Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/52

18 lurking in the wood, and that it was necessary that they should escort us through the hills; a baksheesh being more the object of their anxiety than our safety. Until 1 when we reached the narrow and winding valley of Amâsia, our route lay over an uninteresting and uninhabited tract of country, with an extensive wild of sand on our right. On entering the valley we crossed one of the principal tributaries of the Yeshil Irmak, or ancient Iris, which joins that river about sixty miles to the east. This stream flows through the gorge, which is well cultivated, and abounds in vines, mulberry, and other orchard trees, especially the apple, the fruit of which is reckoned superior to any in Asia Minor. After journeying for three hours through a continued garden, artificially watered by numerous irrigating machines, which are turned by the force of the current, we came in sight of the town, situated on the eastern bank of the river, and hemmed in by lofty precipices. Here the bed of the river is about sixty yards wide, and is spanned by three bridges, two of wood and one of stone, the latter built entirely of the remains of ancient Amasea. Many other relics are still to be seen about the streets, but none worthy of particular notice. The mountain opposite the town rises to the height of five hundred feet, and forms an impregnable rampart along its whole extent. On a projecting peak of this natural barrier are the ruins of an extensive castle, the colossal walls of which are carried over precipices seemingly inaccessible. At sunset the sound of fife and drum announced to a few soldiers, who garrison a small barrack of modern construction within the citadel, that the hour of feasting after fasting had arrived.

Below the castle, on the perpendicular sides of the mountain, are many sepulchral grots, supposed by some to be the tombs of the kings of Pontus, whilst others have referred their original construction to the Zoroastrians of Persia, to which monarchy Amâsia belonged, and formed the capital of the third satrapdom as far back as three hundred years before. The several Greek inscriptions which are to be found over these tombs, but which are so defaced by time as to be illegible, may have been added in after ages by some of those states which took possession of Amâsia after the destruction of the Persian dynasty by