PALM 



PANAMA, ISTHMUS OF. 



over Ami* Minor, and after defeating her at Antioch and 

 ^ Palmyra surrendered to him, when he put to death her 



Longinu*. An inaurreotion subsequently took place, when 



be returned to Palmyra, and carried on an iiiducriua'nate daughter of 

 the inhabitant* This i* averred by hu own letter to Probiu, whom 

 ho appointed goveruor of the place, aud which has been preserved by 

 Vopisou*. Zenobia appeared u a captive in the triumphal proceation 

 of Anreliau at Rome, after which ahe was allowed to reside at a 

 country-bouse near Tibur, where ahe ipent the remainder of her life. 

 Syncelius ay* that ahe married a Roman senator, and had children 

 by him. A Latin inscription at Paliuyr.i, copied by Wood and 

 Hawkins, ahows that the place was garrisoned by the Romans under 

 Diocletian, who built or restored several edifices. Justinian is men- 

 tioned by Prucopius as having fortified Palmyra and placed a garrison 

 in it The Moslems took it under the kalifaUi of Abu Bekr, Mohani- 

 med's successor. (Ockley, ' History of the Saraoens.') We hear no 

 more of Palmyra after this till the 12th century, when Benjamin of 

 Tudela visited it Ha says it was encompassed by a wall, and that 

 then were in it 4000 Jews. Among them Isaac, surnained Giwcus, 

 and Nathan and Uriel, have the pre-eminence. (Purchas, ix., ch. 5.) 

 The latest historical notice of Palmyra U its plunder in 1400 by the 

 army of Tamerlane. It has been in a ruined and desolate state for 

 centuries past, and the spot is inhabited by a small tribe of Beduin 

 Arabs, who have built their hovels in the peristyle of the great 

 temple. 



The first appearance of Palmyra U very striking. Its innumerable 

 columns and other ruins, extending nearly a mile and a half in length, 

 and unobstructed by modern buildings, contrast by their enow-white 

 appearance with the yellowish sand of the desert But, examined 

 separately, few of these remains can be called beautiful as works of 

 art The largest columns do not exceed 4 feet in diameter aud 40 feet 

 in height There is a great sameness in the architecture, all the 

 columns being Corinthian, with the exception of those which surround 

 the Temple of the Sun, which are Ionic and fluted. (Irby aud 

 Mangles, ' Travels in Syria, Ac. in 1817-18.') The most interesting 

 remains of Palmyra are perhaps its sepulchres, which are outside of 

 the walls of the ancient city, and are built in the shape of square 

 tower', from three to five stories high, each forming a sepulchral 

 chamber, with recesses divided into four or five compartments for the 

 reception of the dead bodies. Some of the chambers are ornamented 

 with sculptures and fluted Corinthian pilasters, and the walls are 

 stuccoed white. The ceiling, on which the paint is still perfect, is 

 ornamented like that of the peristyle of the Temple of the Sun at 

 Baalbec, with the heads of various deities disposed iu diamond-shaped 

 divisions. Remains of mummies and mummy-cloths are found resem- 

 bling those of Egypt The lines of the streets aud the foundations of 

 the houses are distinguishable in some places. Small rows of columns 

 denote the areas of the open courts of private houses, as at Pompeii. 

 The inscriptions found at Palmyra are either Greek or Paluiyrene, 

 with the exception of one in Hebrew, aud one or two in Latin. On 

 the inscriptions of Palmyra see the work ' Inscriptions Gnecaj Pal- 

 myrenorum cum Auuotationibus Edw. Bernard! et Thonuu Suiilhi,' 

 Utrecht, 1698, and that of the orientalist Father Giorgi, ' l)e Inscrip- 

 tionibus Palmyrvuis qua; in Muaroo Capitolino adservuntur interpret- 

 andis Eputola,' Uome, 1782. Giurgi makes out a Paliuj rene alphabet, 

 which Barthcle'my had attempted to do before him, but not success- 

 fully. The ancient commerce of Palmyra has been discussed by 

 Heeren. Wood and Dawkius vuited Palmyra about the middle of the 

 last century, and published a description of its remains, with plates, 

 folio, London, 1758. Since that time Vulney, Cassas, Bankts, Irby, 

 and other travellers have visited the same. 

