APPROACHING THE CILICIAN GATES FROM THE NORTH (See [p. 46].)
Where this mountain-stream unites with the Chakia Su a bridge carries the track across to the other bank to join equally the main road to the South. This is the historic route leading through the Cilician Gates, the only pass available for traffic through the unbroken rock wall of Taurus. Peoples have passed through it that have formed nations; the armies of conquerors have traversed it in the struggle of continents; religions from the East have made it their channel of approach towards the unthinking West; Paul of Tarsus travelled through it bringing the Cross of Peace; and through it the Crusaders took back in due time the Cross of War. Makers of history—Persian, Greek, and Macedonian; Christian, Jew, and Moslem, all have passed this way. The nicely engineered road, however, with its bridges and embankments, its rock-cuttings and eased gradients, is a work of modern times. At the opening of our story we must look back to the beginnings of the pass in a rough track alongside the rushing stream. Even in early Hittite times, if we pay regard to the disposition of their monuments, it seems probable that the longer but more open route that follows the Tochma Su, and the shorter but rocky track that descends by Kuru-Bel, continued to be the chief lines of communication between the two main branches of their empire.[72] Previous, however, to Persian times the road through the Cilician Gates must have been sufficiently arranged to enable a wheeled cart or chariot to pass that way.[73]
The route may be divided into main sections, the first reaching as far as Bozanti Han. In this portion, which may be regarded as the northern approach to the Cilician Gates, the scenery gradually attains all the beauties of a deep mountain-pass. The steep slopes of the valley are clad with the dense growth of pines, mixed freely with oak and cypress, and other trees of varying foliage. In places the bare rock protrudes and towers aloft precipitously, with sharp peaks reaching to the snow-line. Ever and again a more open glade, or the widening of the wooded valley where the river is joined by other waters, adds pleasing variety to the journey, and brings into greater prominence the boldness and beauty of the views. At one place, visible by a short détour, there burst out of the rock the clear dark waters called appropriately Kara Su, changing the colour of the entire river. Several ‘Hans’[74] are passed and bridges crossed before nearing Bozanti; and hereabouts the river, with which the road has descended thus far, enters a rocky and precipitous defile through which it rushes to the plain. Avoiding this, the route crosses a low divide, and descends upon an arm of another river, the Cydnus, which leads down eventually to Tarsus and the sea. For a short way in this second section of the route the country is more open, but the enchantment of it is maintained in the wooded highland landscapes, with views of the dark green slopes of rugged Taurus and the snowy crest and crevices of Bulghar Dagh. Two well-placed ornamental forts[75] are passed, and the winding road, when seemingly faced by an impenetrable ridge of mountain, enters suddenly a deep rocky gorge. The spot is marked by an inscription of Marcus Aurelius on a rock in the river’s bed. This is the veritable Gate of Cilicia. A double door would close it and defy an army.
PLATE XXI
ENTRANCE OF THE CILICIAN GATES
In keeping with its momentous history, the scenery as the descent continues at once assumes a wild and impressive grandeur, unparalleled in beauty, passing description, to which all that has passed before served but as introduction. Now the keynote is changed, and Nature’s full orchestra breaks forth into a theme of violent and majestic discords, ever changing yet sustained, leaving for ever the impression of its grand harmonies. Here the crags tower up a thousand feet on either side. A myriad trees, their varied tones intensified by the glowing sunlight, clothe with soft colours the heights that hem in the horizon save where it is broken by fantastic peaks. Now the valley is torn by great rifts of red and grey rock, and warning precipices of prodigious character overhang the pathway. Below, on a verdant bed bedecked with flowers and creepers, peaceful glades and vistas disclose the chequered waters of the stream. Another turn, and a broad sweep of virgin forest lines the slopes in an unbroken curve; and ever and again Nature’s panorama changes, attracting the eye to some fresh beauty or surprise.
Though seemingly inaccessible, yet up in the wooded heights here and there a small village may be found, its houses nestling among fruit-trees and luxurious wildflowers. The people are very poor, for on these broken hilltops arable spots are scarce and difficult to work. They are also reticent and unsophisticated, and it is impossible to obtain from them any consistent reason as to their choice of dwelling-place while so many miles of corn-land in the interior await man’s labour. And since the bracing mountain air amid the pines, and the unique views all round, which extend beyond Tarsus to the sea, are to them considerations of last importance, we are left to conjecture in this case also that their ancestors found refuge here from the political storms of an unknown date. We are inclined to believe that this was the reason, and that the date was remote, because of the survival amongst them in striking purity of a type of the old Hittite races which, though peculiar, is familiar on the Egyptian monuments. It may indeed have been that of the Cilicians in general: it is strongly mongoloid in appearance except for the nose, which is strong and straight, but fine. The chin is beardless, but there is a thin dark cynical moustache; the cheek-bones are high and the eyes oblique. In the Egyptian sculptures a pigtail usually completes the striking features of the portrait, but this seems not to have survived the Moslem tonsure.
Once through the pass the whole character of the country changes as by a magician’s wand and another land unfolds itself. The bracing dry uplands are left behind with their peculiar fascination and unrealised possibilities, and in their place there appear the palm-trees and fruit-gardens of a southern clime, with physical peculiarities, economy, and population entirely different. The western plain of Cilicia is entirely alluvial soil, and is well called the fruit-garden of Western Asia. Towards the east there are some hilly places, but to the north-east the plain stretches out again, following an inland bay of the mountains. These plains seem to be wholly the gift of the numerous rivers which water them. These, descending from the mountainous region above, wherein the nature of the stone is various and to a large extent volcanic, bring down with them the rich alluvium which is deposited in their sluggish course below. Their names have been already mentioned. Some further streams to the west have a swifter course from the mountains which in that direction gradually approach the sea. Mersina, the modern port, marks almost the western extremity of the plain.
PLATE XXII