plateau is so thickly strewn that even the pathways are difficult and narrow, while before the plough can be put to the land a space must first be cleared at considerable labour. Consequently the amount of cultivation is small, and even the sparse grain that grows wild over thousands of acres remains unreaped. In addition to the settled villages, and the tumbled ruins of many deserted hamlets, this high ground is freely sprinkled in the summer-time with the tents of nomads, either seeking refuge temporarily from the eastern plains, in accordance with a common practice, or halting for a brief season on their endless journey.
PLATE IV
KARAKUL: A KURD FAMILY AT HOME
Husband, wife, child of an elder wife; two brothers, left.
The rocky edges to this plateau on the western side are broken ever and again by rifts, down which a more copious supply of water tumbles from above, opening out into little nooks under the shelter of the heights before joining the main valley of the river below. In such places a village may be found amid a patch of comparatively luxurious cultivation, well illustrated by the vines and mulberries of Rowanduz. This pleasant spot lies at the foot of the steep descent from Karakul upon the plateau, and is marked by the ruins of a fine mediæval castle crowning a prominent cone-like hill.[10] The groves and gardens are watered by a primitive system of irrigation. The rich soil readily repays the labour bestowed upon it in however simple fashion.
Lower down, in the main valley and nearer the river’s bed, the aspect of the country is generally savage and neglected. A short withered scrub speckles the surface of the ground, which is reft in every direction by the dry gullies of winter torrents. The main routes, here as elsewhere, keep consistently along the higher levels, crossing the rifts near their beginnings, before they have become too rough and too steep to scale. Other tracks are found naturally along the river’s bed, which they cross and recross, scaling the cliffs where the water has laid bare the rocks, and at other times passing through more open spaces cheered by narrow strips of corn-land and the rich bloom of a myriad oleanders, wherever the steep banks recede a little way on one side or the other. These lower tracks, however, are never easy to follow, even under favourable conditions, on account alike of the numerous scrambles over cliffs often shaly and precipitous, where a false step of horse or man might lead to disaster, and also of the numerous crossings of the river, often deceptive to any one unfamiliar with the fords. The latter obstacle becomes a grave danger after mountain storms which may have passed almost unnoticed in the valley. Even in summer-time thunder-clouds from time to time collect above the heights, and amid a gorgeous display of lightning and reverberating thunder a torrential rain transforms in a few minutes the rocky basin of the river. The dried-up gullies are now alive with splashing streams, and the slumbering rivulets become foaming torrents, the sudden uproar of scurrying streams and newly born cascades striking the ear with curious strangeness and foreboding.[11] In an hour or two the streams are once more tranquil and the sun has reappeared; but the river below has received nearly all the water that has fallen, and swirls on deep and dangerous. Fords that have little changed their appearance are now impassable, and none but the stranger will attempt to cross them.
Even without such temporary dangers, the unwary traveller in such a country, trying maybe to force a march when unacquainted with the village tracks and local landmarks, will surely come to grief; and though within an hour or two of some village where loyal, if frugal, hospitality awaits him, will find himself lost, with little means of knowing how to direct his footsteps. For the village which he would gain lies hidden out of sight in some sheltered nook, or behind a bend in the river, or beyond a rise of ground. Yet even though he reach the village by night, whether as an armed party or as a benighted wanderer, his welcome is secure, and his life is sacred. No questions will be asked him, nor will any demand the reason of his coming. Warm milk and home-made bread-cakes, and sometimes honey, will be offered him as refreshment; and after a few simple courtesies the best room will be put at his disposal. In the morning the ‘swash-swish’ of the churn, an inflated goatskin, will tell him that the housewife is busied with his breakfast: soon the door is opened and he recognises in his attendant, who lays the round tray before him, none other than his host, the headman of the village. His horse is fed and saddled, and the chief’s son is his guide.
In the main valley, however, we have not found that which we seek. Pushing on then up one of the sources of the river we reach Kartal, in a green dell begirt with wooded hills. Though off the beaten track this place is only one day’s journey by mountain-path from Aintab. Perhaps on this account the people here are freer. Their simplicity of life is the same, but their curiosity is greater and their restraint is less. Here we are soon friends; and have opportunity to study their manners and their features. Their houses are partly hollowed in the hillside as in many parts of Asia Minor, alike for economy in construction, and for better protection against rain and cold. The roofs are built of timber, and so covered with earth that it is difficult in descending from above to distinguish them from the surface of the ground with which they are continuous. The chief industry of the villagers, in addition to the tending of their fields and flocks, is the making of butter and dairy produce, which is sent to the market at Aintab. They are said to be Turkomans, descendants of wanderers from the East who settled here many generations back, and now an element of the Turkish people. But there is something in their faces reminiscent of Hittite portraits, suggested generally in the women, and marked strongly in some of the men, though in others not at all. This glimmer seems to be due to mixture in past times with a pre-existing population; for in the hills above there are settlements of woodmen whom even these villagers regard as a somewhat strange and different people. Here, at last, we come face to face with that remarkable type portrayed so clearly on Egyptian sculptures, and suggested also in the Hittite monuments themselves, characterised by the strong nose in line with the receding forehead, the round protrusion of the head behind, the heavy lips and beard, and the stolid look. The figure is short and thickset, betokening stamina and strength. Our photograph[12] was obtained at Kuchuk Kizil-Hissar, nearer to Aintab, but it is clear that the home of this type is now the mountainous country, where it has persevered in seclusion and still survives.
Our wanderings in this district have not then been fruitless. The traveller may be rewarded also by a picture of wonderful beauty to be seen at sunset from the wooded heights near the sources of the Afrîn River and the Kara Su. Pen cannot describe the delicacy and harmony of the colours in the trees, with the effects of light and shade among their leaves and in the shadows of the foreground; nor could brush compose the majesty and depth imparted by Nature to the distance of this scene. Ridge beyond ridge, of varied forms and softening colours, leads back to where beneath the reddening glow the bold ranges of the Amanus chain are seen purple, even while the snow-clad peaks of far-distant Taurus in the north still gleam in the last lingering rays of light.
PLATE V
KARTAL: VERANDAH OF A HOUSE
Churning, left; crushing grain with a wooden mallet, right back.
KARTAL: GROUP OF TURKOMAN WOMEN
(Note the cylindrical hat and cover).
From here the western edge of the Qurt Dagh range descends abruptly to a broad and marshy valley, shut in, on the other side, by the Giaour Dagh. The land is flat, and the streams, after descending from the mountains, mostly stagnate in marshes overgrown with reeds and scrub. From the middle tract egress is almost wholly shut off, by ridges and outliers from the hills. Such water as escapes either flows northward to join the Pyramus or southward to form the Kara Su. Though now pestilential with malaria and sparsely inhabited, this valley is naturally very fertile; and numerous mounds which dot the surface are indicative of extensive ancient settlement.[13] Among these are the sites of Sinjerli and Sakje-Geuzi, which provide us with our most complete architectural monuments of the Hittites on this side of the Taurus. Here there seem to have been a series of petty states or principalities,[14] consisting of groups of towns clustering round the palace of the local king, fortified strongly with stone walls and towers. We do not yet know what may have been the precise relations of these elements of the population to one another; but it is clear that in the days of Hittite supremacy they must have been amongst those tribes who shared in the confederacy.[15] It is also obvious that no people could hope to defend themselves in this valley who did not hold the passes of the mountain-ranges on either side.
PLATE VI
BOGCHE: THE VILLAGE WHICH GIVES ITS NAME TO A CHIEF PASS OVER THE AMANUS MOUNTAINS
The westerly chain of the Giaour Dagh, indeed, was readily defensible. Except for a few local tracks available only in the summer, there are but few passes over its unbroken mass, and these are well defined. This splendid range of mountains, better known as Mount Amanus, forms a main branch of the Taurus system, from which it is divided only by the valley of the Pyramus. It separates Syria from Cilicia on the west, and touching the sea near Alexandretta follows the coast south-westward, until arrested by the broad valley of the Orontes. The average height of the chain is from four to six thousand feet, while some of its peaks reach almost to the snow-line.[16] Of the several passes that traverse it, that which leads transversely from Marash into Cilicia presents the easiest gradient, and is much used by caravans, though impassable by carts. The central pass above Bogche, however, is better known, being the direct line of communication between Cilicia and the East. Bogche itself is reached from Osmaniyeh on the eastern borders of the Cilician plain by a path which, while generally following the valley of the Bogche Su, traverses also some outlying ridges. The village is thus found picturesquely situated in an open and fertile spot among the hills. The long ascent thence continues up to one of the main sources of the same stream until the watershed is crossed, whence the descent is steep and rugged to the valley. The track then heads directly by Sakje Geuzi over the Qurt Dagh to Aintab, and so eastward to the crossing of the Euphrates. Though direct and not very difficult, this route is not yet made passable by carts, and perhaps for this reason the mail from Adana and the West takes the coast route, on mule pack, round to Alexandretta,[17] whence rises the main road to the interior. The Beilan Pass, as it is called, above Alexandretta, is by far the easiest, and the steep gradient on either side is so nicely engineered that it is hardly realised in passing where the watershed is crossed. Leading down directly to the fair seaport on the Mediterranean, this route for centuries has been a main channel of commerce between Europe and Asia; and until the railway connecting Aleppo with Beyrout diverted a large part of the traffic, caravans consisting of hundreds of laden camels in long procession could be seen daily, bringing out the merchandise of the East, and taking back the manufactured products of the West.
The mountain-chain now turns south-west, and terminates abruptly in the rocky point called in Arabic Ras El Khanzîr, ‘The Pig’s Head,’ while its southern slopes descend steeply to the estuary of the Orontes. Beyond, the mountainous character of the coast is continued south in the Jebel Ansarîa (or Bargylus Mountains), which hold on until broken by the broad rift which divides them from the Lebanon. Hugging the eastern side of this range the Orontes River comes northward, and turning sharply where the mountains break, it flows past Antioch south-westward to the sea. At the bend it is joined by the Afrîn River and the Kara Su in a broad and swampy hollow almost shut in by the mountain-ranges and the eastern plains.
The sources of the Orontes are found in the northern region of the Anti-Lebanon, and here the southern limit of the Hittite monuments is reached.[18] In this vicinity was Kadesh, the frontier fortress of the Hittites that figures so prominently in the battle-scenes of Egypt. Here, too, is Homs, now a remarkable Arab city, at the junction of the main routes from Damascus to Aleppo, and from Palmyra to Tripolis on the sea. Further north is Restan, strongly placed at a bend of the river on a steep and naturally defended knoll. Further again is Hamath, where the main road and the river separate, the latter turning westward to seek its green bed below the mountains, and the former holding on directly towards Aleppo across the plains. Here, at Hamath, were found the hieroglyphic inscriptions which first gave rise to systematic Hittite studies. Here, too, types of people are found strongly reminiscent of the past, like living models of the ancient sculptures.[19]
PLATE VII
BEILAN: VIEW OF THE VILLAGE AT THE SUMMIT OF THE PASS (See [p. 15].)
