CHAPTER V
JOURNEY THROUGH ASIATIC TURKEY: II

My mother Earth!

And thou, fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains,

Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye.

And thou, the bright eye of the Universe,

That openest over all, and unto all

Art a delight—thou shin’st not on my heart.

Byron

On leaving Trebizond the winding road rises gradually until you reach the tableland of the Taurus, the so-called Armenian Highlands. We took one last look at the Black Sea from a height before it was lost to sight, dark and menacing with its ships lying at anchor.