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ANATOLIA. 



ANATOLIA. 



The Turks, who are very inconstant in their geographical arrange- 

 ments, and confound all ancient distinctions, divide Asia Minor 

 at the present time into eight Eyalets, or general governments : 



1. Kastamuni, which includes Paphlagonia ; chief town, Kastamuni : 



2. Khouadavendiguiar, comprising Bithynia; chief town, Brusa: 



3. Aydin, which embraces Lydia and the other states on the western 

 coast ; chief town, Smyrna : 4. Karaman, which includes the ancient 

 Phrygia and Pamphylia ; chief town, Koniyeh : 5. Adana, containing 

 the ancient Cilicia ; chief town, Adana : 6. Bozoq, which comprises 

 the ancient Galatia ; chief town, Angora : 7. Siwas, comprising Cappa- 

 docia ; chief town, Siwas : 8. Tharabezoun, which contains Pontus and 

 a part of Armenia; capital, Trapezun or Trebizond. The Eyalets 

 are governed either by a vali (viceroy) or mutesherif (governor- 

 general) ; each eyalet is subdivided into livas, or provinces, administered 

 either by kairaakans (lieutenant-governors) or mohassils (prefects). 

 The livas are further divided into cazas, or districts, and these into 

 nahiyes, that is, villages or communes. 



Coast-line, lilands, <kc. The southern coast presents an irregular 

 outline, formed by two huge semicircular projectioas of the coast 

 between and on the flanks of which the sea runs with bold sweeps 

 into the land. There is, however, no deep gulf or bay with the 

 exception of that of Issus or Iskenderun, which runs up between 

 Asia Minor and Syria. Few coasts present so bold a front to the sea. 

 From the Gulf of Glaucus, now Makri, to the extensive plain which 

 opens behind Adalia, an almost uninterrupted mass of lofty moun- 

 tains presses near the shore, and sometimes forms the immediate 

 boundary of the waves. From the mouth of the Eurymedon (Kopri 

 Su), to the peninsula of Cape Cavaliere, there is a series of bold 

 promontories ; and in some parts, as between Selinty and Anamur, 

 bare rocky hills, backed by lofty mountains, form the coast. Near the 

 eastern extremity of this coast, the wide plains of the level Cilicia 

 open on the sea, and extend some distance along the west coast of the 

 Gulf of ISBUS. About 45 miles south from Cape Anamur lies the 

 Iar 'e island of Cyprus, and about 10 miles from Cape Aloupo, the 

 ancient Kunosema, and the most south-western point of the peninsula, 

 is the island of Rhodes. The other islands on this coast are very 

 small, both in number and size, and the same may be said of those on 

 : them coast. 



The western coast of the peninsula presents as jagged and irregular 

 an outline as almost any coast in the world, and in many respects 

 very much resembles the opposite shore of Greece. Deep bays with 

 bold projecting peninsulas and islands, which are continuations of the 

 adjacent promontories of the mainland, characterise this coast. The 

 principal of the islands on the west coast are Cos, Samoa, Chios, and 

 Metelin or Mytilene, the ancient Lesbos. The channel of the Darda- 

 nelles, the ancient Hellespontus, separates Europe from Asia by a 

 strait about 40 miles long, and at its narrowest part not more than 

 one mile broad. The wider opening of the Propontis, or Sea of 

 Marmara (about 140 miles long, and 45 miles broad in the widest 

 part) in succeeded by the Bosporus (14 miles long, and from half a 

 mile to 2 miles broad), which unites the Sea of Marmara and the 

 Black Sea. The coast of the Black Sea presents no deep indentations 

 or bays ; the mountains are never very far removed from the shore, 

 and the coast is described by Hamilton as strikingly bold in its out- 

 line ; lofty hills, covered with extensive forests, stretching down to 

 the water's edge, while occasionally broad valleys, with steep cliffs on 

 either side, run far up into the country. For some distance about 

 Cape Lepte, now Indje, the coast is low and black. At the mouths 

 of the Halys and the Iris there are low tracts of alluvial formation, 

 thickly wooded, and in some parts marshy. Steep hills, rising directly 

 from the sea, and broken by many deep ravines, characterise the 

 coast near Trebizond, which town stands at the foot of a high range 

 of undulating hills sloping down to the beach and everywhere well 

 wooded. 



Surface. The general characteristics of the surface of the interior 

 of Asia Minor are its vast parallel mountain ranges, which run nearly 

 east and west, and support between them high table-lands of great 

 extent. The table-hinds contain numerous salt- and fresh- water lakes, 

 and are drained by numerous rivers, the largest of which flow into 

 the Euxine and Archipelago. The southern table-land is remarkable 

 for its many traces of volcanic action, and for its series of salt-lakes, 

 many of which have no visible or known communication with the sea, 

 tli. rivers that originate in them plunging into the earth at the 

 northern base of the Taurus Mountains. The three principal mountain 

 ranges are the Taurus, which is the most southern ; the Anti- 

 taurus, central and east ; and the mountains that run nearly parallel 

 to the coast of the Euxine. These mountains, and the table-lands 

 connected with them, will be here described in the order just laid 

 down. 



