196 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
with an amphitheatre, beneath which is a subter- 
ranean channel for the torrent. Near the theatre 
are two heights; beneath one stood the gymnasium 
for youths, and below the other the agora and the 
geronticon or the gymnasium for elder men. 
Below the city to the South stretches the plain of 
the Meander, just as at Tralles. : ’ Strabo then 
describes the country between Tralles and Nysa. 
Chandler was led to suppose that the portion of 
the town to the West was Nysa; that to the East 
Tralles, but the passage of Strabo which follows 
his description should have shown him his error. 
There is indeed much similarity in the position 
of the two cities, but they lie 18 miles or more 
apart. 
I visited Nysa under favourable auspices, in the 
company of Mr. Edward Purser, the Manager of 
the Ottoman railway, and of Mr. W. M. Ramsay, 
whose explorations in Asia Minor have given him 
a European reputation. Our object was not so 
much to explore the remains of Nysa, .which we 
left for a future occasion, as to discover a certain 
spot in its neighbourhood mentioned by Strabo, 
the position of which had not been ascertained. I 
shall therefore say no more of Nysa, than that we 
verified the accuracy of Strabo’s description of the 
peculiar features of its situation, and the position 
of the buildings he specifies, and enjoyed the 
magnificent view of the Meander valley and its 
enclosing mountains from the upper seats of the 
Greek theatre. 
The old geographer writes: “Thirty stadia from 
Nysa, as you cross the Messogis towards the 
southern parts of the Tmolus-mountain, lies a 
spot called the Meadow to which the Nysaeans 
and all their neighbours resort in procession 
to celebrate their festivals. Not far from this 
is a cave, sacred to the deities (Hades and Cora), 
which cave is said to run underground as far as 
the land of the A characans. This is the meadow, 
they say, mentioned by the poet when he speaks 
of the Asian meadow, and they point out the 
heroum of Caystrius and of a certain Asia.*, and 
the Cayster flowing around it” (Iliad II, 44). 
Chandler thought he had found this meadow on 
the road between Nysa and Nazli, in “a remarka- 
ble gap in the range of Messogis, opening a view 
into a green plain at some distance on our left.' 
But his green plain could not have been the 
Nysaian meadow, for it lies on the Meander side 
of the range. This passage in Strabo, however, 
is confessedly corrupt; the words are differently 
arranged in the several editions of the author, yet 
the true meaning is generally admitted to be 
this— that to reach the meadow you must cross 
the Messogis range in a northerly direction, and 
you will then come to a piece of level ground, 
commanding a view over the valley of the Cayster 
and the southern slopes of the great chain of 
Tmolus. The position of the meadow then is un- 
questionable connected with the Cayster valley 
and the Ttnolus range beyond it. 
Our expedition was projected by Mr. Purser, 
who having heard of a grassy plain on the further 
side of the Messogis range, which seemed :o answer 
to Strabo’s description, though at a much greater 
distance from Nysa than the 30 stadia given in 
his text, resolved to verify the statement, and 
kindly invited Mr. Ramsay and myself to bear 
him company. 
On leaving the ruins of Nysa, we retraced our 
steps through shady lanes towards the station of 
Sultan Hissar, when, skirting the base of the 
plateau of the ancient city to the East, we turned 
to the North and pursued that direction for the 
rest of our journey. We traversed a valley well 
cultivated with vines, corn, olive and fig-trees, yet 
without any signs of habitation. But I was 
reminded that in Roman times the wines grown 
on the mountain above Nysa were esteemed the 
best the Messogis produced ; Strabo, XIV, I, 47). 
The valley gradually contracted, being hemmed 
in by cliffs, which in one spot were yellow with 
sulphur, till it shrunk to a narrow, deep ravine 
with slopes darkened by olive groves. These 
slopes, after a tedious ascent, led us to the village 
of Malagatch, some 2 I- hours from Sultan-Hissar. 
This village, which takes its name "Tree of the 
Treasure” from having been the deposit of the 
spoils of brigandage, hangs on both sides of the 
ravine, or Dare, through which flowed the torrent 
which we were to trace on the morrow to its 
source. It was very unlike a European village; 
it had no street, not even a mosque. The houses 
(many were mere sheds of mud and wood without 
windows) were scattered at random on the steep 
slopes, under venerable olive-trees. Here in the 
best house in the village, the only one possessing 
