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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SOAKING UP THE SUN 



Throughout Asia Minor, and especially on the high inland plateau, the sunny days and 

 bitterly cold nights form a violent contrast. In the absence of adequate shelter and heating 

 equipment, the people sun themselves before some wall which deflects the wind and reflects the 

 heat, so that for a few hours at least the numbing cold is not felt. 



towns. Of the "Seven Wonders of the 

 World," the majority belong to Asiatic 

 and not to European Greece. 



THE HISTORY OE THE MYSTERIOUS 

 HITTITES IS YET TO BE WRITTEN 



Alongside the ''Sons of Javan" there 

 stand the little-known people called the 

 Hittites, whose power confronted the 

 Old-Ionians in their prime, and who were 

 becoming a subject of modern historical 

 investigation in its latest development 

 when the World War interposed serious 

 difficulties in the way of advantageous 

 study. 



There can be no doubt that there ex- 

 isted far back, near the beginning of his- 

 tory, in Asia Minor a great central em- 

 pire, represented by several noteworthy 

 cities and one great capital, situated at 

 Boghaz-Keui, about ioo miles south of 

 the Black Sea, high on the central plateau 

 in northern Cappadocia. 



The time, however, has not yet come 

 to write the history of this people. A 

 good deal has been done recently to estab- 



lish an outline of Hittite history, but it 

 remains only an outline, and mainly a re- 

 cital of the exploits and monuments of 

 great kings and conquerors, who may for 

 our purpose be classed as the great crim- 

 inals of history. 



The Hittite Empire broke up during 

 the second millennium B. C. just as the 

 Seljuk Empire of Roum or Konia broke 

 up into small principalities during the 

 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries A. D. 



The Lydian Empire, with its capital at 

 the splendid city of Sardis, which was in 

 process of excavation on a magnificent 

 scale by an American group of scholars 

 and enthusiasts during the years immedi- 

 ately preceding the World War, was an 

 offshoot of the old Hittite Empire; but it 

 was divided from the main Hittite world 

 by the incursion of the Phrygians, who 

 came in from Europe across the Darda- 

 nelles, probably during the tenth centurv 

 B. C. 



It is difficult to give by statistics any con- 

 ception of the great wealth and the nu- 

 merous population of Asia Minor in the 



