Fig. 189. Grave on the Summit of Khamur.
[1] Oswald took several careful observations of the dip of these limestones. The norm was 50° south by east. [↑]
[2] The best account of Adeljivas is that of Tozer (Turkish Armenia, London, 1881, p. 335). The width of the enclosure is given by him as 250 yards, on the side of the shore. The parallel lines of walls descend into the water. Within the enclosure “one ancient mosque with a minaret remains, and also part of another considerable building. The mosque, which is now used as a storehouse for corn, appears to be of the same date as those in the castle of Akhlat; it is massively built of stone, with but little ornament, and its arches are pointed and slightly ogived.” Müller-Simonis has a nice woodcut (Du Caucase au Golfe Persique, Paris, 1892, p. 301). [↑]
[3] This is the height of the village of Uran Gazi. [↑]
[4] It would require a series of very careful observations to determine whether this eminence—which I shall call the eastern summit—or the western summit of Sipan be the higher. By boiling-point we obtained the following results:—Eastern summit (4th August), 13,590 feet; western summit (5th August), 13,714 feet. But these readings were taken on different days. On the other hand, the aneroid registered:—Eastern summit (4th August), 13,650 feet; eastern summit (5th August), 13,790 feet; western summit (5th August), 13,754 feet. At present the question must be left open—and indeed it is not of much importance. [↑]
[5] Such ziarets exist upon almost all the prominent mountains, great or small, in this part of Armenia. The custom no doubt comes down from an epoch of Nature-worship. [↑]
[6] It will be recognised from the above description that the summit of Sipan is much more basin-like than that of Ararat. Sipan probably possessed a crater in the proper sense. That of Ararat is so much worn down that it can scarcely be said to exist.
Sipan appears to have been built up by successive lava streams, which became more and more viscous, until that finally emitted had no power to flow at all, and merely welled up, forming the circular mass on the east. The lava composing that mass is spongy and glassy, a glassy mica-andesite. The narrow ridge, upon which we camped, and which may represent the northern rim of the old crater, consists of a slabby rhyolite with impure obsidian; it is covered up with cindery slag. The western summit and surrounding rock is made up of a lava somewhat similar to that on Nimrud—a dull impure obsidian with ill-developed spherulites; the flow structure is well marked. Tuffs were nowhere to be seen. But a bastion on the northern side of the mountain was cloaked with grey pumice sand.