Chapter V: Appendix: B.—index to Hittite Monuments, with a Bibliography, 395-401 (2)

The great circuit of the Halys encloses a tract of country a hundred and fifty miles across, watered chiefly by tributaries of the same river. Of these the Delije Irmak is chief, and it is perhaps more directly concerned with the fertility of the country than its parent river. It rises in the watershed of the Ak Dagh Mountains, under the southern slopes of which the Halys itself flows down the long reach between Sivas and the bridges near Cæsarea. Thence in its course it makes a similar circuit within that of the Halys, which it only joins in the middle of the north-westerly reach. This river is more gentle in its flow, and its banks are mostly flat alluvial tracts of great fertility; indeed, the land would support a population many times more numerous than its settled inhabitants. Long green pastures and arable spots remain unneeded and neglected. It is small wonder that the wandering Turkoman and other nomad peoples have found out this favoured region so suitable to their habits and the feeding of their flocks. Their tents in little groups are found quite frequently in places off the beaten tracks; indeed their encampments remaining through several years sometimes mark the foundation of villages and settled life. The tent of the nomad is generally made of lengths of rough hand-made cloth, woven from home-spun goats’ wool. These are sewn together to give a considerable expanse of cover, which is spread over vertical poles and brought down to earth on the windward side. In such a tent the owner and his family share a common shelter with their flocks and any other animals they may possess.[48] In some cases the development of the house from tent may be watched growing proportionately with the duration of their stay. For the ashes and rubbish are regularly thrown out around the back of the tent for mere convenience. This refuse gradually accumulates, and may be increased by earth cleared gradually from within, and by stones collected from the land in use around, so that in a year or two a wall or mound three or four feet high already encloses the tent on three sides. The worn-out cloth cover is now replaced by a roof of rafters and twigs covered with earth, and perhaps without realising it the nomad has settled and built a house. The solution is not always so simple or purely economical. In some cases walls of reed are built, over which the cover will be stretched as before and held down all around with pegs. In due course, with a prolonged stay, the worn-out cloth will be replaced by thatch, and rough stone walls supplant the decaying reeds; and so, as he loses the habit of wandering, the nomad loses also the necessaries of his journeys.

CHESME KEUPRU: INTERIOR OF THE HAN (_See p. 28._)

NEAR SEKKELI: YURUK ENCAMPMENT (_See p. 29._)]

The Delije Irmak is replenished in its turn by numerous smaller streams; on one of these is Yuzgat, which had its origin in a settlement of Turkomans, and has now grown to be one of the most important towns of the district. It is pleasantly situated in the cup-like hollow of a green hillside, and with its well-ordered streets, its stone-built bazaars and public buildings, has an appearance of considerable attraction. Here horses are to be procured of useful kind and at reasonable prices, and a great horse fair is held annually in the summer months. The masoned stone used in its construction was largely brought from the ruins of ancient Tavium, which is found at Nefez-Keui, a short journey to the west. The latter is one of the most typical and instructive villages of the interior. It is placed near the sources of another tributary of the same river, well up the southern slopes of a considerable secondary watershed. In typical fashion the backs of the houses are partly excavated in the hillside, so that the mud-covered roofs are continuous with the ground behind, while the fronts of the houses and the village streets are banked up in terraces. Nearly all the houses have some form of verandah sheltering their entrances; and numerous Greek inscriptions may be found built into the walls of many buildings. The ancient acropolis may be recognised by a few sculptured fragments in a steep knoll some minutes westward, and on the way the modern cemetery is passed in which also several stones bearing Greek inscriptions or sculptures have been re-used and in some cases re-inscribed. The main industry of the villagers here, as everywhere in Asia Minor, is naturally agriculture. The fields in the dales below, though somewhat marshy in places, are very green with luxurious pastures and some quantity of trees; while nearer the village gardens of vegetables are plentiful with orchards of fruit-trees and a considerable expanse of vineyards. Other national industries are carried on in the houses unnoticed, such as the hand-weaving of small carpets,[49] done chiefly by the women. The water supply of the village is found in several springs, which have been built up and prepared for the watering of cattle and flocks, as well as for domestic purposes. The scene of women washing their garments or their children at the trough, or drawing water at the source is here, as throughout the East, one of the most characteristic of daily life. The prevailing type of face among the inhabitants of this place is Turkoman, but a certain clean-cut Greek or proto-Greek type of face may be found suggested in some few of the men, recalling distantly a special type of Hittite warriors as portrayed in Egyptian sculpture. Some of the women are noticeably beautiful.[50]

