.. ΥΡΗΛΙΩ ΚΟΤΤ ... Μ ... ΣΑ ΑΛΕΞΙΝΟΟΥ ... Ω ΕΚΤ .
ΔΙΑΤΑΓΗΣ ..... ΚΑΡΜΟΥ ΤΩ ΙΔΙΩ ΦΙΛΩ ... ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΗ
April xxvii.
Rising early this morning all of us, God be thanked, in perfect health, we still resolve to enlarge our circuit; whence Mr. Coventry and Mr. Frye apprehending too long a journey, determined to return to Smyrna. The remaining part of our company proceed by break of day in the road for Sardis. Just before we arrive at the fountain on our right hand, about half an hour from our conáck, lies the village of Ishmaeljá. And in an hour and an half from thence we observe Urgánlui on the left. We continue our journey thro a spatious and fertile plain, curiously beset on each side the road with variety of round hillocks, which from their number, figure, and situation, in so level a campain, appear plainly to be artificial. They are undoubtedly the work of one or more numerous armies; but whether they were at first designed to bury their heaps of slain[24] (which was the original of those barrows[25], that occur in many plains of England) or whether they were erected as thrones before the pavilion of the general, which was usual in the Roman camp[26], is not easy to determine.
About the fourth hour crossing a small river we have the village of Baricle on the left hand, and larger than that, the village of Achmetléer on the right. Not far from hence the road divides into two paths for Sardis. The lower of these we chose, tho declining a little too much to the left hand, and so passing by a few cottages, which are called by the name of Zericle, we arrive in seven hours at Sardis, one of which is now likewise to be deducted for the stay, which our mules occasioned.
Instead of that Sardis, which antiently was the seat of the kings of Lydia, afterwards in great renown, under the Persian, Grecian, and Roman Empires, and at last honoured with the title of a Metropolitan Christian church; we now find in the same place, at the foot of mount Tmolus, a small Turkish village by the name of Sart. We here had the liberty of a ruinous inconvenient kane, erected in this place for the service of caraváns from Persia; but we much rather embraced the opportunity of pitching our tents under the covert of a few plane trees, which spread a cool and grateful shade upon the bank of Pactólus. This river is constantly mentioned as rising in Tmolus, and washing the Walls of Sardis, particularly it is said by Herodotus to run thro the very market place of the ancient city[27]. Its chanel does not now appear to be considerable, yet it deserved our particular notice for the fame of its golden streams; a story celebrated not more by poets[28] than historians, the latter of whom have imagined this to be the treasure, whence Croesus and his ancestors collected that mighty wealth.
Before the cool of the evening we visited the ruins of this once flourishing city; and towards the western part observed the standing walls of two or three spatious and lofty rooms, not unworthy the palace of the ancient kings of Lydia. They were all arched towards the foundation, and adorned as well as strengthened at each corner with hewn stone; but the main part of the fabric consisted of a broad and durable brick, which is likewise observable in most of the ancient ruins of Asia Minor. From hence we passed thro heaps of rubbish, and tracks of continued foundations, to the eastern part of the city; where stand the pillars and front of another spatious building, the figure and situation of which persuaded us, that they were the remains of the cathedral church. A little southerly from hence we viewed the full extent of another stately room, which however antient it might be, was nevertheless raised out of ruins more antient than itself; as appeared from several rich pillars, and architraves, confusedly placed among the rubbish of the walls. About the distance of a furlong, full south of the antient city, are to be seen the beautiful remains not of an amphitheatre, as has been supposed, but rather of some royal palace. Here we observed six lofty Ionic pillars, all of them still intire, except that the capital of one is distorted by an earthquake. There adjoins to them a fair and magnificent portal, the pilasters of which, being about twenty feet high, and twelve feet distant from each other, are joined at the top by one entire stone, which, by what art or force it was there erected, is difficult to conceive; for tho Pliny[29] pretends to account for the like difficulty in the architecture of the temple of Ephesus, yet that passage gives but little satisfaction in the matter. There occurs nothing else, that is remarkable about Sardis, besides the broken walls of the castle on an adjoining hill; the ascent and prospect of which, however magnified by Sir Paul Rycaut, we yet thought so inferior, to what we lately had found at Magnesia, that it could not raise our curiosity to undertake the climbing of that precipice, especially since we could promise ourselves the same prospect to a greater advantage from the top of Tmolus; and as for two or three broken inscriptions, which are there extant, we were content to peruse them in Dr. Smith’s printed Journal[30].
April xxviii.
We had now determined our course for Birghée, towards which our way lay over the mountain Tmolus. In pursuance of this design we mounted quickly after three this morning, and by that time it was full day we had ascended the first edge of the hill, where we halted to enjoy the entertaining prospect of the plain of Sardis. We had here the opportunity of viewing the castle hill, the antient seat of the city, the whole course of the Hermus[31], and the full extent of the Gygaean lake, about five miles in length, and three in breadth, mentioned in all ancient accounts of Sardis; but what renders it most remarkable, celebrated of old by Homer[32], and well described by Strabo to be about forty furlongs from the city[33]. This sight had now highly satisfied our curiosity, when we turn to the right hand more into the body of the hill, and contrary to our expectation rarely encounter any difficult ascent, by reason of the artificial windings of the way.