1. Mount Taurus. The Euphrates, from the junction of the Kara-Su 

 with the Murad, near Kapan-Maden, runs in a south-western direction, 

 till, in 38' 3'!' X. bit., 38 3iV K. ].,n- . it enters the alpine country 

 through the narrow pass of Ilijah. Stopped by a range of lofty moun- 

 tain.*, the river turns east, south-east, south, and south-west, and after 

 having made a curve, the diameter of which from north to south is above 

 70 miles, resumes its southern course in the environs of the village 

 of Buser. The tract encompassed by this curve of the Euphrates 

 is a mountain-knot, which may be considered as the eastern extremity 



of Mount Taurus proper ; its northern limit is formed by the river 

 Tokhmah, the Melas of the ancients, which joins the Euphrates on the 

 west a little below the pass of Ilijah. This knot, of which the Akjah- 

 Dagh is the highest point, stretches west as far as the town of Marash, 

 whence it continues in several ranges; and for the sake of convenience 

 we shall call the whole the Akjah Mountains, though it would be 

 perhaps as well to call it the Commagenian Mountains, since the 

 country thus encompassed by the Euphrates was the principal part of 

 the ancient province of Commagene. Well wooded and fertile valleys 

 lead from the Tokhmah up to the mountains. They wind at first 

 through limestone hills abounding with fossil shells. Where the hills 

 end, long ridges of black volcanic rocks begin ; these are succeeded by 

 platforms and table-lands, upon which the rock-terraces rise one above 

 another, terminated at the crest in conical summits. On the Belli- 

 Gedik hills Ainsworth found the altitude by the barometer to be 5625 

 feet, but the Akjah-Dagh is probably twice that height, it having been 

 seen covered with snow in the latter part of May. The Gok, a small 

 river which joins the Euphrates after a southern course, winds 

 through colossal cliffs of limestone, and forms the celebrated pass of 

 Erkenek, the most difficult part of which lies in the valley of the 

 rivulet Erkenek, a feeder of the Gok. The ancient town of Perre, 

 now probably Pelvereh, was situated in the pass, the only one through 

 which armies coming from the interior of Asia Minor can descend into 

 the valley of the Euphrates, and thence into Mesopotamia or Syria. 

 In this part of the Akjah mountains the rocks consist chiefly of shaly 

 schists, which constitute the axis of the whole of Taurus. The valleys 

 are well cultivated, and inhabited by Kurds. Near Marash a chain 

 separates from the principal knot, forks into two branches, and 

 encompasses the Gulf of Iskenderun. [AMANUS.] 



The principal chain of the Taurus stretches from the environs of 

 Marash in a western direction across the whole length of the peninsula, 

 and is generally, but not always, parallel with the coast : its steep side 

 faces the south. In about 35 E. long., the chain is called Bulghar- 

 Dagh, a very lofty range, through which the Sihun, the ancient Sams, 

 passes in a bed overhung on both sides by steep rocks 1000 feet high, 

 which form the celebrated pass of Golek-Boghaz, anciently called 

 Pylre or Porto; Cilicisc. During the time that Syria and the pashalik 

 of Adana belonged to Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, the Golek-Boghaz 

 was partly in possession of the Turks, and partly of the Egyptians, 

 both of whom had erected strong fortifications for the defence of their 

 respective portions. The narrow tract between the Bulghar-Dagh and 

 the coast has an alpine character, and under the meridian of Mezetli, 

 the ancient Pompeiopolis, the principal chain of the mountains 

 approaches the coast so closely as to become visible from the sea in 

 all its outlines. The whole country round the Gulf of Iskenderun is 

 thus surrounded on one side by the sea, and on the others by lofty 

 mountains, which, being traversed by a few long and narrow defiles, 

 may be successfully defended by a handful of men against the most 

 numerous armies. This tract abounds in fruit, wine, corn, timber, 

 and other productions ; and is watered by two navigable rivers, the 

 Jihun and the Sihun, and many streams of less importance, among 

 which the Tersus, or river of Tarsus, the ancient Cydnus, is the chief. 



On following the Taurus in its western direction, we find the Kara- 

 Dagh and the AUah-Dagh, two lofty peaks which are situated at only 

 a little distance from each other, and north of the great chain, in the 

 southern corner of the ancient Lycaonia. The name of the Taurus is 

 here Ichili-Dagh. The Kara-Dagh, an isolated trachytic cone 8000 

 feet high, rises above a sandy plain, and is of barren and dreary 

 appearance ; a low ridge stretches from it north-east in the direction 

 of Hasan-Dagh and Mount Argseus, with which it appears to be con- 

 nected, forming part of the same system of elevation, and standing 

 consequently on the edge of the great table-land, of which we shall 

 speak hereafter. The AUah-Dagh stands on a base of thin-bedded 

 semi-crystalline limestone, dipping south-east, and is connected with 

 the chain of the Taurus, which here chiefly consists of Jura limestone. 

 The Allah-Dagh is the culminating point of a lower range which runs 

 west, and parallel to the Taurus. The whole of the Taurus, from the 

 Allah-Dagh west as far as the Baba-Dagh (Mons Cadmus) in 29" E. 

 long, has not yet been explored, but parts of its snowy chain have been 

 traversed by a few travellers, or seen from the sea in the Gulf of 

 Adalia. 



The Baba-Dagh, or most western part of the Taurus, continues its 

 original western direction under several names, and forms the water- 

 shed between the Mendereh in the north, and the Dolomon and several 

 smaller rivers which flow into the sea of Rhodes, the Gulf of Cos, and 

 the Gulf of Mandeliyeh. 



Tho whole tract, which lies between the range of the Taurus and 

 the Mediterranean, and the width of which depends more on the 

 curves of the coast than on those of the mountain-range, has an 

 alpine character, though the mountains are not so high as the Alps of 

 the Tyrol or Switzerland. 



The Lycian part of this tract has for its northern limit the principal 

 range of the Taurus, from which branches stretching south are so 

 ultimately connected with each other by transverse chains as to form 

 a separate mountain system. The eastern part of it is a table-laud. 

 The tract south o/ a line between Horan or Oren and the bay of 

 Makri (Glaucus) in the west, the river Xanthus and the sea, is filled 

 up by mountains known by their ancient names of Cragtis and 



