Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/249

 HiTTiTE Monuments in Lydia. 231 be said to correspond as nearly as possible with the actual size of our figure (2 m. 15 c.) ; but no engraved characters have been found across his breast.^ The small points of divergence with regard to the respective size of the figures and the non-existence of inscribed characters (for these may have been trumped up by Herodotus's informers) are as nothing compared with the bow and spear, which are absolutely unique of their kind, and peculiar to the race which had preceded the Greeks on the soil. Hence it came to pass that when the contemporaries of Herodotus described these bas-reliefs, they might omit details known to everybody, as unimportant, and such as the imagination of their hearer would supply of itself; but the spear and bow were too striking to be easily forgotten or passed over. The Sesostris of Herodotus sufBciently resembles the Karabel picture to make it probable that we have here the figure which was to be seen on the main road between Ephesus and Phocoea. At the outset, when this bas-relief began to be discussed, it was perhaps too hastily assumed that it was the one described as standing on the cross-road which runs from Smyrna to Sardes. But reference to Kiepert's excellent map, or, better still, verification on the spot, proves that the path in question was five or six kilometres north of Karabel, leading through the narrow gorge of Bel-Kaye, the highest pass of this mountain range. The waters, which are drained in the extensive plains of Bournabat and the Nif-Chai valley, have their watershed line a little below this point. Remains of the old causeway are extant, and appear to be anterior to the Roman epoch. The modern village of Nimphi is on the right bank of the Nif-Chai, which is spanned by a bridge constructed on the stout foundations of the former structure. The second figure was discovered by M. K. Humann in 1876 ; ' its conspicuous position near the ancient route marked it to the passer-by or the evilly disposed. From some unexplained cause, this path was abandoned for a new one at the back of the mono- lith, a rich luxuriant vegetation soon sprang up on the disused track, and completely buried the carved face of the rock. Hence accompany the figure was unprecedented in the bas-reliefs which strictly belong to the Nile valley. 2 Arches. Zeitung, torn. viii. p. 50 ; Sayce, The Monuments^ p. 267-269.
 * Savants long ago contended that the position of the inscription said to