Built of the drum of a fluted column, an altar and moulded base, of the Roman period. (See [p. 31].)
ANATOLIAN HORSES: THE HALT AT NOONDAY (See [p. 39].)
This eastern group of sites, indeed, is remarkably linked together by a common river system. The centre is the ‘White Lake’ Ak Geul, at the foot of the Taurus, westward from Eregli, and southward from the desert ridge called Karaja Dagh, on the northern slopes of which is Emir-Ghazi.[66] This lake is of variable size. When overfull its surplus waters disappear in a hole that passes under the mountain; during the dry season, however, it becomes a marshy pond of stagnant water. Into this come three chief rivers. From the south-east the Ak Su, which rises in the main chain of Taurus, drains also the outlying spur known as the Kara Dagh, on the crest of which is Mahalich. Here also is Bin Bir Kilisse, ‘The Thousand and One Churches,’ an ancient site; while just to the north the isolated hill called Kizil Dagh rises from the plain. From the south-east there comes the Kodja Su from high in the Bulghar Dagh, flowing past Eregli, before which it is joined by a stream that with wonderful noise gushes forth in many points from the rock near the hamlet of Ivrîz, six or seven miles above the town. This source is called by the natives Huda Verdi, ‘God-has-given,’ in appreciation of a divine gift that transforms an arid corner of the desert into a garden-valley rich in fruit-trees and vines. Into the same lake from the north-east comes the Kizilja Su, after a sluggish journey across the eastern plains, fed in its course by many streams descending from the inner ranges of the Taurus. The head-waters of this river give life to a whole district of peculiar interest. The main stream rises just northward at Andaval, flowing past that village to Nigdeh and thence to Bor; just below here it is joined by another branch on which is Kilisse Hissar, the site of old-time Tyana. Here are abundant and picturesque ruins of antiquity, and though nothing has yet been found earlier than the time of the Phrygian Midas,[67] there seems to be no doubt from the accounts of Strabo and other sources that it was from earliest times the political centre of this region. It is even probable that the Hittite inscriptions found in each of the neighbouring towns just mentioned have been transported from here in past times.[68] This district is mostly level, being actually the eastern border of the plain, though lying at the foot of the Ala Dagh Mountains that from here trend north-east towards Argæus. Owing doubtless to the various fertilising properties of the numerous streams that come down from the hills the whole country is unusually fruitful and productive; indeed, the region around Bor was in olden times selected as a part of the Roman Imperial Estate. Everywhere are wide acres of corn-land; while in the vicinity of the town are gardens, groves, and vineyards, adding to the attraction which the numerous monuments of antiquity already impart to it. The same features prevail all along the route from Cæsarea by Injesu, passing by the extensive groves and gardens of Develi Karahissar and the miles of arable land, dry but productive, between Arabli and Andaval. The approach to Tyana, as we proceed, runs for miles alongside an ancient but ruined aqueduct, picturesquely placed among gardens and trees.[69] Continuing south, the rolling plains give way gradually to the outlying spurs of the Taurus, and the main route crossing the watershed leads on towards the Cilician Gates, down the main valley of the Chakia Su.[70]
PLATE XIX
BOR: BRIDGE OVER THE KIZILJA-SU
A mountain-track, leaving the road at Bayal, leads southward over a series of parallel ridges of increasing height and grandeur[71] directly for Bulghar-Madên. The silver mines, to which the place owes its name and probably its being, seem to have been considerably worked in ancient times. The village is found deep in a valley under the Bulghar Dagh, a chief range of Taurus, nearly nine thousand feet in height. The stream rises far up the ridge, from the opposite side of which a branch of the Kodja Su flows down towards Ivrîz and Eregli. Its course is eastward, and as it dashes down its rocky bed it is already, when passing Bulghar-Madên, nearly three thousand feet below the snow-splashed crags along the base of which it flows. From there the valley, though narrow and steep-sided, assumes the verdant and enchanting beauty that ever dwells by mountain-streams, lending character to a large portion of the Hittites’ country. But to the traveller following in summer-time the track that winds down the left bank of the river, this beauty and enchantment is intensified here by the vast setting of the picture, by its fulness and variety of detail and rich contrasts of colours, combined with the movement and variegated costumes of the people that mingle in the scene. The banks are fruit-gardens, and wildflowers of varied sorts carpet the ground with splendour. Vines and mulberries are in profusion; and ripe cherries may be plucked even from the saddle, their bright clusters mottling everywhere the dark green foliage. Below, the swirling waters, seen at intervals, contribute also their harmonious changes, being white and gleaming where played on by the bright sunlight, and again clear green in the deeper pools and shaded places. From among the trees, the bright colours prevailing in Turkish costumes, reds and blues, yellow and white, add to the effect; for the whole population of the scattered hamlets, men and women, boys and girls, are in the gardens or beneath the trees. At one place may be seen an aged couple bending side by side at their work upon their tiny plot of land. Below, under a spreading tree, against the stem of which he leans, a bare-legged boy is piping his reed flutes, as Marsyas did, while boys and girls stand near in groups talking and at play. Beyond, out of sight of these, upon a sand-and-pebble beach two little boys, quite naked, are dancing merrily by themselves to the distant music. In the background rises the immense wall of mountain: its lower slopes are thickly wooded with larch and pines, giving way in the middle heights to scrub oak, which continues to struggle upward until the bleak rock appears. Overhead a curious phenomenon tempers the heat of noon-day in this happy valley, especially on windless days when its beneficence is most appreciated. Towards mid-day a mist, arising probably from the melting of the snows upon the ridge, spreads over the valley like a canopy, and so it remains until as the afternoon wears on the vapour re-condenses, and the bright sun reappears to cheer the evening. Except for this peculiarity the valley resembles in general many of those innumerable sheltered rifts among the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains, wherein the rigour of winter is recompensed by the bounteous summer, and the scattered population pursues its life, isolated from and almost independent of the moving world.
PLATE XX
