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CILICIAN GATES.

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itinerary, was continued by Archelais Colonia ('Akseráï) and Andabalis (Andavil) to Tyana. It is almost unnecessary to add, that the road from Cæsarea was also prolonged by Andabalis to Tyana. This was then the point of union of many roads, and the most important place in the great thoroughfare to Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia, or the countries beyond.

While Cyrus was at Dana, where he staid three days, he put to death Megaphernes, a Persian, one of his courtiers, with another person who had a principal command, accusing them of treachery.

From Dana he prepared to penetrate into Cilicia, the entrance to which is described as just broad enough for a chariot to pass, very steep, and inaccessible to an army, if there had been any opposition; and Syennesis was known to have possessed himself of the eminences, in order to guard the pass. But Cyrus' stratagem succeeded; for having staid another day on the plain, news was brought the day after by a messenger, that Syennesis had quitted the eminences, upon information that both Menon's army was in Cilicia, within the mountains, and also that Tamos was sailing round from Ionia to Cilicia, with the galleys that belonged to the Lacedæmonians and Cyrus. Upon the receipt of this intelligence, Cyrus immediately marched up the mountains without opposition, and made himself master of the tents in which the Cilicians lay to oppose his passage.

The Gölek Bógház is decidedly one of the most remarkable passes of Taurus. The road is carried at first over low, undulating ground, the waters of which flow towards the mountains. It enters them with the rivulets tributary to the Sarus, which have an easterly flow, and follows the waters for some distance, amid precipitous cliffs and wooded abutments, till they sever the main chain, which is composed of a somewhat narrow and rugged belt of limestone reposing on schists. The scenery at this point is very grand. Rocky projections, fallen masses, and steep naked cliffs,

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PLAIN OF CILICIA CAMPESTRIS.

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rise one above the other, till buried in perpetual snows. The pass is however wide, and would permit of the passage of three chariots abreast. Beyond this, the road turns off to the south, up the course of a tributary, to the river previously followed. The pathway, carried over wooded rocks and hills, gains the head-waters of this second rivulet; an expansive upland here presents itself, which is the seat of the defences erected by the Egyptians. Beyond this the waters flow no longer to the Sarus, but to the Cydnus the river of Tarsus. The pathway follows these, and they soon lead to a deep gorge, or fissure, in another lofty ridge of limestone rocks. This is the narrowest and most difficult portion of the pass. It is the point to which Xenophon's description applies as just broad enough for a chariot to pass, and that would be with great difficulty. This portion of the road bears evident traces of ancient chiselling, and must have been widened and repaired by various successive invaders; but large masses of rock have fallen down into the stony bed of the waters, and the road is perhaps less feasible in the present day, than it was in those of Xenophon or Alexander. This pass is now domineered over by a ruined castle, apparently belonging to Genoese times.

Below this pass vegetation becomes luxuriant, and affords abundant evidence of a change in climate on the Cilician side of Taurus. At a distance of five miles from this rocky gap is a khan, where the road divides itself into two branches, the one follows the course of the valley and of the tributaries of the Cydnus to Tarsus, the other passes over the adjacent heights, and by another rocky pass to the valley of the Sarus, and to the modern Adanah. On the road to Tarsus are the remains of an ancient causeway; numerous sepulchral grottoes are hewn out of the cliffs, and nearer to Tarsus is a semicircular arch or gateway, and a sarcophagus lying adjacent to it. An inscription on this part of the road was copied on the

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PLAIN OF CILICIA CAMPESTRIS.

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occasion of our visit to it. This was the road followed by Cyrus and Alexander.

Beyond this pass the army is described as descending into a large and beautiful plain, well watered, and full of all sorts of trees and vines; abounding in sesame, panic, millet, wheat, and barley. The plain of Cilicia Campestris is indeed almost everywhere remarkable for its fertility and beauty, but especially in the valleys of the rivers Cydnus, Sarus, and Pyramus. In its higher portions it is at present uncultivated, and covered with greensward; amid which abound the Christ's thorn, caper-plant, and mimosa agrestis. Every here and there rises a lonely Carob-tree, a feature which distinguishes these plains from almost all others in Syria or Asia Minor. On approaching Tarsus vegetation becomes more luxuriant, and cultivation and gardens supersede greensward. Sesame, panic, millet, wheat, and barley, are grown to the present day, but to them are added a considerable cultivation of cotton and rice, and the Egyptians introduced the sugarcane, which flourishes very well in a district where the date-tree is indigenous.