This district, in the head-waters of the Orontes, was not only the Hittite frontier, but was such as the Hittites in the period of their settlement seem to have delighted in. Here their walled towns and citadels sprang up, in the midst of a land well watered and reasonably fertile, under the shadow of mountains which cut them off from the sea and from their enemy of the South; while behind the road was open to call up in necessity the assistance of the northern branches of their people.
From the Taurus we descended firstly to the north of Syria, because in the development of Hittite studies this region first attracted attention through the references to it in Egyptian and Assyrian history. But modern research has added to our knowledge of the Hittite lands a wider and different territory on the other side. There the descent to the interior of Asia Minor from the mountains is not so marked, for even around the foot of snow-capped Argæus, the most advanced pinnacle of the system, the plateau is still four thousand feet above the sea. The level falls gradually towards the west, but rarely much below three thousand feet; while on the other hand the numerous minor ranges that break the surface of the interior attain a considerably greater height. This tableland is almost enclosed by ridges of mountains: on the north and south these descend directly to the coast; on the west they are more broken and less bold, but they constitute none the less a great obstacle between the plateau and the green valleys of the Ægean coast.[20] On the east, as we have already seen, are the Anti-Taurus ranges, backed by the Armenian hills beyond. The upland area thus enclosed is from two to three hundred miles across according to the direction taken, for its form is irregular. Only to the south is the boundary sharply defined, where the range of Taurus forms a mighty wall, which in the middle turns almost a right angle in direction, running north-eastward and north-west. The whole plateau may be regarded as irregularly five-sided.
The interior varies greatly in its features, the chief agent being the peculiarities of its river systems. Shut in as it is, many rivers fail to find an outlet to the sea: this is especially the case in the plain which lies at the foot of the western ranges of the Taurus, where the waters stagnate, forming salt lakes or marshes. This plain is green around Konia, but its extensions to the north and east are practically desert, being parched and barren in the summer months. On its north-east, in the centre of the peninsula, its boundary is the largest salt lake of the interior, which is fed likewise by several minor inland streams. There are some rivers, however, which find an outlet even through the Taurus ranges, but such are more common towards the west and north-west. The districts which these water are consequently among the most attractive of Asia Minor, with areas of natural woodland and green pastures, as well as fertile soil for cultivation.
But the greatest river and most important landmark of the interior is the Halys, which describes a broad circuit through the heart of the plateau, enclosing towards the north-east a tract about a hundred and fifty miles across which mostly lies in the basin of the river, well watered by its many tributaries. This region is one of the most important in our subject. Though not extensively cultivated, for the stable population even here is relatively small, it is none the less highly fertile. Its hills and slopes are mostly green with pastures, and in the flat valleys are long reaches suitable for the plough. Another favoured district lies southward from the Halys, passing by Mount Argæus, skirting the eastern edges of the plain, and watered by streamlets from the Anti-Taurus. Here in the vicinity of Tyana are wide acres of corn-land, gardens are plentiful, and even trees abound.
PLATE VIII
WOODLAND ON THE SOUTH SLOPES OF TAURUS (See pp. [19], [47].)
Woodland is rare in the interior, but highland trees grow in profusion on the mountain-sides. The middle heights of the Taurus are covered with virgin forest, especially on the southern aspect, where every variety of European tree is found; and the pine-woods of Phrygia in the west have been a feature of the country throughout its history.[21] The slopes overlooking the Black Sea, however, catch the chief share of the northern rains, and here consequently forest-land is plentiful,[22] and nearly continuous along the coast. The interior is almost rainless in the summer-time,[23] and relies chiefly for its water supply on the winter storms, and later melting of the mountain snows. Owing to its high elevation above the sea the cold season is severe and persistent: the bleak winds from southern Russia sweep across its plains and open spaces, driving the population of the exposed areas for shelter into houses either sunk below the surface of the ground or hollowed in the banks of streams. The compensation for this inclement season is ample in the summer weather, when the warm sun shining down from blue skies is tempered by refreshing breezes which the altitude produces—features of climate that distinguish this tableland from the southern coasts, and from the plains of Syria.
Such in brief are the striking features of this portion of the Hittites’ land. On these breezy highlands the ancient people found all the elements of contentment: hunter, woodman, shepherd, and peasant found each his home, in which Nature provided him with all the ordinary requirements of his life. Nor was the development of his civilisation to be arrested by his settlement: the resources of his country were inexhaustible; mines of useful and precious minerals are not uncommon;[24] and the means of providing other commodities was at hand, for the walls of the plateau were not without openings to foster some relations with the coast and so with other lands. But, on the whole, the uplands which he had occupied were economically self-contained; and for the stimulus to his civilisation we look naturally to the East, and especially to the old-established culture on the Euphrates, the communications with which, by the nature of his settlement, were open and in his power.[25]
In the foregoing general view of Central Asia Minor we have seen that the interior tableland may be divided conveniently for description into five main regions, not for the most part separated from one another by any definite boundary, but each characterised by some special feature. These are, in the south, the plains that lie northward and eastward from Iconium; in the west, the pine-clad hills and verdant pastures of Phrygia, where several great rivers rise that descend in different directions; in the north, the upland but not highland country around Angora, in which also is the divide between some tributaries of the Sangarius and of the Halys; in the north-east, the broad tract enclosed by the convex curve of the Halys River, to which we shall presently return; and, in the south-east, the tract of which Tyana is the centre, with which we shall include the eastern portion of the plain of Konia and the range of Taurus that bounds it on the south. Of these regions, the two latter may be regarded as an eastern or inner group as opposed to the three former lying to their west, from which they are physically separated, more clearly, at any rate, than the components of either group from one another, by the broad expanse of desert, the great central lake, and especially by the middle course of the Halys. This distinction between eastern and western will be found to have a real significance as our story develops: it is clear from the outset, however, that the former group would first receive and longest retain contact with Eastern civilisation, whether by the natural approaches over the watershed between the Euphrates and the Halys, or by the several crossings of the Anti-Taurus which converge upon Cæsarea, or by what is now the chief channel of communication through the Taurus Mountains by way of Cilicia. This distinction will be found further emphasised by the comparative plenty of Hittite monuments on the one side, and their paucity in the west. On the southern plains, indeed, skirting the main range of Taurus, westward progress was less restrained;[26] but that the Halys in the north presented a real barrier[27] is borne out by the fact that when the Lydian Crœsus crossed the Halys in the sixth century B.C. he found a strange and presumably non-Aryan people surviving upon the eastern side, who were indeed, according to Herodotus,[28] called Syrians by the Greeks, and by that historian spoken of as Syro-Cappadocians.
With our two eastern divisions we must include the plain and district westward of Cæsarea, a tract which on the north lies partly in the basin of the Halys, and on the south is practically continuous with the plains of Tyana, from which it is separated only by a low ridge of hills. Towards the west are the remarkable troglodyte villages,[29] where, probably from remote antiquity, the inhabitants have hewn out their dwellings in the soft surface rock and conical mounds which are the peculiar feature of the locality. There is little evidence as yet, however, to make this region of importance in our subject, and it is only recently that Cæsarea has yielded trace of Hittite handiwork.[30] None the less the continuation of exploration will certainly bring to light new monuments, for the district lies in the heart of the Hittite country; and Old Cæsarea (Mazaca) was the residence of Cappadocian kings.
PLATE IX
CÆSAREA: CLOISTER OF A SCHOOL, WITH THE CITADEL BEYOND
The position of Cæsarea is geographically of great importance, and from Roman times at any rate has marked the focus of the trade and traffic, and consequently of the road-systems, of the interior. The soil locally is of great fertility, owing to its volcanic nature. Vines and fruit-trees grow and thrive luxuriantly. The middle heights of slumbering Argæus are covered thickly with pine-woods. The snow-capped peak of this mountain towers in the heavens, the conspicuous feature of the horizon and the landmark for two days’ journey on every side. Its form is conical: to the west and south, where it rises directly from the plain, its base is washed by great lakes and marshes of variable extent. Towards the east it is connected up by broken ridges with the Anti-Taurus system. On its northern slope is Asarjik, overlooking Cæsarea, which lies at the foot of the mountain on that side. The site of the ancient city (Mazaca) is probably that marked by the ruins of Græco-Roman times, to be found in the vineyards on a low spur of the mountain about a mile south of the modern town.[31] Here is a spot that will one day reward excavation by a volume of unsuspected history. In the modern town, apart from its bazaars and industries and its splendid mediæval remains,[32] one of the most interesting sights is the ever-changing stream of human faces to be seen in its streets, for its traffic and position bring to it daily caravans from every side. In its resident population there are considerable Greek and Armenian elements; but there may be noticed as specially of interest to our subject the Jewish families,[33] in which the dominant features of face and stature recall again the type previously noticed at Kartal in Northern Syria. Main roads radiate from Cæsarea in all directions: towards the north-east to Sivas by the valley of the Halys; to the north by Yuzgat, crossing the river, which is five hours distant from Cæsarea, by a remarkable bridge of many spans (hence called Chok-Geuz Keupru); to the north-west by way of a lower bridge (called in contrast Bir-Geuz, or One-span Bridge), heading thence directly for Angora by the bridge at Cheshme Keupru; to the west across the plains to Konia by Sultan Han, skirting the southern border of the salt lake (Tuz Geul); to the south by Injesu and Tyana, and so to the Cilician Gates, or by a western branch to Eregli. An alternative route from Cæsarea to the Cilician Gates, shorter but impassable by carts, leads through defiles of wild beauty through the outlying ridges of the Anti-Taurus. South-east there are several well-established mountain tracks, like those to Fraktin and Ekrek, but there is one of special interest and antiquity, to which we have already alluded, heading directly for Marash by way of the high pass of Kuru-Bel,[34] and passing hence by Komana. Of the other routes enumerated there is one which was already of importance on general grounds before a recent discovery gave to it a special historical interest. This is the main road north and south, passing through Yuzgat, which in antiquity connected Boghaz-Keui with the east by way of Tyana and the Cilician Gates. This is clearly a southerly stage of the Royal Road of the Persian period, but whether it is the main route is not determinable from the description of Herodotus.[35] It has, however, now been traced for several miles between Injesu and a ford of the river near Bogche,[36] by the ruts scored deeply and over a broad track on the surface rock, exactly like the section previously traced through Phrygia by Sir William Ramsay.[37] It is significant that this route did not touch Cæsarea, to reach which a considerable détour must be made around the foot of Argæus, so much so that even now an optional route is in use from Injesu to Chok-Geuz Keupru. The old route was, if anything, even more direct, for from Injesu, near which it is traceable, it headed for the river in due line for Boghaz-Keui. The Hittite inscription overlooking the river at Bogche, the continuous signs of the road approaching Injesu from this direction, the Phrygian inscription found on the site of Tyana,[38] and the Hittite inscriptions from the same vicinity,[39] are evidences of the antiquity of this road analogous in every way to those which have been accepted as identifying it in the Phrygian country, from Bey-Keui to Doghanlu. Incidentally we find light in this discovery on the historical antiquity of the Cilician Gates as the main channel of communication with the east. Later in these pages[40] we shall find reason to believe that the western part of the great Royal Road, which led the Persian posts in crossing Asia Minor to make the wide détour by way of Pteria (even though the city was in ruins),[41] had been made and established by the Hittites in the thirteenth century B.C., when the stone walls of their capital crowned the hilltops of Boghaz-Keui. Possibly the earliest communication with the East was by way of the valley of the Tochma Su,[42] or by Marash; but the development of this southern branch of the main chariot-way cannot well be later than the tenth century B.C., when the second kingdom of the Hittites grew prominent with Tyana (or maybe Cæsarea) as its centre.
