Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/637

 CILICIA. cold, but not colder '* than that of the other rivers -which cany down the melted snow of Moont Tan- ms." (Beaufort) Alexander} who is said to have been seized with a violent illness from bathing in it, threw himself into the water when he was in a great heat. (Arriani Anab, il 4. § 10 ; Pint. Akx, c. 19.) East of the river Tarros the Stadiasmns places the month of the Sams (in the Stadiasmns incor- rectly written Areins), 70 stadiA from the outlet of the Rhegma. The Sams is the modem Sihunj and the coast between the mouths of these two rivers projects in a long sandy spit This river is 270 feet wide at its montii, and as difficult to enter as the river of Tarsus. The Sams is not mentioned by Strabo in his description of GiKda; bnt in his ac- count of Gataonia [Cataokia] he descril}es the course of the Sams as being through Oomana, and through the goi^ges of Tanms to the Cilioian piain (p. 535). The Sihun is repres e nted in some maps AS having two sources far to the north| one of which is nearly in the parallel of 39^ N. lat, and the other Btill further north. The couise of these two streams is sonth, and a long nwnntain tract separates the two river bBsins, which unite within the mountain region. The stream then takes a very irregular course to Adana, a place which retains its name (Adanah)', and from Adana it has a SW. course throngh tiie Gilician plain to the sea. If the course ef thtte two branches of tiie Saras is correctly repre- sented in Kiepert's map, it is one of the laige rivers of the peninrola,and at least aboveSOO miles long. There is, however, a third branch of the Sams, the course of which is well ascertained, and it is liud down in the map which accompanies Hamilton's work {Re- searches, &C.). This is the branch which rises east of EreffU or Erde^ about 37 1^ N. lat, much further to the sonth and west than either of the branches already menlaoned, and passes through the great range of Taurus; that part of the range west o{ the gap is called Btdghar Dagh. The course of this branch of the river is eastward, and the road follows the waters ''for some distance amidst precipitons clifi and wooded abutments, till they sever the main chain, which is composed of a somewhat narrow and mgged belt of limestone reposing on schistns; the pass is however wide, and would permit of the pas- sage of three chariots abreast." (Ainsworth.) The roftd then turns up a valley to the south-west, down which flows a stream, and joins the Sams on the right bank. The road is over wooded rocks and hiUs np to the head waters of this stream, whore there is an extensive flat, " at the snmmit of which, and at an elevation of 3812 foot, are tiie fortified posts of Mohammed All Pacha ; immediately beyond which the waters again mn to the S. and S£., rushing through a tremendons gap, and thence flow direct towaHs the Gydnxu or river of Tarsus." (Ains- worth, Lomdim Geog. Journal, vol. x. p. 499.) Thus the road passes from the basin of this tributary of the iStttMiTiiito the basin of the Gydnus, and it tiien follows the waters of the Gydnus, which ** 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 paas, and that would be with great difficulty; this portion of the road bears evident traces of ancient chiselling." (Ainsworth.) It is also clearly tiie deep ravine which Strabo describes the river Gydnus as passing through in its oourse to CILICIA. €19 Tarsns; and that which Niger blocked «^ to stop the approach of Septimius Severus. Niebuhr (jReue- beichreibungy vol. iii. p. 108), who went through this defile, observes that this road, through tibe Boghca from the pashalik of Adoaiak to Siat of Koniej woold be as dangerous for a hostile army as Xenophon and Gurtins describe it, for it is narrow, and the rocks on both ades are steep as a wall ; yet the caravan, which he accompanied in December 1766 firom Adanah, made its way throng these Giliciae Pylae without any great difficulty. When the army of Gyms (b. g. 401) left Tarsns, it marched to the Sams or Psams, as the best MSS. have it (Xenoph. Anab. L 4. § 1). The march was ten parasangs or 300 stadia firam Tarsus to the Sams; and tiie width of the Sams was estimated by Xenophon at 300 Greek feet Mr. Ainsworth found the Saras, at Adanah, in the month of December, 325 feet wide at the bridge, but not fordable. Adanah, which is on the site of the old ci^, is, at present, a town of some trade, and surrounded by a fertile tract of well-cultivated gardens. Ftxni the passage of the Saras the anny of Gyms marched five parasangs, or 150 stadia, te the Py< ramus, the width of whidi Xenophon estimated at 600 Greek feet (Anab. I 4. § 1.). The present passage of the I^mus (Jikun) is at Mists, the site of Mopsuestia, which is on the road from Baiae (Bayas), on the bay of Issns, to Adamah. Mr. Ainswfrth, however, gives some good reasons for supposing that Gyms crossed the Pyramus below Mopsuestia, and much nearer the old mouth of the river. Niebuhr (a.d. 1766) found a handsome bridge at Misis, recently bnilt^ and a hundred double steps in length. The Pyramus is the largest of the Gilician rivers, It rises in Gatacmia [Gataonia], and consists of two main brandies, one the Garmalas, flowing from the north, and the other from the east [Garmalas.] These two branches unite SW. of Marash, from which point the river has a SW. course, through the Taurus. It passes the site of Anazarbus and Mieis, and at present enters the'sea a little south (£ the inlet, already mentioned, at the eastern extremity of which Ayas stands. But the old bed of the river seems to have entered the sea some distance from the present mouth, and a little west of Gape Kamdath, as Beaufort supposes; for here there is a shallow inlet of salt water, about 12 miles long. The present outlet of the Jihfun is 23 miles east of the supposed former outlet A short dis- tance N£. of Karaihuh, and near the eastern ex- tremity of this shallow inlet, is the site of Mallus, the chief town of the Mallotis. Thus Mallus would stand on the east side of the old bed of the Pyramus, and near the mouth of the river, which is consistent with all the ancient authorities. Strabo (p. 536) describes the Pyramus as a na- vigable river whidi rises in the middle of the plain of Gataonia. There is a considerable channel, through which the dear water flows unseen finr some distance under ground, and then rises to the surface. If a man lets down a spear firam above into the channel, the force of the stream is so great that the spear is with difficulty dipped in the water. After its re-ap- pearance the river runs on in a broad deep stream, but on approaching the Taurus, it is wonderfully contracted. Wonderful also is the gap in the moun- tains through which the bed of the river passes, for as it happens in rocks which have been rent and split asunder, that the projections on one side corre- spond to the recesses on the other, in such wise that