Armenia, Travels and Studies (Volume 2 of 2) / The Turkish Provinces

by H. F. B. Lynch

GEOGRAPHICAL

My purpose in the present chapter is to collect the threads of that part of the narrative which was occupied with the natural features, and to endeavour to weave them together into a composite but single fabric, capable of being appreciated as a whole. In the pursuit of this object I shall postulate familiarity on the part of my reader with the contents of the companion chapter dealing with the same subject which belongs to my first volume; and it is not without misgiving that I compare the scantiness of my present material with the multitude of facts with which the researches of Hermann Abich have enriched our knowledge of the Russian provinces. I am dependent almost entirely upon the gleanings of my own journeys and of those accomplished by my friends within quite recent years; and it has been impossible to commence the writing of this chapter before the completion of the map embodying these results. What it may, perhaps, be hoped without excessive presumption is that the framework, at least, of our subject, the geography of South-Western or Turkish Armenia, can now be established with some degree of certainty; and that succeeding travellers may be enabled to recognise at a glance the more imperfect parts instead of losing themselves in the almost unknown or falsely known.[1]

No better standpoint could be selected from which to commence a survey of the geography than the spine of that range whence we descended into Turkish territory during our journey southwards from Kagyzman (Vol. I. Ch. XX. p. 409, and Ch. XXI. p. 436). It carries the present frontier between the Russian and Turkish Empires, and in fact divides the area of Armenia into two parts. In a political sense it forms a boundary of considerable significance, shutting off Russia from the waters which issue in the Persian Gulf. More than once have her victorious armies flooded across this barrier, and not less often have they been compelled by the provisions of the ensuing peace to withdraw to its further side. The length of the range, its ruggedness and the relative height of the passes, compared with the plains on either flank, are features which must have operated throughout history to invest it with an importance unrivalled by the other systems which furrow the surface of the Armenian tableland. From the Kuseh Dagh (11,262 feet) in the west to Little Ararat (12,840 feet) in the east is a distance of nearly 100 miles; and throughout that space the chain is made up of such lofty peaks as the Ashakh Dagh (10,723 feet), Perli Dagh (10,647 feet), Sulakha Dagh (9644 feet) and Khama Dagh (11,018 feet). The passes reach from 7000 to 8500 feet; while the level of the plain of the Araxes does not exceed 3000 feet, nor that of the plain of Alashkert 5500 feet. In appearance the barrier as a whole resembles the mountains of the peripheral regions; there are the same deep valleys, jagged outline, precipitous slopes. It seems some daring invasion of those mountains into the plateau country; and the semblance is accentuated by the beds of marl along its northerly base into which the long transverse parapets plunge (Vol. I. Fig. 106, p. 419). Highly crystalline rocks, such as diabase, and even syenite, of which the spine of the more westerly portion is probably composed, have played the principal part in its configuration, where recent eruptive action has not built up a sequence of volcanic fabrics, such as Kuseh Dagh, Perli Dagh, the peaks about Lake Balük, the Great and the Little Ararat.

This range, to which collectively we may apply the name of Aghri Dagh or Ararat system, constitutes the principal intermediate line of elevation between the northern and the southern zones of peripheral mountains. It has been subjected to intense folding pressure, and during the process of bending over from an east-north-easterly to a south-easterly direction a partial fracture of the arc it describes has taken place. From the western shore of Lake Balük, an upland sheet of water lying at a level of 7389 feet, we are, perhaps, justified in tracing the extension of one branch of the system along the water-parting between the Murad and the Araxes south-east to the Tendurek Dagh, and through that volcano into the line of hills which divides the basin of Lake Van from the streams which find their way into the Araxes. Thence the elevation may be followed into the southern peripheral region, forming, as it were, a splinter from the chain of Zagros which has struggled upwards through the plateau country to its very heart. The prevalence of crystalline rocks, which have been classed by Loftus as granite, has been attested along the inner edge of Zagros all the way from near Khorremabad in Persia past Hamadan to the sources of the Great Zab; and they extend from the western borders of Lake Urmi at least as far as the district of Bayazid.[2] It seems probable that they are in connection with the granite rocks of the Aghri Dagh, where they are found to the west of the Perli Dagh along the axis of this northern intermediate system.[3]

