540 HU1HSOF THE PLAIN OF TROY. 



in fact the SiraoYs as he believed ; and perhaps have suggested, in 

 the present name of the place, llal'il Hi, (or, as i have written it 

 Ilal'il Kl!y, to conform to the mode of pi oiiunciatiou,) an etymology 

 from A ON. 



From the ruins at Hal'i'l Elly, we proceeded through a delight. 

 ful valley, full of vineyards, and almond trees in full bloom, in- 

 tending to pass the night at the village of Thymbreck. We found 

 no antiquities, nor did we hear of any in the neighbourhood. 

 The next day returning toward Malil Elly, we left it upon our 

 right, and crossed the Thymbrius by a ford. In summer this river 

 becomes almost dry; but during v, inter it often presents a power, 

 ful torrent, carrying all before it. Not one of the maps, or of the 

 works yet published upon Troas, has informed us of its termi- 

 nation : according to some, it empties itself into the Mender near 

 its embouchure ; others describe it as forming a junction near 

 Tc.hiblack ; a circumstance of considerable importance ; for if this 

 last position be true, the ruins at Tchiblack may be those of the 

 Temple of the Thymbraean Apollo. Strabo expressly states the si- 

 tuntion of the temple to be near the place where the Thymbrius 

 discharges itself into the Scamamler. After we had passed the 

 ford, we ascended a ridge of hills, and found the remains of a very 

 ancient paved way. We then came to the town or village of 

 Tcliibiack, where we noticed very considerable remains of ancient 

 sculpture, but in such a state of disorder and ruin, that no precise 

 description of them can be given. The most remarkable are upon 

 the top of a hill called Beyan Mezaley, near the town, in the 

 miilst of a beautiful grove of oak trees, towards the village of Cal- 

 lifa*. Here the ruins of a Doric Temple of white marble lay 

 heaped in the most striking manner, mixed with broken stela?, 

 Cippi, Sarcophagi, cornices and capitals of very enormous size, 

 entablatures, and pillars. All of these have reference to some 

 peculiar sanctity by which this hill was anciently characteri/ed. 

 It is of a conical form, and stands above the town of Tchiblack, 

 appearing as large as the Castle Hill at Cambridge. The first in. 

 quiry that suggests itself, in a view of this extraordinary scene, na. 

 turally involves the original cause of the veneration in which the 

 place was anciently held. Does it denote the site of Pagus Ilien- 

 sium, whose inhabitants believed that their village stood on the site 

 of Ancient Troy ? This place was distant thirty stadia from the 

 New Iliam of Strabo ; and the distance corresponds with the rela. 