Northwards from Nefez-Keui the route continues to rise to the crest of this secondary watershed, which reaches a height of over seven thousand feet. From the eastern edge several streams fall away to join the Chekerek. As soon as the northern slopes are reached, a remarkable change of landscape presents itself; bare patches are replaced by continuous pastures, and the stream which descends towards Boghaz-Keui passes through meadows and wooded glades of peculiar beauty. As the river[51] gathers strength it works its way into a deep continuous vale of increasing splendour, the slopes of which are thickly covered with trees and shrubbery of considerable variety, except where here and there a bare patch of rock or red-brown soil adds to the contrast of colours. At the mouth of this valley, on the right at the foot of the hill, the little village of Boghaz-Keui is disclosed, with its white minaret and houses and large konak, on a low outcrop of rock, made pleasant by a few trees and splashing streams. The ridge is left behind, and the landscape immediately opens out into wide pastures bounded by dark green uplands, and broken freely by white limestone rocks. The name of this place, the ‘Village of the Gorge,’ has arisen possibly on account of its general situation, or more probably in reference to the deep ravine of another river[52] which bounds the eastern edge of the historic hill, on which are the palaces and acropolis of ancient Pteria, that marks the one-time capital and centre of the land. It is difficult for us now to realise, with the changed political and economic conditions, what special feature there was peculiar to this site, unless that were its climate and defensible position, that should have marked it out for such a destiny. Its ancient city is now a deserted ruin, without meaning to modern life. Its roadways have no longer any significance, and even in the faces of its people there can be seen no reflection of its former population. It would seem that the Lydian conqueror of the sixth century B.C. had thoroughly and effectively destroyed it.[53]

NEFEZ-KEUI: TWO WOMEN DRAWING AT THE SPRING

TYANA: TURKISH WOMEN AND CHILD]

Another Hittite site, marked by a low mound now covered by the village of Eyuk, lies some twenty miles farther to the north. The route thither winds around somewhat barren uplands, among which a few arable spots have been chosen as the sites of villages. In some of these, particularly in the remoter places upon the hills, an ancient type survives in striking and rugged contrast to the familiar though varying Turkish features.[54] Our photograph, taken at Kulakly (a hamlet on the way from Boghaz-Keui to Eyuk), discloses the same prominent facial details and sturdy figures as we have previously seen in the woodlands above Kartal in the north of Syria. It is a type preserved to some extent in the Jewish families found in some of the towns of Asia Minor, as we have seen to be the case at Cæsarea.[55] It is strikingly reminiscent of the Amorite element among the Hittite allies on the Egyptian battle scenes.

The main roadways of this region, as indeed throughout the tableland in general, are curiously independent of the river systems. Local tracks follow naturally the valleys of streams so far as these serve for the required direction, but in general the high roads are independently devised. Of these the two which cross at Yuzgat are the chief: the one leads from Cæsarea northwards either to Chorum, the administrative headquarters of this district,[56] or to Amasîa somewhat eastward, and so on to Samsun on the coast of the Black Sea; while the other connects Sivas with Angora and the west. The latter route as it approaches the Halys passes by Denek Maden, where are considerable mines of lead and silver, the ore of which contains also antimony and gold. The descent to the Halys bed lies through a well-timbered country, and the river is crossed by this route at Cheshme Keupru. There are also other routes of considerable importance, one of which has been mentioned as connecting Cæsarea with Angora directly, crossing the Halys twice; while another from Angora eastward, much used in summer-time, passes over the river considerably north of Cheshme Keupru, heading for Sungurlu, whence the way is open to Chorum by way of Eyuk, or to Yuzgat, passing in this case by Boghaz-Keui.

There are some few rivers of this region which do not enter the basin of the Halys. The chief of these is the Chekerek, which rises likewise in the Ak Dagh Mountains, and pursues a circuitous course northwards, in avoiding the slopes of minor ranges, until it joins the river Iris at Amasîa. The last-named river, called in Turkish the Yeshil Irmak, with its main branch the Lycus, belongs entirely to the coastal system, and so does not enter into our account of the interior plateau. Another stream just eastward of the Iris is the Thermodon, made famous in Greek literature[57] by its association with the Amazons. This is one of a series of similar rivers which flow almost directly northwards to the Black Sea from the lower Armenian hills. There are other short rivers of like kind westward of the Halys, some of which help to feed that river, while others flow directly to the sea. These do not need to be mentioned by their names, as they all fall away from the northern slopes of the broken and irregular chain of mountains that forms the northern boundary to the tableland.

