289 



AMAND, ST. 



AMARAPURA. 



270 



24 S. lat. where it turns all at once eastward and under the name 

 of Serra de Maraeayu terminates at the great cataract of the Rio 

 Parana, called Salto Grande de Sette Quedas. A range of hills, which 

 traverses Paraguay in a southern direction and terminates south of 

 26 S. lat. may be considered as its continuation. This chain is 

 distinguished from other Brazilian mountains by being nearly every- 

 where clothed with lofty timber-trees. (Henderson's History uf 

 Brazil ; Robertson's Letter* on Paraguay.) 



AMAND, ST., a well-built town in the department of Cher in 

 France ; capital of the third arrondissement ; situated in the fork 

 between the Marmande and the river Cher, and on a branch of the 

 Cher canal, 27 miles S. from Bourges ; the seat of a tribunal of first 

 instance and of a college : population, 7082. It was built in the 15th 

 century. After the English in 1410 during the siege of the castle of 

 Montrond had reduced the city of Orval to ashes, the Constable 

 d'Albret had huts erected for the surviving inhabitants on the fair- 

 green of that town ; the huts were soon converted into houses, and 

 in 1434 the place was inclosed with walls. St.-Amand is regularly 

 built. It has wool-washing and skin-dressing establishments ; in the 

 environs are iron forgea and foundries and porcelain factories. There 

 is also some trade in timber, oak staves, iron, wool, fat cattle, hemp, 

 goat- and kid-skins, and chestnuts. Of the castle of Montrond, which 

 was considered one of the strongest fortresses in France, there 

 remained, a short time ago, only a single tower and some masses of 

 wall ; and even these, it is said, have lately been removed to admit 

 of the site being laid out in gardens and public walks. The castle 

 belonged to the house of Cond^, and the great prince of that name 

 wa reared in it; it was dismantled after a year's siege in 1652. 

 Extensive views over the surrounding couutiy are obtained from tho 

 site of the forties. From this castle St. -Amand ueasurnamed 



AM., D-LKS-KAUX, ST., a town in the department of Nord in 

 France ; situated in a fertile plain on the left bank of the Scarpe, 1 8 miles 

 in Douai, and 8 miles N.W. from Valenciennes, in 60 ^7' \'l" 

 N. lat., 3 26' 4" E. long. ; the seat of a communal college: population, 

 9118. Tlie town originated in an abbey built here by St. Amand in 

 14 ; it derives its surname from it .< thermal springs. The abbey 

 was burnt by the Normans in 880. In after times the town was taken 

 several times. The French made themselves masters of it in 1667. 

 Of the abbey-buildings there remain only a beautiful gothic tower, 

 828 feet high, constructed of flint with white stone dressings, and 

 adorned with sculptures from base to summit ; it now serves for a 

 clock- and bell-tower ; the ascent to its summit is by 450 steps. 

 M. \niand is a place of considerable industrial activity. The chief 

 manufactured products are cotton and woollen stuffs of various kinds, 

 linen, woollen hosiery, embroidered muslins (which are worked in the 

 neighbouring hamlets and villages), nails, lace, porcelain, black soap, 

 linieed oil, cotton yarn, &.c. It has also six brandy and grain distil- 

 j'.J beet-root sugar factories, lace-thread factories, and 

 tan-yards. Boats are built ; and there is a good trade iu corn, wine, 

 and raw produce. Large quantities of fine flax for the cambric 

 manufacture are grown in the vicinity. Cattle fairs are held on the 

 first Thursday of every month ; there are besides two ten-day fairs 

 and one five-day fair held in the course of the year. 



The mineral springs, three in number, and strongly impregnated 

 with sulphate of magnesia, muriate of soda, and carbonate of lime, 

 are situated at some distance east of the town, where there is a small 

 bath-house supplying 24 baths and 6 douche*. The temperature of 

 the water is 77 Fahr. There are also 80 mineral mud-baths of the 

 game temperature. The season lasts from the middle of June to the 

 end of August. These springs formerly belonged to the abbey ; they 

 are now the property of the department, and the profit* arising from 

 them are paid into the central chest for the support uf the hospitals 

 of the department. The waters are efficacious in certain cases of 

 paralysis, rheumatism, anchylosis, nervous affections, abdominal and 

 hepatic obstructions, periodic erysipelas, dropsy, hysterics, &c. They 

 are administered in drink, in baths, and douches ; the dose is from 

 4 to 12 glasses taken in the morning. A pretty neighbourhood, 

 affording all the necessaries of life in abundance, and the vicinity of 

 the thriving towns of St-Amand-les-Eaux and Conde 1 (the latter on 

 i frontier), make these baths an agreeable sojourn. 



AMANUS, the ancient name of the mountains in the south-eastern 

 angle of Asia Minor, the crest of which formed the boundary between 

 and Syria. They belong to the system of the Taurus, from 

 which they run southward to the head of the Gulf of Issus (Bay 

 f It" lieuce there are two ranges: one running north- 



eastward to the Euphrates which it strikes near Someisat, the ancient 

 Samosata; th- ..*!,,, running southward along the eastern shore of 

 the gulf to its t. m the Cape anciently called Khosicus 



Scopulus, now Rai-el-Khansir. The first-mentioned range is highest 

 immediately north nnd north-east of the head of the gulf, where the 

 Durdun Dagh and the Oaur Dagh, which form a continuous range, 

 are said to be 10,000 feet above the sea. The Ak-Su, a feeder of the 

 Jihmi, flows along the northern base of the latter; to the east of it 

 the mountains are tooro broken, and receive various names. The 

 second range is now called Jawur Dagh, between the head of the gulf 

 and the port of Iskenderun; southward from this place to Cape 

 El-Khausir it ia called Akma Dagh, or Jebel Kheserek, and this is the 



highest part of it, being 5400 feet above the sea, A short range called 

 Jebel Musa, the ancient Pieria, which 13 an offshoot of the Ja\vur 

 Dagh, extends close to the sea between Ras-el-Khansir and the mouth 

 of the Orontes ; at its south-western extremity was Seleukeia, the first 

 Syrian city reached iu coming from Cilicia. 



