We next steer through the Ægean Sea, where the scenery and the historic associations are alike most attractive. We pass the S. Sporades, Greek islands off the coast of ancient Caria and Lydia, once ruled by the Knights of St. John, and now called Dodekanesos (‘twelve islands’), which enjoy autonomy under Turkish suzerainty.
Steaming to the W.N.W. we cross the inland sea of the ancient Doris, between Rhodes and Cos, noted for its sponge-fishery. On our right lies the Anatolian peninsula of the ancient Chersonesus Rhodia, with Cape Alupo (Cynossema) and the island of Symi (Syme); to the W. rise the precipitous and fissured island of Telos (Tilos; 2008 ft.) and the volcanic island of Nisyros (2268 ft.), with its huge, still smoking crater and its hot springs. To the N.W. stretch the long outlines of Chersonesus Cnidia, with the ruins of Cnidos and Cape Krio (Triopium Promontorium).
The steamer rounds the E. coast of Cos (2871 ft.; Turk. Istankiöi; not one of the Dodekanesos group), once the seat of the most ancient shrine of Æsculapius and of a famous medical school (Hippocrates), and passes the peninsula of Budrum (Halicarnassus). To the W. appear in succession the islands of Kalymnos (2248 ft.), Leros (1086 ft.), Lipso (902 ft.; Lepsia), and Arki (Acrite).
To the E. of the island of Gaïdaronisi (696 ft.; Tragia), where Cæsar was captured by pirates in 76 B. C., opens the Latmian Bay, belonging to the ancient Ionia, now silted up by the deposits of the Mæander. A little inland are the ruins of Miletus and Priene.
The French steamers now pass through the Straits of Samos, between the Samsun Dagh (4150 ft.; Mykale) and the island of Samos, whose old capital, Samos, now Tigani, with its walls of the age of Polycrates and its new harbour (1908), is seen in the distance.
Vathy (Xenodochion Hegemonia tēs Samu, a good inn; pop. 9500), the new capital of Samos, lies in the bay of Scalanova (set below), on the N. coast. Above the narrow bay rises the distant Samsun Dagh. On the shore stands the plain palace of the Samian princes. Since 1832 the island has formed a Christian-Greek state under Turkey. The Museum, in the court of the high school, contains antiquities from the famous shrine of Hera and from Tigani.
The French vessels, soon after starting, offer a retrospect of Mt. Kerki (4725 ft.; Cerceteus Mons), the highest in Samos, and then cross the Bay of Scalanova (Sinus Caystrius). In the hill-country on the mainland, to the E. of this bay, near the mouth of the Cayster or Kaystros, once lay the rich Ionian towns of Ephesus and Colophon and, to the N. of these, Lebedus and Teos.
Passing the Bay of Sighajik and Cape Koraca (Carycium Promontorium) we soon reach the Straits of Chios (comp. p. [492]).
Smyrna, see p. [530]; voyage thence to Constantinople, see p. [533].