This plain is described by Xenophon as surrounded by a strong and high ridge of hills from sea to sea. This, no doubt, alludes to the peculiarity of the Gulf of Alexandretta, which is surrounded by a range of mountains, the Taurus to the north, the Amanus to the east, and the Rhosus to the south.

Cyrus advanced through the plain, and having made five and twenty parasangs in four days' march, arrived at Tarsus. This evidently refers to the whole of the journey from Tyana to Tarsus, which occupied four days, and not to the march on the plain, which only occupied one day; and if the distance here given of seventy-five geographical miles is laid off upon the map illustrating my Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, it will be found, following the devious route through the pass of Taurus, which was not

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TARSUS-THE RIVER CYDNUS.

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correctly laid down previous to the publication of those travels, to correspond precisely with the actual and existing distance between those two places.

Tarsus, the rival of Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria, in wealth and grandeur, in literature and science, was at this remote period already a large and rich city of Cilicia; the palace of King Syennesis stood there, and the river Cydnus, which was two hundred feet in breadth, ran through the middle of it. The discussion which has arisen as to whether or not this is the Tarshish of the Old Testament, or whether that word applied to the sea generally, is well known to scholars. The Assyrian inscription, given by Arrian, as copied from the celebrated statue of Sardanapalus, and which so justly provoked the satire of Aristotle, would attest that it was founded by the Assyrians. Strabo, however, describes it as a colony of Argives. It was distinguished in the time of the Amasian geographer as a seat of learning and philosophy, and it will for ever preserve its fame among Christians as being the birth-place of the great apostle of the Gentiles.

The river Cydnus has obtained celebrity from having nearly killed Alexander, who imprudently bathed in its cold waters. The air of the place may have also had some influence in this sickness, for malaria prevails to a great extent at Tarsus. Amid numerous' remnants of antiquity, which in the present day attest the former importance of this celebrated city, one occurs which, being simply a massive parallelogram of solid masonry, within an inclosure of the same form, appears to belong to a very remote antiquity. The late resident French consul carried on excavations in the hope of effecting some archæological discovery in this monument of primæval times, but his labours were not attended with success'.

Tarsus was also a place of considerable commerce. Albertus Aquensis speaks of three thousand ships sailing

1

It is supposed by Kinneir to be the tomb of Julian.

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SYENNESIS, KING OF CILICIA.

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from the port of Tarsus; and in the present day the British consul loads an annual average of twelve vessels from the same port.

The city was abandoned by the inhabitants on the approach of Cyrus, they having fled with their king Syennesis to a fastness upon the mountains, those only excepted who kept the public-houses; but the inhabitants of Soli and Issus, who lived near the sea, did not quit their habitations. Soli was a colony, according Pomponius and others, founded by the Argives and Rhodians; but according to Diogenes Laertius, by Solon, who founded there a colony of Athenians, who gradually corrupting their own language, gave origin to the term Solæcism. This city was afterwads put under contribution by Alexander, and devastated by Tigranes, and Pompey confined to the same locality the pirates who troubled the neighbouring seas, and gave to the place his own name-Pompeiopolis. The ruins of this place exist near the site now called Mézețlí, on the coast. Issus was the last town of Cilicia to the east, as Soli was to the west; and will be alluded to hereafter.

Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, had arrived at Tarsus five days before Cyrus. In the passage over the mountains into the plain two companies of Menon's army were lost. It was said by some, that, while they were intent on plunder, they were cut off by the Cilicians; and by others, that being left behind, and unable to find the rest of the army, or gain the road, they wandered about the country, and were destroyed. The number of these amounted to one hundred heavy-armed men. The rest, as soon as they arrived, resenting the loss of their companions, plundered both the city of Tarsus and the palace that stood there.

Cyrus, as soon as he entered the city, sent for Syennesis; but he, alleging that he had never yet put himself in the hands of any person of superior power, declined coming till his wife prevailed upon him, and received