PLATE X
INJESU: VIEW OF THE MOSQUE AND TOWN
In passing now to a closer examination of the geography of those portions of the tableland with which we shall be most concerned in later chapters, we cannot begin more appropriately than by a description of the Halys River itself, as one of the definite landmarks of the interior, and as including in its circuit some of the most instructive Hittite works. This splendid river, known in the Turkish language as the Kizil Irmak, has a total length of five hundred miles, without counting its minor windings. Its sources must be sought in the map beyond Sivas, far up the northern slope of the lower Armenian hills,[43] where at one point but a few miles divide it from several tributaries of the Euphrates. For nearly two hundred miles it holds on in a south-westerly direction through hilly country, fed by numerous short streams on either hand, which scour for themselves deep channels in their swift descent. Its waters are deeply stained red-brown in colour by the rich sediment which it carries. Its banks are rugged, and like most main rivers of western Asia it flows deep below the general level of the basin which it drains. The bridge opposite Cæsarea (Chok-Geuz) is only gained by a steep climb on either side. Between this and the other bridge some fifteen miles lower down, the river flows characteristically through a steep-sided valley, with only narrow strips of verdure along its banks. These strips are precious, and, though liable to be washed out by flood,[44] are cultivated with great care by individual peasants, who are rewarded with fruits and even flowers, as well as the vegetables which are their chief concern.[45] Sometimes these strips, which are never more than a few feet in width, give way entirely where the rocks protruding from the bank present an obstacle around which the deep waters swirl. Ever and again, however, the steep banks recede, leaving a green oasis wherein a village lies among its crops. Yamoola is such a place, where the right bank lies back as the lower bridge is approached. But for the most part the edges of the plateau in which the river’s bed is sunk are so rugged and so strewn with stone that they remain uncultivated. Here and there villages are found even in the river’s banks; in some cases the entire houses are excavated therein, so that their windows look out on the water through walls of solid stone, as at Chok-Geuz Keupru; in other cases the excavation is more partial, leaving most of the frontage and part of the roof to be built—the one with mud, the other with timber and mud, as may be seen by following the left bank below the lower bridge. The traveller will also be rewarded here in summer-time with wildflowers in varieties of colour surpassing imagination, possible only in a highly fertile and neglected soil. Patches of pink, blue, orange, white and yellow meet the eye in quick succession. Roses grow in profusion, while here and there are whole fields of purple iris, shining and changing hue as they bend in the sunlight to the winds that play upon them.
PLATE XI
THE HALYS RIVER, BETWEEN CHOK GEUZ AND BIR GEUZ
The volume of the river has now become so great that fords are few and generally difficult. That near Bogche[46] is no longer passable in the winter and spring-time. The village itself lies back from the river-brink about fifteen miles below the Bir-Geuz bridge. Karaburna lies near the opposite bank, another day’s journey lower down. Hereabouts the hilly ground which lies eastward of the great lake Tuz Geul arrests the southerly progress of the river, which, thrown back, turns in a great sweep north-westwards for nearly a hundred miles, then northwards to latitude of Angora, so dividing the heart of the peninsula. The chief bridge in the latter portion of its course is now at Cheshme Keupru, where amongst other main communications the road from Cæsarea to Angora recrosses the river. Hereabouts it would seem there was a bridge and fort or guardhouse in Persian times,[47] where the royal road from the Phrygian country and the west passed over towards Boghaz-Keui. Above this bridge the immediate banks are green and on the left side open; but below the waters pass at once into a rocky defile, changes which are typical of the varying nature of the river’s bed. Opposite Angora (which is distant about thirty miles at the nearest point) Nature opposes further obstacles to the northerly progress of the river in the broken ranges of the northern coast, so that it now turns completely upon its original direction, and henceforth flows north-easterly with one main détour. As it winds around the foot of the Kush Dagh it descends from the plateau, and in a widening valley with fertile banks finds its way into the Black Sea, northwards from Samsun, at the point of a promontory which it has itself deposited.
PLATE XII
YENI-HAN, NEAR SEKKELI: NOMAD ENCAMPMENT ON THE DELIJE IRMAK (See [p. 29].)
The great circuit of the Halys encloses a tract of country a hundred and fifty miles across, watered chiefly by tributaries of the same river. Of these the Delije Irmak is chief, and it is perhaps more directly concerned with the fertility of the country than its parent river. It rises in the watershed of the Ak Dagh Mountains, under the southern slopes of which the Halys itself flows down the long reach between Sivas and the bridges near Cæsarea. Thence in its course it makes a similar circuit within that of the Halys, which it only joins in the middle of the north-westerly reach. This river is more gentle in its flow, and its banks are mostly flat alluvial tracts of great fertility; indeed, the land would support a population many times more numerous than its settled inhabitants. Long green pastures and arable spots remain unneeded and neglected. It is small wonder that the wandering Turkoman and other nomad peoples have found out this favoured region so suitable to their habits and the feeding of their flocks. Their tents in little groups are found quite frequently in places off the beaten tracks; indeed their encampments remaining through several years sometimes mark the foundation of villages and settled life. The tent of the nomad is generally made of lengths of rough hand-made cloth, woven from home-spun goats’ wool. These are sewn together to give a considerable expanse of cover, which is spread over vertical poles and brought down to earth on the windward side. In such a tent the owner and his family share a common shelter with their flocks and any other animals they may possess.[48] In some cases the development of the house from tent may be watched growing proportionately with the duration of their stay. For the ashes and rubbish are regularly thrown out around the back of the tent for mere convenience. This refuse gradually accumulates, and may be increased by earth cleared gradually from within, and by stones collected from the land in use around, so that in a year or two a wall or mound three or four feet high already encloses the tent on three sides. The worn-out cloth cover is now replaced by a roof of rafters and twigs covered with earth, and perhaps without realising it the nomad has settled and built a house. The solution is not always so simple or purely economical. In some cases walls of reed are built, over which the cover will be stretched as before and held down all around with pegs. In due course, with a prolonged stay, the worn-out cloth will be replaced by thatch, and rough stone walls supplant the decaying reeds; and so, as he loses the habit of wandering, the nomad loses also the necessaries of his journeys.
PLATE XIII
CHESME KEUPRU: INTERIOR OF THE HAN (See [p. 28].)
NEAR SEKKELI: YURUK ENCAMPMENT (See [p. 29].)
The Delije Irmak is replenished in its turn by numerous smaller streams; on one of these is Yuzgat, which had its origin in a settlement of Turkomans, and has now grown to be one of the most important towns of the district. It is pleasantly situated in the cup-like hollow of a green hillside, and with its well-ordered streets, its stone-built bazaars and public buildings, has an appearance of considerable attraction. Here horses are to be procured of useful kind and at reasonable prices, and a great horse fair is held annually in the summer months. The masoned stone used in its construction was largely brought from the ruins of ancient Tavium, which is found at Nefez-Keui, a short journey to the west. The latter is one of the most typical and instructive villages of the interior. It is placed near the sources of another tributary of the same river, well up the southern slopes of a considerable secondary watershed. In typical fashion the backs of the houses are partly excavated in the hillside, so that the mud-covered roofs are continuous with the ground behind, while the fronts of the houses and the village streets are banked up in terraces. Nearly all the houses have some form of verandah sheltering their entrances; and numerous Greek inscriptions may be found built into the walls of many buildings. The ancient acropolis may be recognised by a few sculptured fragments in a steep knoll some minutes westward, and on the way the modern cemetery is passed in which also several stones bearing Greek inscriptions or sculptures have been re-used and in some cases re-inscribed. The main industry of the villagers here, as everywhere in Asia Minor, is naturally agriculture. The fields in the dales below, though somewhat marshy in places, are very green with luxurious pastures and some quantity of trees; while nearer the village gardens of vegetables are plentiful with orchards of fruit-trees and a considerable expanse of vineyards. Other national industries are carried on in the houses unnoticed, such as the hand-weaving of small carpets,[49] done chiefly by the women. The water supply of the village is found in several springs, which have been built up and prepared for the watering of cattle and flocks, as well as for domestic purposes. The scene of women washing their garments or their children at the trough, or drawing water at the source is here, as throughout the East, one of the most characteristic of daily life. The prevailing type of face among the inhabitants of this place is Turkoman, but a certain clean-cut Greek or proto-Greek type of face may be found suggested in some few of the men, recalling distantly a special type of Hittite warriors as portrayed in Egyptian sculpture. Some of the women are noticeably beautiful.[50]
Northwards from Nefez-Keui the route continues to rise to the crest of this secondary watershed, which reaches a height of over seven thousand feet. From the eastern edge several streams fall away to join the Chekerek. As soon as the northern slopes are reached, a remarkable change of landscape presents itself; bare patches are replaced by continuous pastures, and the stream which descends towards Boghaz-Keui passes through meadows and wooded glades of peculiar beauty. As the river[51] gathers strength it works its way into a deep continuous vale of increasing splendour, the slopes of which are thickly covered with trees and shrubbery of considerable variety, except where here and there a bare patch of rock or red-brown soil adds to the contrast of colours. At the mouth of this valley, on the right at the foot of the hill, the little village of Boghaz-Keui is disclosed, with its white minaret and houses and large konak, on a low outcrop of rock, made pleasant by a few trees and splashing streams. The ridge is left behind, and the landscape immediately opens out into wide pastures bounded by dark green uplands, and broken freely by white limestone rocks. The name of this place, the ‘Village of the Gorge,’ has arisen possibly on account of its general situation, or more probably in reference to the deep ravine of another river[52] which bounds the eastern edge of the historic hill, on which are the palaces and acropolis of ancient Pteria, that marks the one-time capital and centre of the land. It is difficult for us now to realise, with the changed political and economic conditions, what special feature there was peculiar to this site, unless that were its climate and defensible position, that should have marked it out for such a destiny. Its ancient city is now a deserted ruin, without meaning to modern life. Its roadways have no longer any significance, and even in the faces of its people there can be seen no reflection of its former population. It would seem that the Lydian conqueror of the sixth century B.C. had thoroughly and effectively destroyed it.[53]
PLATE XIV
NEFEZ-KEUI: TWO WOMEN DRAWING AT THE SPRING
TYANA: TURKISH WOMEN AND CHILD
Another Hittite site, marked by a low mound now covered by the village of Eyuk, lies some twenty miles farther to the north. The route thither winds around somewhat barren uplands, among which a few arable spots have been chosen as the sites of villages. In some of these, particularly in the remoter places upon the hills, an ancient type survives in striking and rugged contrast to the familiar though varying Turkish features.[54] Our photograph, taken at Kulakly (a hamlet on the way from Boghaz-Keui to Eyuk), discloses the same prominent facial details and sturdy figures as we have previously seen in the woodlands above Kartal in the north of Syria. It is a type preserved to some extent in the Jewish families found in some of the towns of Asia Minor, as we have seen to be the case at Cæsarea.[55] It is strikingly reminiscent of the Amorite element among the Hittite allies on the Egyptian battle scenes.
