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ARZ-ROUM TO AMASIA. 
time of Noah, and very zealously swear, that some of their present 
structures were contemporary with the Patriarch : with less hazard of 
truth, or rather with much appearance of probability, they aver that 
others were the work of the Giaours , or Infidels. One in particular is 
attributed to the latter origin; it consists of an arched gateway, curi¬ 
ously worked all in strong stone, situated N. W. in the castle, and 
close to a decayed minaret of ancient structure. Yet many of the 
older fabrics appear by the true Moresque arch, to be certainly of 
Saracenic origin; and many of the remains of mosques resemble those 
buildings in Persia, with curious bricks, and lacquered tiles, which 
were raised in the first ages of Mahomedanism. In all those at 
Arz-roum , I observed a round tower, with a very shelving roof, covered 
all over with bricks. There are still erect several minarets, obviously 
works of the early Mussulmans. Near the Eastern gate of the castle 
are two of brick and tile, and a gate (with a Saracenic arch and a 
Ciiftc inscription) and many strong stone buildings around, the remains 
of the fine portico of a mosque. To the East of the town is an old 
tower of brick, the highest building in Arz-roum, which is used as a 
look-out-house, and serves as the tower of the Janizaries at Constanti¬ 
nople, or that of Galata. There is a clock at the summit, which strikes 
the hours with sufficient regularity. 
In Arz-roum there are from four to five thousand families of the 
Armenian, and about one hundred of the Greek, persuasion : the 
former have two churches, the latter one. There are perhaps one 
thousand Persians who live in a Caravanserai, and manage by caravans 
the trade of their own country. Trebisond is the port on the Black 
Sea, to which the commerce of Constantinople is conveyed. The 
Turkish inhabitants of Arz-roum are fifty thousand families. This 
amount of the population I give from the authority of a well-informed 
Armenian; but as all such details in a country so ill-regulated are ex¬ 
ceedingly suspicious, I have already taken the liberty to deduct more 
than one-third from the number of Turkish families in the original esti- 