YUZGAT: DERVISH AND VAGABONDS

KULAKLY KEUI: TYPES OF INHABITANTS]

The most westerly main river flowing to the Black Sea is the Sangarius or Sakaria, which rises in the interior, and avoids the northern ranges by a long westerly détour. Numerous early tributaries of this great river rise indeed in the slopes of those northern mountains, while others fall from the western side of the divide, which on the east overlooks the Halys. These meander southward and westward, seeking for an opening through the upland region of which Angora is the economic centre. The country which they water resembles in general characteristics many portions in the basin of the Halys; and though large tracts equally remain barren and neglected through lack of population, it is on the whole better cultivated, and hence more productive. Angora itself is strikingly placed upon a hill, crowned by an old fortress which overlooks a ravine with precipitous sides.[58] Here are extensive gardens and cultivation in sheltered spots, and in the immediate neighbourhood are numerous orchards and vineyards. The place is famous for its fruits, especially pears and apples, and for its honey. The Angora goat is historic, and there is still a considerable trade in the mohair which this animal produces, and to some extent in special woven fabrics. It is the administrative headquarters of a large province, the seat, that is to say, of a Wali; and is an important trade centre for the interior. Several main roads converge upon it, notably the high road connecting Constantinople with the East, by way of Yuzgat and Sivas, which crosses the Halys at Cheshme Keupru. A route no longer of first importance, but dating probably from Phrygian times[59] at least, connects Angora with Giaour-Kalesi, some thirty miles south-west, and another place in this vicinity with which we are concerned is Yarre, placed just above a bridge across the Sangarius called _Karanje Keupru_.

ANGORA: OLD HOUSES ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY]

In the time of Herodotus the country around Angora was obviously regarded as a part of Phrygia, the eastern boundary of which was the Halys, dividing it from Cappadocia,[60] yet we have preferred to look upon this as a northern region apart, and to assign to the Phrygian country its later and more familiar boundaries. As such Phrygia forms the geographical centre of the western portion of the peninsula. Here is the main watershed, in which are found the head-waters of three river systems. On the one side are the sources of the Hermus and the Mæander flowing down to the Ægean in the west; on another rises the Cayster (the _Akkar-tchai_), and several smaller rivers which follow a southerly or south-easterly course, emptying into inland lakes; while from the northern slopes, as we have previously noticed, other waters feed the Sangarius, and are rolled with the flood of that river into the Black Sea eastward from the Bosphorus. These uplands are among the most attractive parts of Asia Minor; the bracing air is filled with the delicious scent of pine-woods, the verdant pastures are well watered by numerous clear streams, and the meadows ripen under a glowing sun, the rays of which are tempered by the altitude. Here, too, are numerous monuments of the Phrygian kingdom; while north-east from these, at Doghanlu Daresi, on one of many minor tributaries of the Sangarius, and south-west at Bey-Keui, at one of the sources of the same river, near the summit of the watershed, there have been found traces of Hittite handiwork. Through the heart of this region, too, there passed the royal road of Persian times,[61] visible as a series of parallel scars in the surface rock. This was the main highway linking West with East, and that it developed largely during Hittite times also is seen by the disposition of Hittite monuments along its track. Near the coast, it passed near where the sculptures of Sipylus and Kara-Bel looked down on the approaches to Smyrna and to Ephesus. From Sardis its precise route eastward is not determined, but it must have entered the Phrygian country near Bey-Keui, whence it is traceable past Bakshish and the monument of the Phrygian Midas, near which is also the Hittite sculpture at Doghanlu Daresi. Still leading north-westward past Giaour-Kalesi, it would seem to have crossed the Sangarius near to Yarre, and the Halys either at or just northwards from Cheshme Keupru,[62] heading in all this otherwise unexplained détour for Boghaz-Keui, the chief centre of the Hittites in the north. This road had already lost its main objective even in Persian times, for Pteria seems never to have recovered from its overthrow by Crœsus, but it continued to be used, probably because it was ready made; and its traces remain, like the isolated monuments of the Hittites in the west, striking witnesses to a vast system of government and economic organisation unlike anything in later times. For our immediate purpose it is sufficient to notice that all the clearly Hittite monuments westward of the Halys are found along this single line of road, a fact which is as significant as it is remarkable.