The main roadways of this region, as indeed throughout the tableland in general, are curiously independent of the river systems. Local tracks follow naturally the valleys of streams so far as these serve for the required direction, but in general the high roads are independently devised. Of these the two which cross at Yuzgat are the chief: the one leads from Cæsarea northwards either to Chorum, the administrative headquarters of this district,[56] or to Amasîa somewhat eastward, and so on to Samsun on the coast of the Black Sea; while the other connects Sivas with Angora and the west. The latter route as it approaches the Halys passes by Denek Maden, where are considerable mines of lead and silver, the ore of which contains also antimony and gold. The descent to the Halys bed lies through a well-timbered country, and the river is crossed by this route at Cheshme Keupru. There are also other routes of considerable importance, one of which has been mentioned as connecting Cæsarea with Angora directly, crossing the Halys twice; while another from Angora eastward, much used in summer-time, passes over the river considerably north of Cheshme Keupru, heading for Sungurlu, whence the way is open to Chorum by way of Eyuk, or to Yuzgat, passing in this case by Boghaz-Keui.
There are some few rivers of this region which do not enter the basin of the Halys. The chief of these is the Chekerek, which rises likewise in the Ak Dagh Mountains, and pursues a circuitous course northwards, in avoiding the slopes of minor ranges, until it joins the river Iris at Amasîa. The last-named river, called in Turkish the Yeshil Irmak, with its main branch the Lycus, belongs entirely to the coastal system, and so does not enter into our account of the interior plateau. Another stream just eastward of the Iris is the Thermodon, made famous in Greek literature[57] by its association with the Amazons. This is one of a series of similar rivers which flow almost directly northwards to the Black Sea from the lower Armenian hills. There are other short rivers of like kind westward of the Halys, some of which help to feed that river, while others flow directly to the sea. These do not need to be mentioned by their names, as they all fall away from the northern slopes of the broken and irregular chain of mountains that forms the northern boundary to the tableland.
PLATE XV
YUZGAT: DERVISH AND VAGABONDS
KULAKLY KEUI: TYPES OF INHABITANTS
The most westerly main river flowing to the Black Sea is the Sangarius or Sakaria, which rises in the interior, and avoids the northern ranges by a long westerly détour. Numerous early tributaries of this great river rise indeed in the slopes of those northern mountains, while others fall from the western side of the divide, which on the east overlooks the Halys. These meander southward and westward, seeking for an opening through the upland region of which Angora is the economic centre. The country which they water resembles in general characteristics many portions in the basin of the Halys; and though large tracts equally remain barren and neglected through lack of population, it is on the whole better cultivated, and hence more productive. Angora itself is strikingly placed upon a hill, crowned by an old fortress which overlooks a ravine with precipitous sides.[58] Here are extensive gardens and cultivation in sheltered spots, and in the immediate neighbourhood are numerous orchards and vineyards. The place is famous for its fruits, especially pears and apples, and for its honey. The Angora goat is historic, and there is still a considerable trade in the mohair which this animal produces, and to some extent in special woven fabrics. It is the administrative headquarters of a large province, the seat, that is to say, of a Wali; and is an important trade centre for the interior. Several main roads converge upon it, notably the high road connecting Constantinople with the East, by way of Yuzgat and Sivas, which crosses the Halys at Cheshme Keupru. A route no longer of first importance, but dating probably from Phrygian times[59] at least, connects Angora with Giaour-Kalesi, some thirty miles south-west, and another place in this vicinity with which we are concerned is Yarre, placed just above a bridge across the Sangarius called Karanje Keupru.
PLATE XVI
ANGORA: OLD HOUSES ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY
In the time of Herodotus the country around Angora was obviously regarded as a part of Phrygia, the eastern boundary of which was the Halys, dividing it from Cappadocia,[60] yet we have preferred to look upon this as a northern region apart, and to assign to the Phrygian country its later and more familiar boundaries. As such Phrygia forms the geographical centre of the western portion of the peninsula. Here is the main watershed, in which are found the head-waters of three river systems. On the one side are the sources of the Hermus and the Mæander flowing down to the Ægean in the west; on another rises the Cayster (the Akkar-tchai), and several smaller rivers which follow a southerly or south-easterly course, emptying into inland lakes; while from the northern slopes, as we have previously noticed, other waters feed the Sangarius, and are rolled with the flood of that river into the Black Sea eastward from the Bosphorus. These uplands are among the most attractive parts of Asia Minor; the bracing air is filled with the delicious scent of pine-woods, the verdant pastures are well watered by numerous clear streams, and the meadows ripen under a glowing sun, the rays of which are tempered by the altitude. Here, too, are numerous monuments of the Phrygian kingdom; while north-east from these, at Doghanlu Daresi, on one of many minor tributaries of the Sangarius, and south-west at Bey-Keui, at one of the sources of the same river, near the summit of the watershed, there have been found traces of Hittite handiwork. Through the heart of this region, too, there passed the royal road of Persian times,[61] visible as a series of parallel scars in the surface rock. This was the main highway linking West with East, and that it developed largely during Hittite times also is seen by the disposition of Hittite monuments along its track. Near the coast, it passed near where the sculptures of Sipylus and Kara-Bel looked down on the approaches to Smyrna and to Ephesus. From Sardis its precise route eastward is not determined, but it must have entered the Phrygian country near Bey-Keui, whence it is traceable past Bakshish and the monument of the Phrygian Midas, near which is also the Hittite sculpture at Doghanlu Daresi. Still leading north-westward past Giaour-Kalesi, it would seem to have crossed the Sangarius near to Yarre, and the Halys either at or just northwards from Cheshme Keupru,[62] heading in all this otherwise unexplained détour for Boghaz-Keui, the chief centre of the Hittites in the north. This road had already lost its main objective even in Persian times, for Pteria seems never to have recovered from its overthrow by Crœsus, but it continued to be used, probably because it was ready made; and its traces remain, like the isolated monuments of the Hittites in the west, striking witnesses to a vast system of government and economic organisation unlike anything in later times. For our immediate purpose it is sufficient to notice that all the clearly Hittite monuments westward of the Halys are found along this single line of road, a fact which is as significant as it is remarkable.
PLATE XVII
NEFEZ-KEUI: CARPET-WEAVING (See [p. 31].)
We do not include in the foregoing considerations the region of which Iconium (Konia) is the centre, which fills the southern corner of the tableland. Several main roads radiate naturally from this place, which is the chief town of the province; there are, however, only two or three with which we are even indirectly concerned. Of these one leads north-westward, passing Ilgîn at a distance of about fifty miles, and so into Phrygia, which it approaches up the valley of the inland Cayster. The second is that which leads eastward across the plains by Sultan Han and Akserai for Cæsarea; and a third, bending southward to avoid the desert plains, communicates by Eregli with the Cilician Gates and with Tyana (Kilisse Hissar). In ancient times there must have been a more direct road connecting Iconium with Tyana, passing by Ardistama, the site of which is still marked in what is now desert by the name of Arissama, with the neighbouring mounds of Emir-Ghazi.[63]
Around and northward from Iconium there are extensive grass plains, the natural grazing ground of horses which are sent in great droves annually to the fairs and markets of the country, even as far as Baghdad. The breeds are not remarkable for quality, and cannot compare with those rare and beautiful animals reared in the plains that border the middle course of the Euphrates; but they are for the most part a hardy species standing little higher than a European pony, useful for transport, and trained for the saddle to the fast walking pace in which long journeys are always made.[64] The rivers of this region are short and local, ending for the most part upon the plains in salt lakes and marshes, which, after the snows have ceased to melt, become almost dry, leaving the ground covered with white incrustation. Some of these lakes are of such volume as to be permanent; the largest of the kind, as has already been mentioned, is Tuz Geul; its waters are more dense even than those of the Dead Sea, and as they recede with the approach of summer they leave behind thick deposits of salt, collected regularly by the natives, who come many days’ journey for the purpose.
There is another great lake a long day’s journey westward from Iconium; its situation, however, is quite different from the foregoing, as it is well up in the western mountains, nearly four thousand feet above the sea. The town of Beyshehr, which gives its name to the lake, is found on its south-eastern corner; and the road thereto from Iconium passes by Fassiler, a place remarkable for its ancient monuments and the peculiar facial type of its inhabitants. Further to the north, and near the eastern border of the lake, is Eflatoun-Bunar, the site of a famous ‘Lycaonian’ structure called ‘Plato’s spring.’ With the tract westward of Konia, however, we have at present little concern,[65] and when we turn eastward we are inclined to regard the Hittite sites, whether along the edge of Taurus like Mahalich and Ivrîz, or isolated in the desert like Emir-Ghazi, as pertaining not to Konia, from which they are separated by desert, but to the same group as Tyana, with which they are to some extent geographically connected.
PLATE XVIII
NEFEZ KEUI: MINARET OF THE VILLAGE MOSQUE
Built of the drum of a fluted column, an altar and moulded base, of the Roman period. (See [p. 31].)
ANATOLIAN HORSES: THE HALT AT NOONDAY (See [p. 39].)
