128 Dr. Kennedy Bailie's Researches amongst the inscribed Monumetits 



The solitary Turkoman tending his charge, the jackal, and the viper, are now 

 the only tenants of this once celebrated resort of the masters of the world and 

 their Asiatic tributaries ; for the saline baths of Hierapolis made it one of the 

 most frequented watering-places in the Roman dominions.* 



We shall now recross the Maeander, and penetrate the defiles of the Mesogis, 

 on our way to A'ilah-shehir, the fair city, as it is called by the present possessors 

 of the country, the representative of Philadelphia. It is usually set down In 

 maps as AUah-shehr, that is, the city of God ; a coincidence with its former eccle- 

 siastical status, which, were it well-founded, would be remarkable, and which has 

 been noticed :f but this is a mistake: the Turkish name of Philadelphia is but 

 a variation of another which has been given by the present possessors of Asia 

 Minor to other celebrated sites, distinguished, as the town of Attains is, by the 

 natural beauty of their position. I refer to the name Ghiuzel-Hissar, or beau- 

 tiful castle. Thus, they call Tralles, and with the greatest justice, A'idin- 

 Ghiuzel-Hissar ; and Temnos, In the fine coast-country between the chain of 

 the Sipylus, and the river Hermus, Menamen- Ghiuzel-Hissar. Philadelphia, 

 which lies in one of the most beautiful recesses of the Tmolus, over the rich 

 plain of the Katakekaumene, amply merits its present name. 



But I must not forget my more immediate concern at present, the inscrip- 

 tions of the ancient town. In these Philadelphia Is by no means rich. I could 

 discover but four or five : one on a block of marble, which now serves the town 

 porters as a support for their loads, but had once been part of the pedestal of a 

 statue erectedlnhonour of a personage of consular dignity ; two entaphial, and a 

 fourth, which I discovered on the outer angle of one of those massive supports 



* Vid. Plin. V. 29, 3. Strab. xiii. 4, p. 157. Tauchn. 



t See the Rev. Mr. Arundell's Visit, Sfc, p. 169. There is a strange confusion here. The 

 author has written the name Allah Sher, and seems to think it capable of the double meaning : this 

 is not the case : there are, in effect, three Turkish names, which closely approximate to each other 

 in sound, but in meaning are quite different, which may be applied to Philadelphia, viz., Allah Shehii; 

 the city of God ; Aildh Shehir, the fair city ; Alia Shehir, the red city. The second of these is 

 the true Turkish name. 



Were my classical associations to get the better of my veracity, the aspect of the Buz-dagh 

 (Tmolus) and of the bed of the Pactolus, would incline me to adopt the last of these. The stream 

 still remains, at least in one sense, the Chrysorrhoas of the ancient naturalist. 