NEFEZ-KEUI: CARPET-WEAVING (_See p. 31._)]

We do not include in the foregoing considerations the region of which Iconium (_Konia_) is the centre, which fills the southern corner of the tableland. Several main roads radiate naturally from this place, which is the chief town of the province; there are, however, only two or three with which we are even indirectly concerned. Of these one leads north-westward, passing Ilgîn at a distance of about fifty miles, and so into Phrygia, which it approaches up the valley of the inland Cayster. The second is that which leads eastward across the plains by Sultan Han and Akserai for Cæsarea; and a third, bending southward to avoid the desert plains, communicates by Eregli with the Cilician Gates and with Tyana (Kilisse Hissar). In ancient times there must have been a more direct road connecting Iconium with Tyana, passing by Ardistama, the site of which is still marked in what is now desert by the name of Arissama, with the neighbouring mounds of Emir-Ghazi.[63]

Around and northward from Iconium there are extensive grass plains, the natural grazing ground of horses which are sent in great droves annually to the fairs and markets of the country, even as far as Baghdad. The breeds are not remarkable for quality, and cannot compare with those rare and beautiful animals reared in the plains that border the middle course of the Euphrates; but they are for the most part a hardy species standing little higher than a European pony, useful for transport, and trained for the saddle to the fast walking pace in which long journeys are always made.[64] The rivers of this region are short and local, ending for the most part upon the plains in salt lakes and marshes, which, after the snows have ceased to melt, become almost dry, leaving the ground covered with white incrustation. Some of these lakes are of such volume as to be permanent; the largest of the kind, as has already been mentioned, is Tuz Geul; its waters are more dense even than those of the Dead Sea, and as they recede with the approach of summer they leave behind thick deposits of salt, collected regularly by the natives, who come many days’ journey for the purpose.

There is another great lake a long day’s journey westward from Iconium; its situation, however, is quite different from the foregoing, as it is well up in the western mountains, nearly four thousand feet above the sea. The town of Beyshehr, which gives its name to the lake, is found on its south-eastern corner; and the road thereto from Iconium passes by Fassiler, a place remarkable for its ancient monuments and the peculiar facial type of its inhabitants. Further to the north, and near the eastern border of the lake, is Eflatoun-Bunar, the site of a famous ‘Lycaonian’ structure called ‘Plato’s spring.’ With the tract westward of Konia, however, we have at present little concern,[65] and when we turn eastward we are inclined to regard the Hittite sites, whether along the edge of Taurus like Mahalich and Ivrîz, or isolated in the desert like Emir-Ghazi, as pertaining not to Konia, from which they are separated by desert, but to the same group as Tyana, with which they are to some extent geographically connected.

NEFEZ KEUI: MINARET OF THE VILLAGE MOSQUE

Built of the drum of a fluted column, an altar and moulded base, of the Roman period. (_See p. 31._)

ANATOLIAN HORSES: THE HALT AT NOONDAY (_See p. 39._)]

This eastern group of sites, indeed, is remarkably linked together by a common river system. The centre is the ‘White Lake’ _Ak Geul_, at the foot of the Taurus, westward from Eregli, and southward from the desert ridge called Karaja Dagh, on the northern slopes of which is Emir-Ghazi.[66] This lake is of variable size. When overfull its surplus waters disappear in a hole that passes under the mountain; during the dry season, however, it becomes a marshy pond of stagnant water. Into this come three chief rivers. From the south-east the Ak Su, which rises in the main chain of Taurus, drains also the outlying spur known as the Kara Dagh, on the crest of which is Mahalich. Here also is Bin Bir Kilisse, ‘The Thousand and One Churches,’ an ancient site; while just to the north the isolated hill called Kizil Dagh rises from the plain. From the south-east there comes the Kodja Su from high in the Bulghar Dagh, flowing past Eregli, before which it is joined by a stream that with wonderful noise gushes forth in many points from the rock near the hamlet of Ivrîz, six or seven miles above the town. This source is called by the natives _Huda Verdi_, ‘God-has-given,’ in appreciation of a divine gift that transforms an arid corner of the desert into a garden-valley rich in fruit-trees and vines. Into the same lake from the north-east comes the Kizilja Su, after a sluggish journey across the eastern plains, fed in its course by many streams descending from the inner ranges of the Taurus. The head-waters of this river give life to a whole district of peculiar interest. The main stream rises just northward at Andaval, flowing past that village to Nigdeh and thence to Bor; just below here it is joined by another branch on which is Kilisse Hissar, the site of old-time Tyana. Here are abundant and picturesque ruins of antiquity, and though nothing has yet been found earlier than the time of the Phrygian Midas,[67] there seems to be no doubt from the accounts of Strabo and other sources that it was from earliest times the political centre of this region. It is even probable that the Hittite inscriptions found in each of the neighbouring towns just mentioned have been transported from here in past times.[68] This district is mostly level, being actually the eastern border of the plain, though lying at the foot of the Ala Dagh Mountains that from here trend north-east towards Argæus. Owing doubtless to the various fertilising properties of the numerous streams that come down from the hills the whole country is unusually fruitful and productive; indeed, the region around Bor was in olden times selected as a part of the Roman Imperial Estate. Everywhere are wide acres of corn-land; while in the vicinity of the town are gardens, groves, and vineyards, adding to the attraction which the numerous monuments of antiquity already impart to it. The same features prevail all along the route from Cæsarea by Injesu, passing by the extensive groves and gardens of Develi Karahissar and the miles of arable land, dry but productive, between Arabli and Andaval. The approach to Tyana, as we proceed, runs for miles alongside an ancient but ruined aqueduct, picturesquely placed among gardens and trees.[69] Continuing south, the rolling plains give way gradually to the outlying spurs of the Taurus, and the main route crossing the watershed leads on towards the Cilician Gates, down the main valley of the Chakia Su.[70]

