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.