40 TABLEJU de la PLAINE de TROTE 



The Site of Ancient 'troy. 



Near the eaftern extremity of the plain, upon a gentle accli- 

 vity, is fituated, as has been faid, the Turkifh village of Bounar- 

 bajhi. While M. Chevalier advanced upwards to this vil- 

 lage, by a pleafant and eafy afcent, rifing gradually from the 

 plain, he pafTed through a fpacious cemetery, where each of the 

 tombs is adorned with a fragment of marble or of granite. Pafs- 

 ing the village he continued to afcend for near a mile, till he 

 arrived at the borders of a precipice of great height. (Ch. IV.). 

 Beneath this precipice a torrent, coming down from the moun- 

 tains above the plain, (but whofe bed in the fummer is com- 

 monly dry), runs in a curve diredion toward the north ; and, 

 bending its courfe along the northern fide of the plain, flows 

 down through the whole length of it, and difcharges itfelf into 

 the Hellefpont, betwixt the modern Turkifh fort called Koum- 

 kaleh on the fouth, and a fort of haven called Karanlik-limani on 

 the north, near Rhoeteum. This river is undoubtedly the Si- 

 mois. And upon the rifing ground extending upwards from 

 the village of Bounar-hajhi to the abrupt precipice encompafled 

 by rocks above and the river below, on every fide, except that 

 which opens upon the village, and where the Scsean Gate may 

 be fuppofed to have been, M. Chevalier concludes, that the 

 ancient city of Troy was placed. From the fummit of this high 

 ground, where he fuppofes the citadel to have been, and which 

 the Turks now call Ballidahi^ mountain of honey ^ he had a view, 

 as has been faid, of the whole extent of the plain. This being 

 an airy fituation, juflifies, in his opinion. Homer's epithet of 

 hvi[/.oi(T(ra., fo often applied to Troy. (Ch. XVIL). The precipices 

 which fliirt this eminence, and the Simois which runs at the 

 foot of them, render the place impradlicable to be afiTailed from 

 any other quarter than from the fide towards the \\\\2igt. (Ibid.). 



Mr 