BOR: BRIDGE OVER THE KIZILJA-SU]

A mountain-track, leaving the road at Bayal, leads southward over a series of parallel ridges of increasing height and grandeur[71] directly for Bulghar-Madên. The silver mines, to which the place owes its name and probably its being, seem to have been considerably worked in ancient times. The village is found deep in a valley under the Bulghar Dagh, a chief range of Taurus, nearly nine thousand feet in height. The stream rises far up the ridge, from the opposite side of which a branch of the Kodja Su flows down towards Ivrîz and Eregli. Its course is eastward, and as it dashes down its rocky bed it is already, when passing Bulghar-Madên, nearly three thousand feet below the snow-splashed crags along the base of which it flows. From there the valley, though narrow and steep-sided, assumes the verdant and enchanting beauty that ever dwells by mountain-streams, lending character to a large portion of the Hittites’ country. But to the traveller following in summer-time the track that winds down the left bank of the river, this beauty and enchantment is intensified here by the vast setting of the picture, by its fulness and variety of detail and rich contrasts of colours, combined with the movement and variegated costumes of the people that mingle in the scene. The banks are fruit-gardens, and wildflowers of varied sorts carpet the ground with splendour. Vines and mulberries are in profusion; and ripe cherries may be plucked even from the saddle, their bright clusters mottling everywhere the dark green foliage. Below, the swirling waters, seen at intervals, contribute also their harmonious changes, being white and gleaming where played on by the bright sunlight, and again clear green in the deeper pools and shaded places. From among the trees, the bright colours prevailing in Turkish costumes, reds and blues, yellow and white, add to the effect; for the whole population of the scattered hamlets, men and women, boys and girls, are in the gardens or beneath the trees. At one place may be seen an aged couple bending side by side at their work upon their tiny plot of land. Below, under a spreading tree, against the stem of which he leans, a bare-legged boy is piping his reed flutes, as Marsyas did, while boys and girls stand near in groups talking and at play. Beyond, out of sight of these, upon a sand-and-pebble beach two little boys, quite naked, are dancing merrily by themselves to the distant music. In the background rises the immense wall of mountain: its lower slopes are thickly wooded with larch and pines, giving way in the middle heights to scrub oak, which continues to struggle upward until the bleak rock appears. Overhead a curious phenomenon tempers the heat of noon-day in this happy valley, especially on windless days when its beneficence is most appreciated. Towards mid-day a mist, arising probably from the melting of the snows upon the ridge, spreads over the valley like a canopy, and so it remains until as the afternoon wears on the vapour re-condenses, and the bright sun reappears to cheer the evening. Except for this peculiarity the valley resembles in general many of those innumerable sheltered rifts among the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains, wherein the rigour of winter is recompensed by the bounteous summer, and the scattered population pursues its life, isolated from and almost independent of the moving world.

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.

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.

GOING SOUTH THROUGH THE CILICIAN GATES

TARSUS: THE GARDENS AND THE TOWN]

The green tract of Cilicia is so shut in to the north by the Taurus ranges, and to the east by the Amanus mountains, and so exposed to the sea, that it seems as if Nature had designed this unique corner of Asia Minor for a history of its own. Its remarkable fertility, however, and the important passes which lead down to it in several directions, make it impossible that it could have been overlooked by any power in possession of its frontiers. For this reason, and in this instance, the absence of any clearly Hittite remains[76] must be attributed to accident and to the nature of the country. But it is indeed remarkable that in none of the defiles that connect it with the several portions of the Hittite land has a single Hittite monument been discovered. When we consider how suitable many spots would seem to be for Hittite monuments, whether in the Cilician Gates, or in the valley of the Pyramus, or in the pass leading by Bogche over the Amanus mountains eastward, or on the wave-washed rocks which must be crossed by the coast route to Alexandretta, this absence of any Hittite trace becomes the more conspicuous and significant. It establishes the probability towards which we have been already drawn, that the main channel of communication between the lands of the Hittites in the north of Syria and in Asia Minor was by way of the mountain passes of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus where their monuments are found in comparative plenty.