The more northerly and principal branch in an orographical sense would appear to consist almost exclusively of recent volcanic mountains, stretching from Perli Dagh in an east-south-easterly direction to the Pambukh Dagh, west of Great Ararat. In this neighbourhood the line is taken up by the fabric of Ararat, raising the barrier by slow stages to nearly 17,000 feet, and having an axis from north-west to south-east.[4] The sequence comes to an end in the Little Ararat, whose slopes descend on three sides to fairly level plains. An interesting feature about the range in its more westerly portion are the outbreaks of andesitic lava along its base upon the north. These eruptions appear to have culminated in the peak of Takjaltu (8409 feet) near Kulpi, which forms a landmark to the districts on that side. Thence the fissure which gave issue to the andesite may be traced westwards, keeping parallel to the chain. The eruptions have disturbed the sedimentary rocks, and their incidence can be certainly attributed to the Miocene period.[5] Further east the upwellings of lava along the slopes of the mountains have all the appearance of having been discharged into a sheet of water spread over the surface of the Ararat region.[6]

West of the Kuseh Dagh, the bell-shaped mountain, this intermediate line of elevation may be plainly followed upon the map along the southern confines of the plain of Pasin through the limestones which the Araxes threads in a landscape of savage grandeur before its entry upon the level expanse. From the left bank of the river the heights are continued for many a mile, until they are distinguished by the Palandöken-Eyerli Dagh volcanic system (10,694 feet) just south of Erzerum. A slight inclination southwards through the Karakaya Dagh into the volcanic Keupek Dagh, and further south into the Khach Dagh, the southern boundary of the province of Terjan, takes the line with clear definition through the Girdim Dagh and the Baghir Dagh into the lofty and extensive barrier of the Merjan-Muzur Dagh (about 12,000 feet), facing the plains about Erzinjan. The progress of the elevation across the Euphrates through Asia Minor to the Mediterranean appears to be indicated on the map of Kiepert by the Sarichichek Dagh, west of Egin, whence it is probably protracted between the Taurus and the Anti-Taurus chains. The Anti-Taurus would appear to be represented in Armenia by the system which enters the country in the Chardaklu Dagh (long. 39, lat. 39.55), and extends in the form of an elevated block of tableland through the Sipikor Dagh, Dadian Dagh (11,000 feet), Kop Dagh into the Dümlü Dagh, north of Erzerum, and the Chorokh region.

The importance of the orographical system which we have now traced from Ararat to Muzur Dagh, and from Lake Balük to the Zagros range, may be appreciated in a geographical sense by one or two reflections. In the first place it provides the natural frontier between the country about Lake Van and the Persian province of Azerbaijan. This frontier may probably be regarded as the natural eastern boundary of Armenia during its course from behind Bayazid to the Avrin Dagh, overlooking the valley of the river of Kotur. At the present day it forms the Turko-Persian border; while the more northerly branch, which effects a junction in the neighbourhood of Lake Balük, divides the Russian and Turkish Empires. As the most pronounced constituent of the Asiatic structural design within the limits of the tableland, the system carries over the Tauric lines of elevation into those which have determined the configuration of the Iranian highlands. It encompasses this result in a most impressive manner, standing up from the plateau region with precipitous slopes on either side and suggesting to the mind the conception of a backbone to the country as a whole. It is at this point that in the Shatin or Aghri Dagh it effects the bend over into Persia, but not without partial fracture and consequent dislocation. At the same time we should be mistaken in attributing to the system functions analogous to those of the mountains of the peripheral regions. Even the Aghri Dagh is deprived of many of the qualities essential to a barrier by its narrowness and by the extension of the open plains on either flank. The border between the Lake Van basin and Azerbaijan consists of a line of hills rather than of mountains in the proper sense. The extension of the elevation along the southern confines of the plains of Pasin and of Erzerum takes the form of the lofty rim of the central region of the tableland, and not of a mountain range. That term might, perhaps, be applied to the cretaceous heights of the Merjan-Muzur Dagh; but these again are probably due to the resistance of the Dersim block, the plateau-like country which they limit upon the north.

