The city wall, though built without mortar, was constructed in such a way that it is still traceable continuously around the acropolis, and is preserved in many places to a height of twelve feet or more. It has an average thickness of about fourteen feet, made up of an inner and outer facing each about four feet thick, padded with a core of stone between. The outer face was especially strong, consisting of large stones sometimes as much as five feet in length (but averaging from two feet six inches at the bottom to one foot towards the top), dressed so as to fit cleanly together, with a preference for an approximately rectangular or five-sided form. The masonry was laid in courses as far as practicable with such material, but was liable to be interrupted by a stone larger than usual, or from other cause. Indeed, in some of the inner walls, where the masonry is less massive though similar in character, large stones have been inserted at intervals as a bond and to give general stability. The contour of the wall was further strengthened by buttresses or extra-mural towers, placed at intervals which varied according to the situation, averaging about a hundred feet apart. These do not seem to have been designed from principles of defence, but solely as architectural supports.[479]
PLATE LIX
BOGHAZ-KEUI: GORGE OF THE BEUYUK KAYANIN DARESI
On the left, Beuyuk Kaleh. (See [p. 200].)
Some of the original doorways leading through the wall seem to have been extremely small, not more than three feet in width. The subway under the southern rampart is also very narrow, but this was possibly a later addition. Its exit is a plain doorway, four feet wide, built of three granite blocks arranged as jambs and lintel; inside, the passage has a width of about five feet at the bottom, and is lined with stones in triangular arrangement, with the apex six feet from the floor. It is of interest to compare the principle of vaulting under pressure illustrated by its construction with the system of counterpoise employed in the arches of the larger gateways. These again may have been added since the original inception of the wall. In the vicinity of the Lion-gate, at any rate, the regular courses of the outer masonry give way at the corners, and in their place an arrangement of fitted stones, shaped to receive the corners and eccentricities of their neighbours, recalls the bonding of the palace walls in the lower portion of the interior. This may of course have been a deliberate original variation designed to strengthen the corners where the recess for the gate intervenes; and it is also obvious that some gateway wide enough to admit a cart or chariot must have been necessary at the beginning. Such, however, we are inclined to see in the unsculptured entrance, of similar character but smaller size, called Eshuk Tash, on the south-east of the town. The architectural principle, however, is in each case much the same, and maybe studied in the photograph of the Lion-gate itself.[480] This entrance is set back thirteen feet from the road, with an approach twenty feet across, narrowing to a clear space of thirteen feet between the jambs of the gateway. These main supports are of great size and weight; and while tending towards one another in a gentle curve as they rise, are so shaped and bonded to the wall that they stand in solid equilibrium. The height of these single stones is about twelve feet, and in the other gate mentioned about eleven feet. The latter illustrates more clearly the upper structure, in which the pointed arch was brought to its completion by repetition of the same principle of counterpoise. Each of the upper stones projected towards the other, while overhanging sufficiently in the opposite direction to retain its balance singly. Further details are not preserved, but the faces of these also must have been dressed to the curve of the arch, and if they did not approach one another close enough to touch, then the arch must have been completed by a fifth stone placed over all, as is indeed suggested in the case of the Eshuk Tash. In this way we gain a minimum height for the gateway, without superficial structure, of fifteen or sixteen feet. As the arch was repeated within at a distance of twenty-five feet, it is probable that the two spans supported a chamber or sentry-walk continuous with the parapet. Probably the mass of masonry to left and right indicates a guard-chamber flanking the approach on either side, in the well-known style later adopted by Roman engineers and finally transmitted to mediæval architecture.
We have dealt somewhat lengthily with the elementary details of this stronghold, but none the less deliberately; for the contemplation of this mass of masonry and the details of its execution is rewarded by an insight, which perhaps no other monument discloses, into the solidarity, power, skill and resource of the people whom it has so long survived. The famous Lions which guard this entrance are further witness to the standard of their civilisation, and are among the brightest products of their art. That on the right hand, which is almost perfectly preserved, illustrates a wealth of detail which the somewhat distant photograph does not show. The appropriate boldness and realism of the design, however, are manifest. This fashion of adorning the gateways, particularly with lions, as also at Sinjerli, Marash, and Sakje-Geuzi, is further paralleled by the sphinxes of Eyuk, and to some extent by the monstrous emblems in relief warding off trespassers from the inner gallery at Iasily Kaya.[481] In another gateway of the same character on this acropolis, Professor Winckler’s excavations have disclosed a high relief of a being clad in the Hittite tunic, shoes and hat, supposed at the time to represent a king,[482] but since recognised as a female warrior or Amazon.
PLATE LX
BOGHAZ-KEUI: THE LION GATE