This eastern group of sites, indeed, is remarkably linked together by a common river system. The centre is the ‘White Lake’ Ak Geul, at the foot of the Taurus, westward from Eregli, and southward from the desert ridge called Karaja Dagh, on the northern slopes of which is Emir-Ghazi.[66] This lake is of variable size. When overfull its surplus waters disappear in a hole that passes under the mountain; during the dry season, however, it becomes a marshy pond of stagnant water. Into this come three chief rivers. From the south-east the Ak Su, which rises in the main chain of Taurus, drains also the outlying spur known as the Kara Dagh, on the crest of which is Mahalich. Here also is Bin Bir Kilisse, ‘The Thousand and One Churches,’ an ancient site; while just to the north the isolated hill called Kizil Dagh rises from the plain. From the south-east there comes the Kodja Su from high in the Bulghar Dagh, flowing past Eregli, before which it is joined by a stream that with wonderful noise gushes forth in many points from the rock near the hamlet of Ivrîz, six or seven miles above the town. This source is called by the natives Huda Verdi, ‘God-has-given,’ in appreciation of a divine gift that transforms an arid corner of the desert into a garden-valley rich in fruit-trees and vines. Into the same lake from the north-east comes the Kizilja Su, after a sluggish journey across the eastern plains, fed in its course by many streams descending from the inner ranges of the Taurus. The head-waters of this river give life to a whole district of peculiar interest. The main stream rises just northward at Andaval, flowing past that village to Nigdeh and thence to Bor; just below here it is joined by another branch on which is Kilisse Hissar, the site of old-time Tyana. Here are abundant and picturesque ruins of antiquity, and though nothing has yet been found earlier than the time of the Phrygian Midas,[67] there seems to be no doubt from the accounts of Strabo and other sources that it was from earliest times the political centre of this region. It is even probable that the Hittite inscriptions found in each of the neighbouring towns just mentioned have been transported from here in past times.[68] This district is mostly level, being actually the eastern border of the plain, though lying at the foot of the Ala Dagh Mountains that from here trend north-east towards Argæus. Owing doubtless to the various fertilising properties of the numerous streams that come down from the hills the whole country is unusually fruitful and productive; indeed, the region around Bor was in olden times selected as a part of the Roman Imperial Estate. Everywhere are wide acres of corn-land; while in the vicinity of the town are gardens, groves, and vineyards, adding to the attraction which the numerous monuments of antiquity already impart to it. The same features prevail all along the route from Cæsarea by Injesu, passing by the extensive groves and gardens of Develi Karahissar and the miles of arable land, dry but productive, between Arabli and Andaval. The approach to Tyana, as we proceed, runs for miles alongside an ancient but ruined aqueduct, picturesquely placed among gardens and trees.[69] Continuing south, the rolling plains give way gradually to the outlying spurs of the Taurus, and the main route crossing the watershed leads on towards the Cilician Gates, down the main valley of the Chakia Su.[70]
PLATE XIX
BOR: BRIDGE OVER THE KIZILJA-SU
A mountain-track, leaving the road at Bayal, leads southward over a series of parallel ridges of increasing height and grandeur[71] directly for Bulghar-Madên. The silver mines, to which the place owes its name and probably its being, seem to have been considerably worked in ancient times. The village is found deep in a valley under the Bulghar Dagh, a chief range of Taurus, nearly nine thousand feet in height. The stream rises far up the ridge, from the opposite side of which a branch of the Kodja Su flows down towards Ivrîz and Eregli. Its course is eastward, and as it dashes down its rocky bed it is already, when passing Bulghar-Madên, nearly three thousand feet below the snow-splashed crags along the base of which it flows. From there the valley, though narrow and steep-sided, assumes the verdant and enchanting beauty that ever dwells by mountain-streams, lending character to a large portion of the Hittites’ country. But to the traveller following in summer-time the track that winds down the left bank of the river, this beauty and enchantment is intensified here by the vast setting of the picture, by its fulness and variety of detail and rich contrasts of colours, combined with the movement and variegated costumes of the people that mingle in the scene. The banks are fruit-gardens, and wildflowers of varied sorts carpet the ground with splendour. Vines and mulberries are in profusion; and ripe cherries may be plucked even from the saddle, their bright clusters mottling everywhere the dark green foliage. Below, the swirling waters, seen at intervals, contribute also their harmonious changes, being white and gleaming where played on by the bright sunlight, and again clear green in the deeper pools and shaded places. From among the trees, the bright colours prevailing in Turkish costumes, reds and blues, yellow and white, add to the effect; for the whole population of the scattered hamlets, men and women, boys and girls, are in the gardens or beneath the trees. At one place may be seen an aged couple bending side by side at their work upon their tiny plot of land. Below, under a spreading tree, against the stem of which he leans, a bare-legged boy is piping his reed flutes, as Marsyas did, while boys and girls stand near in groups talking and at play. Beyond, out of sight of these, upon a sand-and-pebble beach two little boys, quite naked, are dancing merrily by themselves to the distant music. In the background rises the immense wall of mountain: its lower slopes are thickly wooded with larch and pines, giving way in the middle heights to scrub oak, which continues to struggle upward until the bleak rock appears. Overhead a curious phenomenon tempers the heat of noon-day in this happy valley, especially on windless days when its beneficence is most appreciated. Towards mid-day a mist, arising probably from the melting of the snows upon the ridge, spreads over the valley like a canopy, and so it remains until as the afternoon wears on the vapour re-condenses, and the bright sun reappears to cheer the evening. Except for this peculiarity the valley resembles in general many of those innumerable sheltered rifts among the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains, wherein the rigour of winter is recompensed by the bounteous summer, and the scattered population pursues its life, isolated from and almost independent of the moving world.
PLATE XX
APPROACHING THE CILICIAN GATES FROM THE NORTH (See [p. 46].)
Where this mountain-stream unites with the Chakia Su a bridge carries the track across to the other bank to join equally the main road to the South. This is the historic route leading through the Cilician Gates, the only pass available for traffic through the unbroken rock wall of Taurus. Peoples have passed through it that have formed nations; the armies of conquerors have traversed it in the struggle of continents; religions from the East have made it their channel of approach towards the unthinking West; Paul of Tarsus travelled through it bringing the Cross of Peace; and through it the Crusaders took back in due time the Cross of War. Makers of history—Persian, Greek, and Macedonian; Christian, Jew, and Moslem, all have passed this way. The nicely engineered road, however, with its bridges and embankments, its rock-cuttings and eased gradients, is a work of modern times. At the opening of our story we must look back to the beginnings of the pass in a rough track alongside the rushing stream. Even in early Hittite times, if we pay regard to the disposition of their monuments, it seems probable that the longer but more open route that follows the Tochma Su, and the shorter but rocky track that descends by Kuru-Bel, continued to be the chief lines of communication between the two main branches of their empire.[72] Previous, however, to Persian times the road through the Cilician Gates must have been sufficiently arranged to enable a wheeled cart or chariot to pass that way.[73]
The route may be divided into main sections, the first reaching as far as Bozanti Han. In this portion, which may be regarded as the northern approach to the Cilician Gates, the scenery gradually attains all the beauties of a deep mountain-pass. The steep slopes of the valley are clad with the dense growth of pines, mixed freely with oak and cypress, and other trees of varying foliage. In places the bare rock protrudes and towers aloft precipitously, with sharp peaks reaching to the snow-line. Ever and again a more open glade, or the widening of the wooded valley where the river is joined by other waters, adds pleasing variety to the journey, and brings into greater prominence the boldness and beauty of the views. At one place, visible by a short détour, there burst out of the rock the clear dark waters called appropriately Kara Su, changing the colour of the entire river. Several ‘Hans’[74] are passed and bridges crossed before nearing Bozanti; and hereabouts the river, with which the road has descended thus far, enters a rocky and precipitous defile through which it rushes to the plain. Avoiding this, the route crosses a low divide, and descends upon an arm of another river, the Cydnus, which leads down eventually to Tarsus and the sea. For a short way in this second section of the route the country is more open, but the enchantment of it is maintained in the wooded highland landscapes, with views of the dark green slopes of rugged Taurus and the snowy crest and crevices of Bulghar Dagh. Two well-placed ornamental forts[75] are passed, and the winding road, when seemingly faced by an impenetrable ridge of mountain, enters suddenly a deep rocky gorge. The spot is marked by an inscription of Marcus Aurelius on a rock in the river’s bed. This is the veritable Gate of Cilicia. A double door would close it and defy an army.
PLATE XXI
ENTRANCE OF THE CILICIAN GATES
In keeping with its momentous history, the scenery as the descent continues at once assumes a wild and impressive grandeur, unparalleled in beauty, passing description, to which all that has passed before served but as introduction. Now the keynote is changed, and Nature’s full orchestra breaks forth into a theme of violent and majestic discords, ever changing yet sustained, leaving for ever the impression of its grand harmonies. Here the crags tower up a thousand feet on either side. A myriad trees, their varied tones intensified by the glowing sunlight, clothe with soft colours the heights that hem in the horizon save where it is broken by fantastic peaks. Now the valley is torn by great rifts of red and grey rock, and warning precipices of prodigious character overhang the pathway. Below, on a verdant bed bedecked with flowers and creepers, peaceful glades and vistas disclose the chequered waters of the stream. Another turn, and a broad sweep of virgin forest lines the slopes in an unbroken curve; and ever and again Nature’s panorama changes, attracting the eye to some fresh beauty or surprise.
Though seemingly inaccessible, yet up in the wooded heights here and there a small village may be found, its houses nestling among fruit-trees and luxurious wildflowers. The people are very poor, for on these broken hilltops arable spots are scarce and difficult to work. They are also reticent and unsophisticated, and it is impossible to obtain from them any consistent reason as to their choice of dwelling-place while so many miles of corn-land in the interior await man’s labour. And since the bracing mountain air amid the pines, and the unique views all round, which extend beyond Tarsus to the sea, are to them considerations of last importance, we are left to conjecture in this case also that their ancestors found refuge here from the political storms of an unknown date. We are inclined to believe that this was the reason, and that the date was remote, because of the survival amongst them in striking purity of a type of the old Hittite races which, though peculiar, is familiar on the Egyptian monuments. It may indeed have been that of the Cilicians in general: it is strongly mongoloid in appearance except for the nose, which is strong and straight, but fine. The chin is beardless, but there is a thin dark cynical moustache; the cheek-bones are high and the eyes oblique. In the Egyptian sculptures a pigtail usually completes the striking features of the portrait, but this seems not to have survived the Moslem tonsure.