I have already traced the course of the mountains of the northern peripheral region, the effective barrier between Armenia and the coast of the Black Sea, throughout their prolongation upon the confines of the tableland, and have drawn the natural frontier inwards in the neighbourhood of Ispir across the valley of the Chorokh to the northern border heights of the plain of Erzerum (Vol. I. Ch. XXI. p. 431). The analogous zone upon the south is composed by the main chain of Taurus, separating the highlands from the low-lying plains of Mesopotamia and buttressing them up on that side. This chain appears to have succeeded in accomplishing the curve into the Iranian direction without undergoing fracture to any material extent. The symmetry of the arc described as seen from the plains about Diarbekr has already enlisted our admiration (ibid. p. 424). The spine of the range may be followed along the southern shore of Lake Göljik to the Palu Dagh, east of the town of Palu. Thence it is taken along the plain of Chabakchur and the left bank of the Murad to the confines of the plain of Mush. Conspicuous with sharp peaks which are seldom free from snow, it stretches past the depression of Mush into the landscape of Lake Van, where it recalls the sombreness of the Norwegian coast. Through the Karkar Dagh (long. 42.47), and, further east, through the Bashit Dagh, west of Bashkala, it makes steps southwards to the threshold of the basin of the Great Zab; and the elevation may be traced on the further side of the river in the peaks of the Jelu Dagh, said to attain a height of between 13,000 and 14,000 feet.[7]

An impressive feature of this Taurus range, and one which ought not to escape the attention whether of geographers or of political students, is the manner in which it appears to have sunk down along its southern edge between the 39th and 42nd degrees of longitude. In places the girdle of mountains becomes so narrow that its effectiveness as a barrier is much impaired. From the town of Arghana, which must lie almost at the southern foot of the chain, it is a direct distance of not more than 28 miles to the confines of the plains about Kharput. These may be attained from Diarbekr on the lowlands without encountering a greater altitude than less than 5000 feet. The position of the town of Haini (2800 feet) appears to correspond to that of Arghana; and thence the Murad may be reached in 22 miles direct by a pass of only 4200 feet. In such a climate heights like these are quite insignificant, and they would not offer at any season an obstacle of much importance to an army operating from the lowlands in the direction of the Armenian plains. This sinking-down of Taurus has been accompanied, as indeed one might expect, by volcanic action on a considerable scale. The Karaja Dagh, which lies to the south-west of Diarbekr, is not a mountain of much relative height. You may ride at a trot across its long-drawn undulations, admiring the sea-like expanse of the plains around. Yet it represents an extensive outpouring of lavas in recent geological times. It would appear to be in connection with some of the greatest of Armenian volcanoes, and with a string of depressions extending across the plateau. The line may be easily recognised through Nimrud and Sipan to Tendurek and Ararat.

With the exception of the Dersim block, lying to the south of the Merjan-Muzur Dagh, which has not yet been satisfactorily explored, the remaining lines of elevation within the limits of the tableland are probably for the most part derived from the Taurus system. In this connection it is most interesting to take due note of the phenomenon that, side by side with the results of the later earth movements which have most largely determined the existing configuration of the land, an older movement may be discerned with a wide extension in Turkish Armenia, rearing mountains along a south-west—north-east line. We ourselves remarked this phenomenon on an impressive scale in the Akh Dagh, an elevation of highly marmorised limestone, which may well be older even than the Cretaceous period. It rises up on the north of the plain of Khinis (Ch. VIII. p. 186, [Fig. 159]), which it confines in an east-south-easterly direction. Though we were unable to test the strike of the stratification, the appearance of the ridges of which it is composed almost demanded the conclusion that they were originally members of a series of heights with a north-easterly course. Even as far east as the region to the south-west of Lake Van, where the Taurus is pursuing a general trend towards east-south-east, the strike of the older rocks was ascertained to be north-east. A glance at the map will show that the heights which confine the course of the Gunek Su pursue a north-easterly direction. Those on the right bank, extending to the basin of the Kighi or Peri Su, may be clearly traced into the Taurus on the west of Palu, to be represented further south by the Chembek Dagh and Mastikan Dagh, constituents of Taurus to the south-west of Kharput. In the opposite direction the line may not unreasonably be regarded as extending beneath the volcanic accumulations of the Bingöl Dagh through the Akh Dagh into the hills confining the plain of Alashkert upon the south, known as the Mergemir or Khalias Dagh. The younger movements may find expression in the present trend of the two last-named systems, and, further south, in the Köshmür Dagh, Shaitan Dagh and Javresh Dagh, mountains through which the Kighi Su breaks in a narrow defile after leaving the Khindris Ova or plain. These last extend with impressive orographical distinction to the south-western edge of the Bingöl plateau.