TO CAFFA. 
115 
of the Bosporus, and thereby gives to their nar- 
rative some internal evidence of truth ; yet they 
may have borrowed this description from similar 
appearances observed in other tombs, which have 
been opened and submitted to their inspection. 
The view from the top of the Altyn Oho is one view of the 
°f the finest in the Crimea. A range of similar straits. r<a l 
heaps continues along the lofty ridge whereon 
this tumulus stand s, the whole way to Kertchy; the 
last object being the high mountain upon which 
the Acropolis of Panticapceum was placed, that 
ls to say, upon the precipice above the sea, 
■whence Mithradates threw the body of his son 
Xiplianes into the waves; as there is no other 
s pot so connected with the site of the city, as to 
illustrate the text of Appian, who says the deed 
was done in the view of the mother upon the 
Asiatic side of the Strait. The palace of Mithra- 
dates was in all probability a fortress ; and the 
traces of its foundation are yet visible, near to a 
small semicircular excavation in the rock ; and 
this also is a work of- great antiquity. One of the 
tombs in the range I have mentioned, although 
not so large as that ascribed to Mithradates, is 
equally remarkable. It is the nearest to the 
spectator in the series ; the pretended tomb of 
Mithradates, or Altyn Oho, being the last towards 
the west, and immediately upon the barrier or 
v ol. II. 
CHAP. 
III. 
I 