Once through the pass the whole character of the country changes as by a magician’s wand and another land unfolds itself. The bracing dry uplands are left behind with their peculiar fascination and unrealised possibilities, and in their place there appear the palm-trees and fruit-gardens of a southern clime, with physical peculiarities, economy, and population entirely different. The western plain of Cilicia is entirely alluvial soil, and is well called the fruit-garden of Western Asia. Towards the east there are some hilly places, but to the north-east the plain stretches out again, following an inland bay of the mountains. These plains seem to be wholly the gift of the numerous rivers which water them. These, descending from the mountainous region above, wherein the nature of the stone is various and to a large extent volcanic, bring down with them the rich alluvium which is deposited in their sluggish course below. Their names have been already mentioned. Some further streams to the west have a swifter course from the mountains which in that direction gradually approach the sea. Mersina, the modern port, marks almost the western extremity of the plain.
PLATE XXII
GOING SOUTH THROUGH THE CILICIAN GATES
TARSUS: THE GARDENS AND THE TOWN
The green tract of Cilicia is so shut in to the north by the Taurus ranges, and to the east by the Amanus mountains, and so exposed to the sea, that it seems as if Nature had designed this unique corner of Asia Minor for a history of its own. Its remarkable fertility, however, and the important passes which lead down to it in several directions, make it impossible that it could have been overlooked by any power in possession of its frontiers. For this reason, and in this instance, the absence of any clearly Hittite remains[76] must be attributed to accident and to the nature of the country. But it is indeed remarkable that in none of the defiles that connect it with the several portions of the Hittite land has a single Hittite monument been discovered. When we consider how suitable many spots would seem to be for Hittite monuments, whether in the Cilician Gates, or in the valley of the Pyramus, or in the pass leading by Bogche over the Amanus mountains eastward, or on the wave-washed rocks which must be crossed by the coast route to Alexandretta, this absence of any Hittite trace becomes the more conspicuous and significant. It establishes the probability towards which we have been already drawn, that the main channel of communication between the lands of the Hittites in the north of Syria and in Asia Minor was by way of the mountain passes of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus where their monuments are found in comparative plenty.
PLATE XXIII
TARSUS: THE CONCRETE WALLS OF DUNUK TASH
TARSUS: SACRED STONE IN A COFFIN, IN THE COURT OF AN ARAB SHRINE
II
SOME PAGES OF HISTORY
In this chapter we take a passing glance at the history of the Hittite lands after the Hittite power had passed, down to the establishment of the Seljûk Turks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. It is not a connected story, for with the disappearance of the Hittites the political horizon changed: thereafter the balance of power in the Near East was several times distributed anew. We must therefore be content to sketch an outline of the general course of eventful history in which the lands subsequently shared, and to note in what manner, but not to what extent, the local records and monuments are evidence of the parts they severally played.
We are compelled to make these limitations, for no land on earth can claim a history so momentous as the drama that was worked out in Asia Minor during the centuries that followed the Hittite domination. Here was the scene of a long struggle for supremacy both among its own peoples and between the adjoining portions of the two continents which it connects; a thousand Iliads would do scant justice to the deeds of arms alone. And the struggle of the continents was not merely for the possession of a land itself rich in minerals and for the most part highly fertile, but for a passage-way for great migrations, civilisations, and religions. To this story we have nothing to contribute, no new evidence to bring forward, no new opinions to maintain; the history of Asia Minor has been written by pens more able and more competent to deal with it.[77] In introducing these few pages our object is to subserve our main inquiry: to enable us to distinguish between the works of the various phases of history that we meet with in our wanderings, and especially to appreciate by contrast the peculiarities of the Hittite monuments which we shall next consider.
Though we defer writing the story of the Hittites until we have seen what their own works can tell us, we find ourselves obliged to trace its outline[78] in order to decide at what point that story ends. The Hittites first appear in history about 2000 B.C., when it would appear that they were already powerful enough to overturn the first dynasty of Babylon and sack that city, and that they had settlements in southern Syria on the frontiers of Egypt. Certain Hittite tablets from Central Asia Minor are said to belong to the same age. Nothing is known, however, of the constitution of the Hittites in these early times; but it may be inferred that they subsequently retired from the south or were there submerged. It is not until the fifteenth century B.C. that the name of the Hittites definitely reappears, when successive expeditions of the Pharaohs encountered them in the north of Syria. Then in the fourteenth century their capital is found at Boghaz-Keui, in the ruins of which their archives of this period have been recently unearthed. These, supplemented by the Tell-el-Amarna letters, tell how the King of the ‘Hatti’—the local and at that time dominant element—became Great King of the Hittite confederated peoples and vassal states, whose chief towns included most of the sites identified with Hittite remains, like Hamath, Aleppo, Carchemish, Marash, Malatia, and many city-states as yet unidentified. This was the period of their greatest empire, and it is probable that the regions of Cilicia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and even Lydia at this time acknowledged the suzerainty of the all-powerful soldier-king. For five or six generations of the Hatti rulers the position of the Hittites as a dominant power in Western Asia was recognised by the Pharaohs and the Kings of Babylon, both in their letters and treaties and by the exchange of ambassadors. During the great migrations of the twelfth century B.C., however, it would seem that the Hatti dynasty was overthrown and the Hittite empire dismembered. This may be inferred from the cessation of their own archives and from the appearance of the Muski, identified in later times with the Phrygians,[79] upon the north-west frontier of Assyria,[80] having thus fought their way across the heart of Asia Minor. These were repulsed,[81] but this incursion was contemporaneous with a shifting of the chief Hittite power to Carchemish, while Hamath on the Orontes and other southern centres come into increased prominence.
In trying to work out the story of the decline and fall of the Hittite power, we are faced with the same difficulty that enshrouded the whole problem of the Hittites until recent discoveries shed the light of internal documentary evidence upon the period of their empire—namely, that for the most part only the events connected with certain of their frontier lands came at all within the horizon of the Assyrian and the Greek historians, and these are seen by us with relative disproportion. To take a single illustration, we fail to find in the Egyptian and Assyrian records any suggestion as to the position of the Hittite capital of the fourteenth century at Boghaz-Keui; and for more than seven hundred years we are without any direct evidence as to its fortunes, until a chance reference by Herodotus in describing the affairs of Lydia tells us of its final overthrow.
In the tenth century, however, during the temporary decline of Assyria and the withdrawal of the Phrygians, the Hittite states may be inferred to have largely recovered their power and independence. But though there were frequent alliances between neighbouring states, there does not seem to have been any over-lord, as of old, powerful enough to unite them all under his leadership and to maintain a consistent policy. Malatia and Marash appear as the chief cities of kingdoms in Taurus, while in the Anti-Taurus the kingdom of Tabal (or Tubal) probably included the districts of Komana, Ekrek, Mazaca, and Fraktin. On the plateau the kingdom of the Khilakku, which we may call Greater Cilicia (embracing the region from Tyana to the Kara Dagh, and from Karaburna to Bulghar-Madên), replaced the original state of Hatti within the Halys as chief representative of Hittite power and tradition. But it was not for long: if the Muski had retreated it was only to gather strength; while in the east a new rival, of force and character similar to the Hittites, had appeared in the region of Lake Van, pressing down to the Euphrates and even into Syria, where also the steady infiltration of Aramæan peoples was already challenging the dominance of the old Hittite stock.
From the middle of the ninth century also the struggles of the weakening Hittite tribes against the reviving power of Assyria were renewed; and this time they were doomed. Their lands of Syria and in the Taurus were thereafter the objective of many punitive expeditions on the part of successive Assyrian kings, who claim always to have conquered and exacted tribute. For over a century, however, though many times defeated and severely punished, these states as often found opportunity for casting off the yoke. But Sargon, late in the eighth century, adopted with stern determination the policy which his predecessors had initiated, of transporting large numbers of the rebellious population and replacing them by Assyrian colonists. One by one the greater Hittite centres on his frontiers were absorbed, and when the Assyrian forces passed into Asia Minor to challenge the supremacy of the Phrygian Midas, about 718 B.C., it is clear that these two powers had divided the Hittite territory between them. The appearance, too, in the north, of the Cimmerians, in wellnigh irresistible strength, had changed the political horizon.[82]
From one point of view, however, it would be natural to point to the destruction of Pteria by Crœsus, in the middle of the sixth century B.C., as the last event of Hittite history, and so begin our post-Hittite story from that time. The conquest by Cyrus and the reunification of all the Hittite lands under Persian rule a few years later, in 546, would provide a suitable starting-point; yet, in fact, from the age of Sargon, a century and a half before, there can be traced no real semblance of surviving Hittite power nor any of the old Hittite individuality in the local arts. Their very name then almost disappeared from Oriental history, and was retained but as a memory; while in Asia Minor the power of the Phrygian kings was then at its zenith, and in the presence of Phrygian inscriptions at Eyuk,[83] near the old Hittite capital, and at Tyana,[84] which seems to have replaced Pteria in importance in the revival of the tenth century, there is indication that the Hittite day was already ended. But though the Hittite power was broken and disintegrated, their civilisation faded only gradually from view. Long after the sun had set upon its pride it lingered on, felt rather than seen, in the twilight that obscures our vision of the tableland in the early part of the first millennium B.C., surviving long enough here and there, as we shall see, in the form of institutions and religious customs, to have left a trace in the pages of Greek history. Thereafter we have several clear phases to review, interrupted by others of considerable disturbance and obscurity. Following the overthrow of Assyria on the one hand, and the decline of Phrygia on the other, two new powers appeared in the sixth century in the Medes and the Lydians, who similarly divided Asia Minor, with the Halys as their mutual boundary. By 546, however, Cyrus had annexed the whole country to the Persian Empire, in the continuous history of which it shared until the advent, in B.C. 324, of Alexander, who once more established the supremacy of the West. With his death the tribal struggles of antiquity reappear in new guise, and history is occupied chiefly with the varying fortunes of the kingdoms of Pergamum, of Pontus, and of the Seleucids, until in the first century B.C. Roman organisation gathered together the loose threads of independence and retied the knot in a manner that remained firm, in fine, for several hundred years. The next great landmark is not till 668 A.D., when, forty-six years after the flight of Mohammed, the Saracen army laid siege to Constantinople. In 1067 the Seljûks appeared from the east, followed two centuries later by the Osmanli-Turks, though these were not finally re-established in power, after the Mongol invasions, until 1413 A.D.
PLATE XXIV
MONUMENTS OF PHRYGIA
BEY-KEUI: THE ROYAL ROAD TRACED BY RUTS IN THE SURFACE ROCK (See pp. [24], [38].)
DIMERLI: A FALLEN LION (See [p. 60].)
