Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/73

 SlPYLUS AND ITS MONUMENTS. 57 vertical walls about 150 m. high (Fig. 28). About the middle of the gorge juts out a kind of spur with very precipitous rugged sides, called by the natives larik Kaia (Twisted Stone), which, they tell you, bears on its summit the ruins of an old castle, Palaeo Kastro. Of late years travellers have frequently succeeded in getting to the top of the bare cliff, a performance which requires elasticity of limb and a steady head ; for, says Professor Sayce, you have to climb up, catching now at a projecting stone, now at some bush growing in the cleft of the rock. It appears that in olden times a path, wide enough for a mule, partly cut in the living rock, partly supported by artificial walls which were carried across r< ; ;,.c,; '<-. .. r ) FIG. 28. Topographic sketch of northern slope of Sipylus, east of Magnesia. the chasm, led to the castle. Though it cannot now be used, it may still be traced in places " half hidden under a growth of myrtles and stones." A little further a grotto, 10 m. deep, is sighted, whose opening has been enlarged by human agency. Then comes a gateway, one of whose side posts was built and the other hewn in the rock doubtless a sentry-box which served to guard and close the path. Presently, rising straight before you, is a rock which no sure-footed animal, let alone man, could possibly climb. But as you turn the corner there appears a split in the stone, which in Switzerland would be called a " chimney," and into this you disappear along with your guide. After feeling your way about for a few minutes you suddenly emerge on the upper ridge, now only accessible through this passage. A stair- case, partly destroyed by a huge boulder which broke away from the cliff above, but of which steps may be seen hidden away under