The Amauus Mountains are drained on the north and west by the 

 Jihun, the ancient Pyramua, which enters the Bay of Iskenderun at a 

 short distance from their western extremity; north-east by the 

 Euphrates ; and south-east by the Orontes. Besides these, several small 

 streams fall directly from the mountains into the bay. The ranges that 

 skirt the Gulf of Issus on the north and east approach in many places 

 very close to the shore, and are traversed by passes which are celebrated 

 in ancient history. To get an idea of the position of these it will 

 be necessary to look at the position of the gulf and some ancient 

 places near it. 



The Gulf of Issus is entered from the Mediterranean between the 

 Capes of Kara Tash and El-Khausir, which are 27 miles apart, and 

 extends iu a north-north-east direction about 50 miles. In ancient times 

 the Pyramus did not fall into the gulf at all, but directly into the 

 Mediterranean, a little to the west of the promontory of Megarsus, 

 now Kara Tash. Near its mouth was the town of Mallus. Some- 

 where near the head of the gulf, for the site is uncertain, stood the 

 town of Issua, and between it and Mallus on the western coast was a 

 town called jEgsetc, a little north of which was a pass called by 

 Strabo Amanides Pylffi ; it is now called Demir or Kara Kapu, and is 

 at a little distance from the coast. Into the eastern side of the gulf 

 the Pinarus (uow the Deli) empties its waters at ,1 distance of about 

 eight miles from the head of the gulf. Six miles south of the Pinarus 

 was the town of Bain- (now Bayas) at the mouth of a small stream, 

 near the source of which is a pass which was also called Atnanides 

 Pyla;. It is now named the Pass of Bayas, and is traversed by the 

 route from Bayas to the town of Marasch. By this pass, according to 

 some, Darius crossed the mountains into Cilicia, and took up his 

 position on the banks of the Pinarus, near which the battle of Issus 

 was fought; but others, with more probability, place the Pass of 

 Darius considerably farther north, where a pass opens nearly upon 

 the head of the gulf. To the south of Baioe at the distance of six 

 or seven miles was the river Kerens (uow Merkez), at the head of 

 which a steep pans called Boghros Beli crosses the Anmnus range. On 

 the right and left banks of the Ker.sus respectively were the Cilieiau 

 and Syrian Pyla?, passes mentioned by Xenophon ; the Ciliciau pass 

 being a gateway in a wall that descended from the Amauus to the sea 

 to the north of the river, and the Syrian pass a gateway in a similar 

 wall to the south of it. There is a stone wall still on the south side 

 of the river, crossing the narrow plain between the mountains and tho 

 ea, and terminating on the coast in a tower. There are ruins of a 

 wall also on the north bank, and nearer to the mountains there ore 

 traces of a double wall between which the river flowed. 



Cyrus the Younger and Alexander the Great marched through the 

 Cilician and Syrian gates in their advance upon Persia. Alexander 

 had reached Myriandrus, probably Iskenderun, about 10 miles by the 

 road, but only 6 in a straight line south of the Kersus, when he got 

 tidings of the descent of Darius upon tho Pinarus ; and he then 

 marched bock through these maritime gates or passes to fight the 

 battle of Issus. South of Myriandrus, which seems after Alexander's 

 time to have been called Alexaudreia, were the Pylrc Syria;, now the 

 Beilan Pas, traversed by the Caravan road from Iskenderun through 

 Bagras, the ancient PagrsE, to Aleppo and Antioch. Great confusion 

 has arisen with respect to the position of soma of the mountiiin- 

 paeses enumerated, in consequence of different authors applying the 

 same name, Amanides Pylre, to different passe*. Strabo applies the 

 term to the pass of Kara Kapu, whilst Arrian applies it to the p,. 

 Darius. On some maps the pass between Bayas and Marasch is marked 

 AiMunidea Pylto. The position of these passes will be found in- 

 gated in Smith's ' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1 under 

 the heads 'Amanides Pylffi," and ' Amauus ;' in Lcake's ' Journal of a 

 Tour in Alia Minor;' and in the 'London Geographical Journal,' 

 vii. 414, and viii. 185. 



AMARAPURA, or I'mmtrapoora, a city in the Birman Empire, 

 6 miles east of Ava, in 21 55' N. lat., 96 7' E. long., was foimdi.d in 

 1783, and declared the capital of the empire. The seat of govern- 

 ment has since been removed or rather has returned to Ava. It 

 stands near the left bank of the Irawaddy and at a short distance 

 frurn a branch of the same river, which is to the east of Amarapura 

 and joins the main stream immediately below Ava. With the excep- 

 tion of some temples, the whole city is built of bamboo : many of the 

 public buildings have a very striking appearance, owing to the splen- 

 dour of the gilding with which their roofs are covered both within 

 and without. The whole of the city, consisting of 20,000 to 25,000 

 houses, was burnt to the ground in March 1810. The population at 

 that time was estimated at more than 170,000 ; but owing partly to 

 the calamity just mentioned and partly also to the removal of the 

 seat of government in 1819 the inhabitants numbered only about 

 30,000 in 1827. An earthquake in 1839 destroyed the greater part of 

 the city. The most famous of the temples is that which contains a 

 colossal bronze image of Gaudama, the alleged lost earthly representa- 

 tive of Buddha. It is a vast building decorated with sculptures and 

 250 lofty columns of wood, which are gilt. A collection of historical 