Of the monarchies that arose as the Hittite power declined, and in their turn passed away, that of the Phrygians first attracts our attention by its proximity in time and place. When the Muski first appeared in the twelfth century B.C. upon the north-west frontier of Assyria,[85] they gave warning of a tide of Aryan immigration setting in from the north-west. This first wave, after beating vainly against the ramparts of the Assyrian Empire, seems to have retreated; but it left its traces behind in a group of people, whether colonists or prisoners settled on the soil in the Assyrian manner, who by the same name reappear some centuries later[86] as a small state on the east of the Euphrates opposite Malatia. We know nothing of the early history of this movement, but, so far as can be seen, the rolling of this wave across Asia Minor was coeval with the submergence of the Hatti seated at Boghaz-Keui as the dominant power among the Hittite states. Nor is it clear to what cause we must attribute the retiring of this vanguard. Probably, as in Syria with the Hittites,[87] and in Asia Minor with the Cimmerians, the migratory movement was intermittent; and historically we may see in the repulse by the Assyrians on the one hand, and in the development of the rival state of Lydia and the Greek colonies on the other, coupled with a certain recuperative vitality latent in the Hittite states of the centre, various active causes tending to the consolidation of the Phrygians at the focus of least resistance, in the fertile tracts to which they gave their name. However that may be, at the dawn of Greek history we find them already a fading power, but one which had left an indelible impression in Greek tradition and romance, obscuring entirely the old-time Hatti power of which no memory remained.
Though the settlement of the Phrygians is just beyond historical vision, the leading features of the movement can be inferred from Greek literature, and a certain amount of detail gathered from the monuments which they have left behind.[88] The chief migration of the Phrygians—the ninth wave of our simile—may be judged, from certain facts which Professor Ramsay has pointed out, to have taken place about the beginning of the ninth century B.C. They came in irresistible bands of mail-clad warriors from Macedonia and Thrace, crossing into Asia Minor by the Hellespont, and eventually establishing their monarchy and state on the sources of the Sangarius.[89] Being all men and conquerors, their coming introduced new ideas of the dominance of the male element in religion and in society.[90] The pre-existing central ideal of the people of Asia Minor had been based on the importance of motherhood, reflected in religion by the worship of the Mother-goddess, and in society by a matriarchal system and absence of true marriage. Now the Phrygians introduced a new Father-god and a god of thunder, and a reminiscence of the struggle between the old and new ideals may be traced in the pages of Homer; but ultimately they were amalgamated in various ways in different parts of the country.[91]
Profound as were the changes in religious and social ideals which the Phrygians introduced, these influences could hardly stir the popular imagination so deeply or so rapidly as their deeds of arms. Defended from all harm by their impenetrable armour, they carried all before them, so that they appeared in Greek tradition as a race of heroes, whose kings were the associates of the gods, whose language was before all,[92] and the speech of the goddess herself.[93] ‘Their country was the land of great fortified cities.’[94] In this popular acclaim we suspect that the Phrygians received credit for works and to some extent for the prestige of the Hatti whose realm they had inherited.[95] Their kingdom without doubt held chief sway over the north-west and centre of Asia Minor during the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. In the west, indeed, it was only at the end of that period challenged by the independence and growing strength of Lydia; and on the other hand it must have embraced, as we have shown, the regions both of Pteria[96] and of Tyana, where it touched the Assyrian frontier in the age of Sargon; but on the whole we fail to find any wide range of Phrygian works, of walled cities or of vast monuments, that could entitle the Phrygians to the whole credit of these memories.
None the less, some Phrygian monuments, like the ‘tomb of Midas’ near Doghanlu, are striking, peculiar, and impressive. So, too, are others further south, of which we reproduce some illustrations,[97] because of the added interest of the influence of Hittite art and technique which can be traced in them. The ‘lion tomb,’ near Dimerli, illustrates a motive dominant in their decorative reliefs, reflected in the later sepulchres of Ayazîn. Here are seen two lions, guarding as it were the entrance to the tomb, arranged facing one another on either side of the door. In the tomb of Dimerli the lions are rampant, and a column or altar is seen between them. The symbolism of this design may be purely Phrygian, but the decorative conception of the twin guardian lions is too freely found in Hittite art[98] for us to doubt that it had been borrowed from the older population. So, too, in the method of carving the reliefs, as well as in detail of treatment, as, for instance, in the outline of the shoulder muscles of the fallen lion,[99] there is abundant indication to us now of an influence not visible to the historians of antiquity.
PLATE XXV
MONUMENTS OF PHRYGIA
| DIMERLI: THE LION TOMB | AYAZÎN: TOMB WITH LIONS |
TYANA: PHRYGIAN INSCRIPTION OF MIDAS (See [p. 56].)
Though the monuments and legends together help us to reconstruct the base and framework of Phrygian history, there are very few authenticated data with which to fill in the details. There is no long list of royal names, for the rulers are supposed to have been named Midas and Gordius alternately; and a few other names preserved in Greek tradition are merely legendary. It is not until the age of Sargon[100] at the close of the eighth century B.C., that a few facts come to light among the Assyrian archives. Then it would appear that the Phrygian sphere of influence had penetrated far into south-eastern Cappadocia and was expanding, until challenged by the Assyrian forces in a series of campaigns beginning in 718 B.C. But Midas the Phrygian was not easily restrained, and in the next year prevailed on Pisiris of Carchemish to revolt against the Assyrian supremacy, while several minor states of Cappadocia, forming part of the region called Tabal, followed this example, prompted, doubtless, from the same source of inspiration. The rebels were promptly punished, and one of these expeditions sent against them penetrated, it would seem, to Tyana, at this time an important centre for the Phrygians[101] in the conduct of their wars. In 709, however, following a further expedition sent against Midas from Cilicia, the Phrygians capitulated, sending ambassadors and tribute. The reason for this sudden change of front is also made apparent. About the middle of the eighth century B.C. there had appeared the first wave of an overwhelming movement of peoples from Southern Europe,[102] including seemingly both Cimmerians and Scythians, coming by way of the Caucasus, spreading terror and devastation as it passed. The Vannic power of Urartu in Southern Armenia about 720 B.C. received the first onslaught, and then the frontiers of Sargon, who had to call up all the resources of his armies to protect his kingdom. Recoiling, the tide set westward through Asia Minor, meeting about 710 another similar stream[103] that had crossed the Bosphorus; and the united barbarians for half a century established a reign of terror in the north of Asia Minor. The details of the story are wanting, so far as it directly affects the Phrygians during this fateful period. About 675 however, the royal Midas (presumably the grandson of Mita who had begged Assyria through his ambassadors for help), defeated on every hand, in despair committed suicide. The Cimmerians overran his country, and the kingdom of Phrygia henceforth ceased to be. We do not follow the movements of these hordes further; for they have left no trace or handiwork upon the Hittite lands which they had overrun, although it was not until the close of the seventh century that they disappeared. Their inroads, however, and the violent deflections which they gave to the course of history, are probably responsible for the final disappearance of all trace and memory of the Hittite power in Greek history.
The Lydian state in the west, that fought the final struggle for civilisation against these restless and untiring foes, next claims our notice from the way in which certain of its institutions and ancient customs reflect the influence of the Hittite civilisation, from which, indeed, they may have been inherited.[104] Unlike the rulers and customs of Phrygia, the leading elements of the Lydian society had been matured on the soil from dim antiquity. Tradition speaks of a dynasty of Heraclidae who ruled from the twelfth century for five hundred years,[105] and whose ancestor, Agron,[106] was descended from Hercules himself. Even before that date there is memory of a royal family of Atyadae, whose rule, if there be anything in this memory, must have passed back to the days of direct Hittite domination that saw the carving of the warrior-gods of Kara-Bel and maybe the Mother-goddess of Sipylus.
However that may be, we see the Lydians already an organised state, even while the Phrygian power was still at its height, before the Cimmerian storm had burst. As with the Hittites in past time, their constitution was partly that of confederate or vassal states governed by hereditary chiefs owning allegiance to the ruling power at Sardis, and partly feudal,[107] the chieftains owing their military service and their tribal forces to the king, while the common people appear as serfs. In this society the king was both head of the priesthood and chief commander of the vassal chiefs in war.[108] The emblem of sovereignty was a double axe, which the Greeks said was derived from Hercules himself.[109] From among the mass of legend which characterise the earliest efforts of Greek history, it might be possible to trace many suggestions of the influence of the Hittite civilisation; but the lack of local monuments (a fact due doubtless to physical conditions), to reveal to us the dominant features of Lydian art, restrains us from this aspect of inquiry. One point at any rate is established, that not merely was the district of Lydia at one time embraced within the Hittite empire,[110] but that it became imbued then with many features of social organisation which it carried down from the old world to the new. Our main inquiry being based on the monuments of the Hittite lands, we cannot dwell upon the stories of the Lydian kings, of their desperate struggles with the Cimmerians following the downfall of Phrygia, nor of their warfare with the Medes, with whom, after the fall of Nineveh in 607 B.C., they ultimately divided Asia Minor, with the Halys as the boundary between them. The names of two kings are worthy of mention as historical landmarks; the one is Gyges, first of the Mermnad dynasty in the middle of the seventh century B.C., contemporary of Assurbanipal, the Assyrian, and of Psamtek, Pharaoh of Egypt, with both of whom he held relations of diplomatic character. The other is Crœsus, the last and greatest of them all, who, having established his power eastward to the Halys, turned his attention to those rich Greek cities which had sprung up in the West.
PLATE XXVI
VIEW NEAR SARDIS, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF LYDIA
The valley of the Pactolus, a tributary of the Hermus, which rising on Mt. Tmolus flowed past the temple of Kybele at Sardis.
These colonies, founded in selected spots along the coast several centuries before, had indeed in many cases already passed their zenith. Cities like Smyrna, Ephesus, and Colophon were in the pride of their prosperity before the fall of Phrygia and the rise of Lydia. How old they were in their origin is not determinable, but they had received, and retained in historic times, the impress of the Hittite civilisation, so much so that Mr. Hogarth, writing of Ionia, concludes that ‘this coast was long dominated by an inland, continental power, that of the Cappadocian Hatti, who imposed their own distinct civilisation, and admitted the Ægean culture only as a faint influence ascending along the trade routes.’[111] ‘The Goddess of the Phrygian mountains became at Smyrna the Sipylene Mother, and at Ephesus Artemis of the Many Breasts was worshipped with rites more Oriental than Greek.’ Recently also Sir Cecil Smith, in discussing certain ivory statuettes found by Mr. Hogarth in the foundations of the temple of Artemis, has pointed out further analogies with the old cult of the goddess, as revealed by the sculptures of Boghaz-Keui.[112] However that may be, the fact that the Hittite armies of the fourteenth or thirteenth century B.C. had penetrated to the coast at Smyrna and Ephesus, is made clear by the sculptures of Sipylus and of Kara-Bel, to which we have alluded.[113] Now these fair cities of Ionia fell one by one to Crœsus, who seemed likely to establish an empire even over the islands, when suddenly Cyrus the Persian appeared from the East, reuniting all the sundered parts of the old empires of Assyria and of Babylon as he passed. Crœsus marched immediately out to resist his oncoming, and as a preliminary step crossed the Halys and ‘ravaged the lands of the “Syrians,” and took the city of the Pterians and enslaved the inhabitants. He also took all the adjacent places and expelled the population, who had given him no cause for blame.’[114] Possibly we may see in these acts, which appeared wanton to the historian, an effort on the part of Crœsus to delay or prevent the passing of the Persian army, which would naturally follow the old royal road in preference to the undeveloped route across the desert. However that may be, the effort was vain: about 546 B.C. the Lydian capital and its king fell into the hands of Cyrus.