 PALOS. [SlviLLA.1 

 PAMIER8. [Amid] 



PAMPH Y'LIA, a province of Asia Minor, formerly called Mopsopia 

 according to Pliny (' Hist Nat,' v. 26), extended along the coast of 

 the Mediterranean from Ulbia to Ptolemaiis (a distance of 640 stadia 

 according to Strabo, xiv., p. 667) : it was bounded on the north by 

 Pisidia, on the west by Lycia and the south-western part of Phrygin, 

 and on the east by Cilicia. Pamph\ lia was separated from Pisidia by 

 Mount Taurus, and was drained by numerous streams which flowed 

 from the high land of Pisidia. The eastern part of the coast is 

 described by Captain Beaufort as flat, sandy, aud dreary, but this 

 remark doe* not apply to the interior of the country, which, according 

 to Mr. Fellows' s account (' Excursion in Asia Minor,' p. 204), is very 

 beautiful and picturesque. The western part of the coast is surrounded 

 by lofty mountain*, which rise from the sva and attain the greatest 

 height in Mount Solyma on the eastern borders of Lycia. The western 

 part of the country is composed, according to Mr. Fellows, " for thirty 

 or forty miles, of a mass of incrusted or petrified vegetable matter, 

 lying embosomed as it were in the side of the high range of marble 

 mountains which must originally have formed the coast of this country. 

 As the streams, and indeed large rivers, which flow from the mountains, 

 eater the country formed of this porous mass, they almost totally dis- 

 appear beneath it ; a few little streams only are kept on the surface 

 by artificial means, for the purpose of supplying aqueducts and mills, 

 and being carried along the plain fall over the cliffs into the sea. The 

 course of the riven beneath these deposited plains is continued to 

 their termination at a short distance out at sea, when the waters of 



the rivers rise abundantly all along the coast, sometimes at the distance 

 of a quarter of a mile from the shore." 



The Pituiphyliaus, according to Herodotus (vii. 91), were descendants 

 of the people who followed the fortunes of Amphilochus and Catenas 

 after the destruction of Troy. They were subdued by Croesus (Herod., 

 i. 28), aud afterwards formed part of the Persian empire, and supplied 

 Xerxes with thirty ships in his expedition against Ore.- (Hwod, 

 vii. 91). Under the Syrian kings it formed a separate province, 

 including Pisidia ; and the same appears to have been the case under 

 the Roman empire, though it seems to have been sometimes united to 

 the province of Galatia. (Taa, ' Hist, 1 ii. !.) 



Though Pamphylia was of small extent, it contained several towns 

 of considerable importance. Attalia, the modern Adalia, aud Perge 

 were visited by St Paul (Acts, xiii. and xiv). Mr. Fellows, who \ 

 Adalia in 1838, speaks of it as a small but clean town, built on a clitf 

 which rises sixty or eighty feet above the sea, and informs us that it 

 contains numerous fragments of ancient buildings, columns, inscrip- 

 tions, and statues, which are generally built into the walls of the town 

 with care and some taste. East of Attalia win Perge, iu the neighbour- 

 hood of which was a celebrated temple of the I'ergtcan Artemis. 

 Perge was situated between and upon the sides of two hills, with an 

 extensive valley in front, aud backed by the mountains of the Taurus. 

 It contains several aucient ruins, of which the principal aru a large 

 theatre, of the width of 330 feet, a stadium, or course for races, and 

 two or three temples. At Side, beyond the Melas, there are some 

 ruins, among them a large theatre, described bolh by Captain Beaufort 

 aud by Mr. Fellows. There were some other towns, of which the site 

 even is in most cases doubtful 



PAMPLONA. [NAVARRA; NEW GHANADA.] 