TARSUS: THE CONCRETE WALLS OF DUNUK TASH

TARSUS: SACRED STONE IN A COFFIN, IN THE COURT OF AN ARAB SHRINE]

II

SOME PAGES OF HISTORY

In this chapter we take a passing glance at the history of the Hittite lands after the Hittite power had passed, down to the establishment of the Seljûk Turks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. It is not a connected story, for with the disappearance of the Hittites the political horizon changed: thereafter the balance of power in the Near East was several times distributed anew. We must therefore be content to sketch an outline of the general course of eventful history in which the lands subsequently shared, and to note in what manner, but not to what extent, the local records and monuments are evidence of the parts they severally played.

We are compelled to make these limitations, for no land on earth can claim a history so momentous as the drama that was worked out in Asia Minor during the centuries that followed the Hittite domination. Here was the scene of a long struggle for supremacy both among its own peoples and between the adjoining portions of the two continents which it connects; a thousand _Iliads_ would do scant justice to the deeds of arms alone. And the struggle of the continents was not merely for the possession of a land itself rich in minerals and for the most part highly fertile, but for a passage-way for great migrations, civilisations, and religions. To this story we have nothing to contribute, no new evidence to bring forward, no new opinions to maintain; the history of Asia Minor has been written by pens more able and more competent to deal with it.[77] In introducing these few pages our object is to subserve our main inquiry: to enable us to distinguish between the works of the various phases of history that we meet with in our wanderings, and especially to appreciate by contrast the peculiarities of the Hittite monuments which we shall next consider.

Though we defer writing the story of the Hittites until we have seen what their own works can tell us, we find ourselves obliged to trace its outline[78] in order to decide at what point that story ends. The Hittites first appear in history about 2000 B.C., when it would appear that they were already powerful enough to overturn the first dynasty of Babylon and sack that city, and that they had settlements in southern Syria on the frontiers of Egypt. Certain Hittite tablets from Central Asia Minor are said to belong to the same age. Nothing is known, however, of the constitution of the Hittites in these early times; but it may be inferred that they subsequently retired from the south or were there submerged. It is not until the fifteenth century B.C. that the name of the Hittites definitely reappears, when successive expeditions of the Pharaohs encountered them in the north of Syria. Then in the fourteenth century their capital is found at Boghaz-Keui, in the ruins of which their archives of this period have been recently unearthed. These, supplemented by the Tell-el-Amarna letters, tell how the King of the ‘Hatti’—the local and at that time dominant element—became Great King of the Hittite confederated peoples and vassal states, whose chief towns included most of the sites identified with Hittite remains, like Hamath, Aleppo, Carchemish, Marash, Malatia, and many city-states as yet unidentified. This was the period of their greatest empire, and it is probable that the regions of Cilicia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and even Lydia at this time acknowledged the suzerainty of the all-powerful soldier-king. For five or six generations of the Hatti rulers the position of the Hittites as a dominant power in Western Asia was recognised by the Pharaohs and the Kings of Babylon, both in their letters and treaties and by the exchange of ambassadors. During the great migrations of the twelfth century B.C., however, it would seem that the Hatti dynasty was overthrown and the Hittite empire dismembered. This may be inferred from the cessation of their own archives and from the appearance of the Muski, identified in later times with the Phrygians,[79] upon the north-west frontier of Assyria,[80] having thus fought their way across the heart of Asia Minor. These were repulsed,[81] but this incursion was contemporaneous with a shifting of the chief Hittite power to Carchemish, while Hamath on the Orontes and other southern centres come into increased prominence.

In trying to work out the story of the decline and fall of the Hittite power, we are faced with the same difficulty that enshrouded the whole problem of the Hittites until recent discoveries shed the light of internal documentary evidence upon the period of their empire—namely, that for the most part only the events connected with certain of their frontier lands came at all within the horizon of the Assyrian and the Greek historians, and these are seen by us with relative disproportion. To take a single illustration, we fail to find in the Egyptian and Assyrian records any suggestion as to the position of the Hittite capital of the fourteenth century at Boghaz-Keui; and for more than seven hundred years we are without any direct evidence as to its fortunes, until a chance reference by Herodotus in describing the affairs of Lydia tells us of its final overthrow.