The old Hittite realms were now reunited under Persian rule, and continued to share in the common history of the Empire of the Great King for more than two hundred years. For the purpose of administration Asia Minor was divided into provinces, governed by Satraps, of which the old kingdom of Lydia formed one, and the regions of Konia, Angora, Pteria, and Sivas were included in another, the largest of all, which reached from Lydia to Armenia, and included the whole plateau from the Taurus northwards to the sea. The tract of Cilicia with part of the province of Aleppo formed another, while the former Hittite states in the north of Syria were similarly grouped together. But the hold of the Great King ruling in Susa over his distant provinces was weak, and the spirit of Persian civilisation did not penetrate, or could not, into these historic lands. No monument remains to tell us of this phase, during which the old local institutions were maintained and even developed unrestrained. The Greek cities of the coast retained their Greek characters under Greek governors; while the tribes of the interior restored the rule of their local princes or priest-dynasts amid a condition of security and freedom which they had not known for many generations. All that the central power demanded was tribute and tranquillity. Local feuds between the Satraps might smoulder, and the symptoms of rebellion here and there remain almost unheeded, so long as these conditions were fulfilled. Under these circumstances the western people gradually recovered the spirit of independence, while from across the sea the Greek states even aspired to empire. The march of the Ten Thousand in 402, under Cyrus the younger, made famous by Xenophon in his Anabasis, showed how lax was the organisation and how weak the control of the central government. It also opened up incidentally the southern route by the Mæander, Ilgîn, and Iconium to the Cilician gates, in preference to the longer royal road by way of Boghaz-Keui, by which hitherto the posts from Susa had travelled west to Sardis.
In B.C. 334 Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont, and within a year, by his energy and ability to use the new army-machine which he had inherited, had conquered western Asia Minor as far as the Halys, and passed on leaving it his own. This date marks an issue more changeful to Asia Minor than the conquest of Cyrus. For though no monuments throw light on the story of the next two centuries, the system of government was now initiated which in due time was to result in the Hellenising of the interior. Cities were founded with Greek names, and the Greek speech gradually made its way, through Greek-speaking princes and governors, as the official language. The change worked very slowly, but it was profound in the issue, as we shall see. At first the states maintained their old customs and native dialects without appreciable difference, except in the vigour of the new government, but in the course of two or three centuries Greek language and Greek culture, even to some extent Greek thought and religious ideas, had permeated widely among the upper-class natives of the interior.
The struggles of Alexander’s successors, who had inherited from him the empire, are matters of common history. The Seleucids reunited, though in futile manner, the formerly Hittite regions in the north of Syria and Cilicia, and for a time gained some ascendency in Asia Minor, until defeated in 191 B.C. and driven back beyond the Taurus, where for another century they retained a sphere of influence. But of greater interest to us is the survival of local power in Cappadocia, under the dynasty of Ariarthes, which had come to the fore in the last century of Persian domination. This state, at first with incessant warfare, and then by means of tribute to the Seleucids, maintained in effect a form of local independence which survived even down to the Roman occupation and beyond. Another state that retained its freedom and local princes throughout this time was Bithynia, on the tract opposite Constantinople, but this is a region outside the boundaries of our story.
PLATE XXVII
CILICIA: ROMAN AQUEDUCTS OVER THE EASTERN PLAIN (See [p. 70].)
The Romans dallied long in following up the defeat of the Seleucids at Magnesia, when the way lay open to the annexation of Asia Minor, for which its people, torn by their internal wars, would have been even grateful. But it was not until late in the second century b.c. that the west was united as a Roman province. Even then the east remained under the direct government of the local princes, to whom the Roman Senate entrusted their frontier. At the beginning of the first century B.C. the disaffection of Mithridates, king of Pontus, a state bordering the Black Sea, and his efforts to win for himself a kingdom in Cappadocia and Bithynia, was one of the last fitful traces of the old native power, and called up more serious efforts on the part of Rome. The Cilician pirates, who from their base under the southern slopes of Taurus had become a leading naval power, were also suppressed, and during the century that followed the whole country as far as the Euphrates was gradually brought under direct control, and the provincial system was established. The province of Cilicia had been founded in B.C. 103, and after various successive modifications, during which the western district, Cilicia Trachæa, continued to be ruled by the priest-dynasts of Olba, the whole was united with Lycaonia under a consular legate about 137 A.D. Bithynia-Pontus, the scene of the late rebellions, came into the power of Rome by the will of its last king in B.C. 74, and the double province was put under the administration of a prætorian proconsul in B.C. 27. Galatia was constituted in B.C. 25, and Pontus was added to it in 63 A.D. Finally, the occupation of Cappadocia, dating from A.D. 17, completed the division of the administrative districts; for the sixth province Asia, in the west, had been the earliest founded, as we have noted, in B.C. 133.
PLATE XXVIII
KYRRHUS: ROMAN TOMB AND RUINED BRIDGE (See [p. 71].)
The system of Roman organisation at first modified and finally broke up the old tribal communities. For some time, many old-world institutions were maintained, notably the priest-dynasts of Comana, Olba, and Venasa; but gradually the native communal temple-district organisation of society gave way, to be replaced by the Greek political system, the seeds of which had been planted two or three centuries before, and had now taken root. In this system the city became the administrative centre, and the villages around were its branches. Greek became more and more the language of the people.[115] The formal records of military works, the milestones and imperial monuments, are inscribed in Latin, but the inscriptions in the old graveyards are carved in Greek letters. We cannot dwell upon the history of these times, of the reorganisation under Diocletian, at the close of the third century, marking the commencement of the Byzantine period, nor of the spread of Christianity, with the great social changes that involved. We reproduce, however, some illustrations of Roman works, such as are met with in plenty throughout the length and breadth of Hittite lands, from Malatia to Iconium and beyond, from Tarsus to the Black Sea coast. The great aqueducts like those of Tyana,[116] and those which stretch for miles across the Cilician plain,[117] are an indication of the vast scheme of development that was instituted under the new well-ordered system of government. Great cities both in Syria and in Asia Minor were the product of these times. Many of these were the foundations of places that still remain centres of administration; while some have lost their importance, and are falling gradually to ruin in silence and desolation. The remains of Kyrrhus upon the Afrîn,[118] a site now marked only by the small village of Huru-Pegamber some distance away, are among the wonderful memorials of antiquity. The imposts are falling from their pilasters, and the keystones to its arches are working loose, but it retains its silent streets of impressive stone buildings, its arches and colonnades, its amphitheatre, as though its people had quitted hardly a generation ago. Numerous Greek inscriptions may still be found amongst the ruins,[119] and just southward of the Acropolis several sarcophagi of marble, with Greek names upon them, indicate the position of the old-time burying place. In the extreme south of the site, with its sanctity still maintained in a modern Mohammedan shrine and well adjoining, there stands perfect a tomb-structure[120] in the Roman style of the second century A.D. We give a photograph of this, which is one of the best-preserved examples of its kind. Our other photographs[121] taken at Ephesus and at Ba’albec,[122] at the two ends of the Hittite lands, will sufficiently illustrate the art and civilisation of their time and place.
The very prosperity of the country during the Roman occupation was one cause of its danger, presenting it as an alluring prize to the forces gradually arising along its frontiers. The extreme centralisation of the Byzantine system weakened, if it did not altogether exterminate, the power of local resistance and administration. So long as the central government remained powerful all was well, but the danger of the system was manifested by the ease with which the Arab forces in 668 passed through the land from end to end, pausing only before the walls of Constantinople. The hold of the Saracen power, however, was not firm, and the Roman system was possessed of great latent vitality which in the end was equal to the emergency, so that in a series of campaigns extending from 920 to 965, the Saracens were driven back from point to point, until first Tarsus[123] was recovered and then Antioch, which had for more than three hundred years been in their possession.
PLATE XXIX
BAALBEK: SCULPTURE AND TEMPLE RUINS OF ROMAN PERIOD
The Seljûk Turks, who next appeared on the scene, were a more formidable and resistless enemy. Having at one time been the servants of the Arab sultans, they had now become the masters, and in 1067 they entered Asia Minor, conquering Cilicia and Cappadocia. Four years later the Emperor Romanus Diogenes himself was their prisoner, and by 1081 the whole centre and east of the tableland was recognised as their realm. Adopting a policy of depopulation and devastation, in which the whole of Phrygia was laid waste, the Turks rapidly set up an almost impassable frontier between themselves and the Byzantine power which still held sway in the West. Notwithstanding spasmodic efforts of the old rulers to regain their dominion, the country gradually relapsed into Orientalism, and with the rise of the Osmanli Turks from 1289 the Empire of the West rapidly disintegrated. Under the Seljûk rule, a new aspect of decorative art and architecture appeared in Asia Minor, a phase much neglected yet most worthy, as Professor Ramsay has pointed out, of special study. Under certain of their lines a brilliant series of monuments arose, among which the Hans[124] or roadside rest-houses are specially noteworthy, contributing also as they did to public security and pacification. In addition to these, other public works like their bridges and fortifications, as well as their mosques and colleges with cloisters and sculptures, are all evidence of one of the brightest phases of Moslem art. Some of the beautiful monuments which are shown in our illustrations, like the sculptured portal of the old school (or Midresseh) at Nigdeh, and the ‘tomb of Havanda,’ at the same place,[125] with its delicate tracery and design, belong to the best phases of this memorable period.
With the enthronement of the Seljûks the old world faded rapidly from view. No conquest in all the history of the Hittite lands had been so thorough and so enduring. Previously we had seen old institutions surviving under a new system that grew up around them; but now a new language and new forms of government, with new administrative districts, were imposed by the conquerors; while the devastation of the earlier stages of the conquest, followed by the repeated incursions of nomad peoples, profoundly modified the racial stock of the population. With them the modern Turkey-in-Asia was born.