PANAMA, THE ISTHMUS OF (New Granada), constitutes the 

 most eastern and the narrowest portion of the long isthmus by which 

 the two Americas are united. It extends, together with the province 

 of Veragua, which is contiguous to it on the west, from 77 " ' 

 W. long., between 7" 20' and 10 N. lat When measured along its 

 curve the length from east to west is nearly 500 miles, but its width 

 varies from 30 to 100 miles. Its area is nearly 30,000 square miles. 

 The population was in 1853 estimated at about 140,000, of whom about 

 8000 were Americans, settlers, &c. ; 14,000 descendants of Spanish 

 colonists; and the remainder metis, mulattoes, negroes, and native 

 Indians. 



Surface, Soil, Climate, <kc. It was formerly assumed in geographical 

 works that the Andes of South America extended through the Isthmus, 

 but this is now ascertained not to be the fact. [ANDES.] West of 

 77 30' W. long, no rouge of mountains, nor even an isolated elevation 

 of moderate height occurs, and the whole isthmus throughout has a 

 summit level comparatively little elevated above the sea, though the 

 surface of the country is a good deal broken. The low country extends 

 westward for more than a hundred miles to the western extremity of 

 Maudiugo, or San Bias Bay. The average width of this part of the 

 isthmus does not exceed forty miles, aud opposite San Bias it contracts 

 to less than thirty miles. The shores on both oceans are roeky, and 

 the whole region appears to consist of an immense mass of rock. The 

 rocks however are covered by a thick layer of vegetable mould, and 

 are clothed with lofty forest-trees. The shores of tho Caribbean Sea 

 are difficult of access for largo vessels, being lined with numerous 

 small rocky islands called 'keys.' Two rivers drain the isthmus. 

 They are called respectively Chucunaque and Chepo, aud rise near 

 78 30' W. long. The Chucunaque ruus east-south-east about eighty 

 miles, and turning west by an abrupt bend falls into the Bay of San 

 Miguel; the Chepo, or Uailano, ruus west-north-west, and empties 

 itself into the Gulf of 1'auauiit, about twenty-four miles east of the 

 town of Chepo, making a turn to the south. Both rivers are navigable 

 for large river barges as far as the places where the great bend occurs. 

 With all the advantages which this region possesses from its great 

 fertility aud the vicinity of two great oceans and navigable river.", it 

 is thinly inhabited, and chiefly by a tribe of Indians, the Mandiugoes, 

 or San Bias Indians, who resist all attempts to penetrate into the 

 interior, though they receive in a friendly manner the vessels which 

 visit the coast The small town of Chepo, above the bend of the river 

 of that name, is the most considerable settlement of the white* and 

 negroes, but the inhabitants have little communication witli their 

 neighbours the Maudingoes. The country appears to be very unhealthy, 

 owing to the swampiness of tho soil and the consequent humidity of 

 the atmosphere. This moisture of the air indeed maintains a most 

 luxuriant vegetation, but the great quantity of vegetable matter, 

 which is annually reproduced and decomposed, increases the miasma 

 which exhales from a swampy soil under the influence of a vertical sun. 



At the western extremity of Maudiugo Bay some hills comi< 

 which gradually attaiu the elevation of mountains, and extend in a 

 continuous chain as far west as a line drawn across the isthmus from 

 Navy Bay, or Port Limoncs, to the town of Panama 1 , a distance of 

 about fifty miles. These hills advance close to the shores of the 

 Caribbean Sea, where they surrouud the town of Puerto Velo, but 

 they remain a few miles distant from tho Pacific, and are separated 

 from it by a level prairie destitute of trees. They occupy nearly tho 

 whole width of the isthmus, but are divided longitudinally into two 

 ridges, b -twcen which lies the valley of the river Chagres. Tho 

 southern ridge does not exceed 1000 or 1100 feet in height, but the 





