[9] Verhandlungen der B. G. für Anthropologie, 1898, Heft VI. p. 591. These travellers add yet another name to the supposed ruins, viz. that of Sirnakar. [↑]
[10] Verhandlungen der B. G. für Anthropologie, 1898, Heft VI. p. 573. [↑]
[11] See the extract from Ibn-Alathir in Fragments de géographes et d’historiens Arabes et Persans inédits, by Defrémery, in Journal Asiatique, Paris, 1849, series 4, vol. xiii. p. 518. [↑]
[12] Saint Martin, Mémoires sur l’Arménie, vol. i. p. 136. We know that Ani was a fairly populous town long after the date when it was formerly supposed to have been deserted. [↑]
[13] Marco Polo, Yule’s translation, London, 1874, vol. i. p. 47; and “Merchant in Persia” in Italian Travels in Persia, Hakluyt Society, London, 1873, p. 160. The other six castles were Tadvan, Vostan, Van, Berkri, Adeljivas and Akhlat. [↑]
[14] Loftus, who visited Arjish in 1852, has collected the facts relative to the inundation (Quarterly Journal of Geological Society, London, 1855, vol. xi. p. 319). [↑]
[15] It may help to advance the study of the changes of level in the waters of Lake Van if I record that at the time of our visit (November 2) the island of Ktutz was almost a peninsula. The monks told us that in a few weeks’ time the long neck of sand which almost joined it to the land would be exposed from end to end. In spring the waters cover it. [↑]
[16] This rock, a specimen of which I brought home, may be described as a compact limestone, largely consisting of foraminifera and fragments of mollusca and other invertebrate organisms. [↑]
[17] The long pole shown in the picture projecting against the sky serves as a lever for lifting the bucket. [↑]
[18] The measurements of the interior are as follows:—Pronaos, length 36 feet 2 inches by 34 feet 4 inches. Church proper, length to head of apse, 40 feet 7 inches (25 feet 10 inches to the daïs supporting the altar, and 14 feet 9 inches from the daïs to the wall of the apse); breadth, 24 feet 8 inches. [↑]