MISCELLANIES. 



521 



m the fashion of bastions, with 

 openings fit for the reception of 

 cannon. It has four gates, which 

 are covered with plates of iron. 

 The whole is well built, anrl to me 

 does not appear the work of Mus- 

 sulnians. A ditch runs by it to 

 the S. W. ; near it is a tannery ; 

 and further on is a row of black- 

 smiths' forges, which seemed in 

 good employ. In this direction 

 (N. E. of the town) is the custom- 

 house, a spacious building. The 

 Pacha's residence has a large gate 

 opening into a court-yard. The 

 houses are in general built of stone, 

 with rafters of wood, and terraced. 

 Grass grows on their tops, and 

 sheep and calves feed there; so 

 that when seen fiom an eminence, 

 the roofs of the houses can hardly 

 be distinguished from the plain at 

 their foundation. I walked through 

 mojt of the bazars ; few are dom- 

 ed, the rest are terraced, like the 

 dwellinirs, but afFordins a common 

 road for foot-passengers, who as- 

 cend by a public flight of steps. 

 Wherever a street intervenes, a 

 bridge is thrown over and the line 

 continues uninterrupted. The 

 shops in the bazars are well stock- 

 ed, and the place exhibits an ap- 

 pearance of much industry. The 

 streets are mostly paved ; but, as in 

 Turkey, in that manner which is 

 more calculated to break the pas- 

 senger's neck than to ease his feet. 

 Tliere are sixteen baths, and one 

 hundred mosques; several of the 

 latter are creditable buildings, the 

 domes of which are covered with 

 lead, and ornamented with gilt 

 balls and crescents. 



This is the present state of Arz- 

 ronm, its remains prove that it must 

 have been still more considerable. 

 Every thing attests the antiquity of 



the place ; the inhabitants indeed 

 date the foundation from the time 

 of Noah, and very zealously swear, 

 that some of their present struc- 

 tures were contemporarj' with the 

 patriarch ; with less hazard of truth 

 or rather with much appearance of 

 probability, they aver that others 

 were the work of the Giaours, or 

 Infidels. One in particular is at- 

 tributed to the latter origin ; it con- 

 sists of an arched gateway, curi- 

 ously worked all in strong stone, 

 situated N. W. in the castle, and 

 close to a decayed minaret of an- 

 cient structure. Yet many of the 

 older fabrics appear, by the true 

 Moresque arch, to be certainly of 

 Saracenic origin ; and many of the 

 remains of mosques resemble those 

 buildings in Persia, with curious 

 bricks, and lacquered tiles, which 

 were raised in the first ages of Ma- 

 homedanism. In all those at Ar^- 

 roum, I observed a round tower, 

 with a very shelving roof, covered 

 all over with bricks. There are 

 still erect several minarets, obvi- 

 ously works of the early Mussul- 

 mans. Near the eastern gate of 

 the castle are two of brick and 

 tile, and a gate (with a Saracenic 

 arch and a Cutic inscription) and 

 manystrongstonebuildingsaround, 

 the remains of the fine portico of a 

 mosque. To the east of the town 

 is an old tower of brick, the high- 

 est building in Arz-roum, which is 

 used as a look-out-house, and 

 serves as the tower of the Janiza- 

 ries at Constantinople, or that of 

 Galata. There is a clock at the 

 summit, which strikes the hours 

 with sufficient regularity. 



In Arz-roum there are from four 

 to five thousand families of the Ar- 

 menian, and about one hundred of 

 the Greek, persuasion : the for- 

 mer 



