126 



ASIA MINOR. 



through mountains, until we reached a sluggish river, the waters of 

 which are concealed in many places by ridges ; it is called Tousla 

 Chya, or the river of the salt-marsh. Here we had the first view of 

 the gulf of Adramyttium, with a groupe of little islands on it. At 

 eight miles from Aivajek is the Turkish village of Beyram, adjoining 

 very extensive ruins of ancient buildings, whose proportions are so 

 great and noble, that the miserable Turkish houses of Beyram look 

 like the temporary huts of a travelling horde. 



The next morning we eagerly began our examination of these 

 magnificent remains of a city which we presumed to be Assos. We 

 were fortunate enough to meet with an attentive host and useful 

 guide at this place, whom we found waiting for us at the entrance of 

 the town. He told us that he had heard of two English travellers 

 who proposed to explore that neighbourhood in their way to Alex- 

 andria Troas, and therefore he had prepared a lodging, and the Aga 

 had sent him provisions for our use. He was a mariner, and a 

 native of Mytilene. The dinner provided for us consisted of a kind 

 of soup thickened with barley, pancakes mixed with spinach, and a 

 pilaw of rice dressed with very rancid butter ; pastry made of butter 

 equally rancid, and swimming in honey. 



March 17. — Assos has stood upon a sloping hill facing the sea, 

 and commanding a view of Lesbos in the Adramyttian gulf. Its 

 walls have been of great strength, and are about five miles in circuit. 

 Three of the ancient gate-ways remain quite entire ; the fourth is in 

 ruins ; the high ground, which was originally the "Ao-tv, Acropolis 

 or citadel, is a rock of granite of very steep sides. Upon it are 

 ruins of an ancient edifice, which in the revolution of succeeding 

 ages has been a Genoese castle and a Greek church, and is now a 

 Turkish mosque. Over its entrance on an architrave, is an inscription 

 in very modern Greek characters; it makes mention o£"Av9ipog6 

 7rpoe<5pcf ZKccpccvfyov.* Near the mosque are two subterranean build- 



* It is remarkable, that throughout this district, not only on the shores of the 

 Hellespont but also on those of the JEgsean sea, there should have been particular 