In the tenth century, however, during the temporary decline of Assyria and the withdrawal of the Phrygians, the Hittite states may be inferred to have largely recovered their power and independence. But though there were frequent alliances between neighbouring states, there does not seem to have been any over-lord, as of old, powerful enough to unite them all under his leadership and to maintain a consistent policy. Malatia and Marash appear as the chief cities of kingdoms in Taurus, while in the Anti-Taurus the kingdom of Tabal (or Tubal) probably included the districts of Komana, Ekrek, Mazaca, and Fraktin. On the plateau the kingdom of the Khilakku, which we may call Greater Cilicia (embracing the region from Tyana to the Kara Dagh, and from Karaburna to Bulghar-Madên), replaced the original state of Hatti within the Halys as chief representative of Hittite power and tradition. But it was not for long: if the Muski had retreated it was only to gather strength; while in the east a new rival, of force and character similar to the Hittites, had appeared in the region of Lake Van, pressing down to the Euphrates and even into Syria, where also the steady infiltration of Aramæan peoples was already challenging the dominance of the old Hittite stock.

From the middle of the ninth century also the struggles of the weakening Hittite tribes against the reviving power of Assyria were renewed; and this time they were doomed. Their lands of Syria and in the Taurus were thereafter the objective of many punitive expeditions on the part of successive Assyrian kings, who claim always to have conquered and exacted tribute. For over a century, however, though many times defeated and severely punished, these states as often found opportunity for casting off the yoke. But Sargon, late in the eighth century, adopted with stern determination the policy which his predecessors had initiated, of transporting large numbers of the rebellious population and replacing them by Assyrian colonists. One by one the greater Hittite centres on his frontiers were absorbed, and when the Assyrian forces passed into Asia Minor to challenge the supremacy of the Phrygian Midas, about 718 B.C., it is clear that these two powers had divided the Hittite territory between them. The appearance, too, in the north, of the Cimmerians, in wellnigh irresistible strength, had changed the political horizon.[82]

From one point of view, however, it would be natural to point to the destruction of Pteria by Crœsus, in the middle of the sixth century B.C., as the last event of Hittite history, and so begin our post-Hittite story from that time. The conquest by Cyrus and the reunification of all the Hittite lands under Persian rule a few years later, in 546, would provide a suitable starting-point; yet, in fact, from the age of Sargon, a century and a half before, there can be traced no real semblance of surviving Hittite power nor any of the old Hittite individuality in the local arts. Their very name then almost disappeared from Oriental history, and was retained but as a memory; while in Asia Minor the power of the Phrygian kings was then at its zenith, and in the presence of Phrygian inscriptions at Eyuk,[83] near the old Hittite capital, and at Tyana,[84] which seems to have replaced Pteria in importance in the revival of the tenth century, there is indication that the Hittite day was already ended. But though the Hittite power was broken and disintegrated, their civilisation faded only gradually from view. Long after the sun had set upon its pride it lingered on, felt rather than seen, in the twilight that obscures our vision of the tableland in the early part of the first millennium B.C., surviving long enough here and there, as we shall see, in the form of institutions and religious customs, to have left a trace in the pages of Greek history. Thereafter we have several clear phases to review, interrupted by others of considerable disturbance and obscurity. Following the overthrow of Assyria on the one hand, and the decline of Phrygia on the other, two new powers appeared in the sixth century in the Medes and the Lydians, who similarly divided Asia Minor, with the Halys as their mutual boundary. By 546, however, Cyrus had annexed the whole country to the Persian Empire, in the continuous history of which it shared until the advent, in B.C. 324, of Alexander, who once more established the supremacy of the West. With his death the tribal struggles of antiquity reappear in new guise, and history is occupied chiefly with the varying fortunes of the kingdoms of Pergamum, of Pontus, and of the Seleucids, until in the first century B.C. Roman organisation gathered together the loose threads of independence and retied the knot in a manner that remained firm, in fine, for several hundred years. The next great landmark is not till 668 A.D., when, forty-six years after the flight of Mohammed, the Saracen army laid siege to Constantinople. In 1067 the Seljûks appeared from the east, followed two centuries later by the Osmanli-Turks, though these were not finally re-established in power, after the Mongol invasions, until 1413 A.D.

