Life in Asiatic Turkey

"Life in Asiatic Turkey" by E. J. Davis is a travel narrative written in the late 19th century. It chronicles an English clergyman’s overland journey through Cilicia, Isauria, Lycaonia, Cappadocia, and the Syrian coast, blending topographical detail, antiquarian notes, and sharp observations on local society, health, trade, and Ottoman provincial rule. The opening of the work sets out the author’s purpose: to describe little-visited Northern Syria and Karamania, explain why travellers avoid them (danger, disease, hardship), and portray the Turkish people sympathetically while condemning corrupt administration. He then embarks by steamer from Alexandria, touching at Port Said, Jaffa, Acre, Sidon, Beyrout, Tripoli, and Alexandretta, noting harbours, the scent of orange groves, Crusader and Arab remains, and the malarial setting of Alexandretta, where he also records graves—among them a murdered American missionary—and old British epitaphs. Reaching Mersina, he sketches its swift growth since wartime grain booms, its unhealthy summers, mixed population, and nearby watch-mounds; a rain day yields candid talk with the British vice-consul about summer retreats in the Taurus, official corruption, blocked irrigation schemes, and famine relief abuses. He visits the ruined port and long colonnade of Pompeiopolis; surveys Mersina’s Greek schools and hospital; rides the province’s lone road to Tarsus; explores its necropolis hill, bazaars, and churches; describes the massive “Dunuk Tash” (ascribed to Sardanapalus), the Cydnus falls and altered river course, and the well linked by tradition to St. Paul—before setting out toward Asaab-el-Kef.

Life in Asiatic Turkey, by E. J. Davis. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77918.