MONUMENTS OF PHRYGIA

BEY-KEUI: THE ROYAL ROAD TRACED BY RUTS IN THE SURFACE ROCK (_See pp. 24, 38._)

DIMERLI: A FALLEN LION (_See p. 60._)]

Of the monarchies that arose as the Hittite power declined, and in their turn passed away, that of the Phrygians first attracts our attention by its proximity in time and place. When the Muski first appeared in the twelfth century B.C. upon the north-west frontier of Assyria,[85] they gave warning of a tide of Aryan immigration setting in from the north-west. This first wave, after beating vainly against the ramparts of the Assyrian Empire, seems to have retreated; but it left its traces behind in a group of people, whether colonists or prisoners settled on the soil in the Assyrian manner, who by the same name reappear some centuries later[86] as a small state on the east of the Euphrates opposite Malatia. We know nothing of the early history of this movement, but, so far as can be seen, the rolling of this wave across Asia Minor was coeval with the submergence of the Hatti seated at Boghaz-Keui as the dominant power among the Hittite states. Nor is it clear to what cause we must attribute the retiring of this vanguard. Probably, as in Syria with the Hittites,[87] and in Asia Minor with the Cimmerians, the migratory movement was intermittent; and historically we may see in the repulse by the Assyrians on the one hand, and in the development of the rival state of Lydia and the Greek colonies on the other, coupled with a certain recuperative vitality latent in the Hittite states of the centre, various active causes tending to the consolidation of the Phrygians at the focus of least resistance, in the fertile tracts to which they gave their name. However that may be, at the dawn of Greek history we find them already a fading power, but one which had left an indelible impression in Greek tradition and romance, obscuring entirely the old-time Hatti power of which no memory remained.

Though the settlement of the Phrygians is just beyond historical vision, the leading features of the movement can be inferred from Greek literature, and a certain amount of detail gathered from the monuments which they have left behind.[88] The chief migration of the Phrygians—the ninth wave of our simile—may be judged, from certain facts which Professor Ramsay has pointed out, to have taken place about the beginning of the ninth century B.C. They came in irresistible bands of mail-clad warriors from Macedonia and Thrace, crossing into Asia Minor by the Hellespont, and eventually establishing their monarchy and state on the sources of the Sangarius.[89] Being all men and conquerors, their coming introduced new ideas of the dominance of the male element in religion and in society.[90] The pre-existing central ideal of the people of Asia Minor had been based on the importance of motherhood, reflected in religion by the worship of the Mother-goddess, and in society by a matriarchal system and absence of true marriage. Now the Phrygians introduced a new Father-god and a god of thunder, and a reminiscence of the struggle between the old and new ideals may be traced in the pages of Homer; but ultimately they were amalgamated in various ways in different parts of the country.[91]

Profound as were the changes in religious and social ideals which the Phrygians introduced, these influences could hardly stir the popular imagination so deeply or so rapidly as their deeds of arms. Defended from all harm by their impenetrable armour, they carried all before them, so that they appeared in Greek tradition as a race of heroes, whose kings were the associates of the gods, whose language was before all,[92] and the speech of the goddess herself.[93] ‘Their country was the land of great fortified cities.’[94] In this popular acclaim we suspect that the Phrygians received credit for works and to some extent for the prestige of the Hatti whose realm they had inherited.[95] Their kingdom without doubt held chief sway over the north-west and centre of Asia Minor during the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. In the west, indeed, it was only at the end of that period challenged by the independence and growing strength of Lydia; and on the other hand it must have embraced, as we have shown, the regions both of Pteria[96] and of Tyana, where it touched the Assyrian frontier in the age of Sargon; but on the whole we fail to find any wide range of Phrygian works, of walled cities or of vast monuments, that could entitle the Phrygians to the whole credit of these memories.

None the less, some Phrygian monuments, like the ‘tomb of Midas’ near Doghanlu, are striking, peculiar, and impressive. So, too, are others further south, of which we reproduce some illustrations,[97] because of the added interest of the influence of Hittite art and technique which can be traced in them. The ‘lion tomb,’ near Dimerli, illustrates a motive dominant in their decorative reliefs, reflected in the later sepulchres of Ayazîn. Here are seen two lions, guarding as it were the entrance to the tomb, arranged facing one another on either side of the door. In the tomb of Dimerli the lions are rampant, and a column or altar is seen between them. The symbolism of this design may be purely Phrygian, but the decorative conception of the twin guardian lions is too freely found in Hittite art[98] for us to doubt that it had been borrowed from the older population. So, too, in the method of carving the reliefs, as well as in detail of treatment, as, for instance, in the outline of the shoulder muscles of the fallen lion,[99] there is abundant indication to us now of an influence not visible to the historians of antiquity.

MONUMENTS OF PHRYGIA

DIMERLI: THE LION TOMB

AYAZÎN: TOMB WITH LIONS

TYANA: PHRYGIAN INSCRIPTION OF MIDAS (_See p. 56._)]