CASTLE OF TIRIDATES. 
625 
or, perhaps, tumbled together in all the different directions, 
standing, lying, and leaning, composing the wildest and most 
picturesque combinations. In short, I do not believe a more 
varied or extensive specimen of these extraordinary effects of 
nature’s operations, can exist any where. 
The columns are in general pentagons ; and on examining- 
many of the broken ones, I observed that most had a convexity 
of surface on the upper face, similar to what I had seen in the 
basaltic columns of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. The tex¬ 
ture of the stone is exceedingly close, and of a dark grey colour. 
The great general outline which their masses assume, may be 
described as shooting up from the valley in a direct perpendi¬ 
cular, of from three to four hundred feet; at the summit of 
which a short receding ledge of rock slopes inwards, and thence 
springs a second wall of columns running up to the same height; 
then comes another slope, and another wall; and so on, till 
these successions of terraces and basaltic superstructures ter¬ 
minate at the top of the mountain under a thick stratum of 
shapeless rock. Such is the general character of this stupendous 
stronghold of the ancient sovereigns of the country. 
The situation chosen for the fortress, I have just mentioned 
was the broad summit of an immense body of the rock, which 
projected out into the valley like a promontory. On its 
northern side it joined the mountain ; the top of which was a 
vast plain, running on to other mountain-summits in that direc¬ 
tion ; but the southern face of the projecting rock exhibited a 
perpendicular of 150 feet, while the sides to the east and west 
gradually lost their precipitation in joining the slopes of the 
valley. To compensate for this lessening of the natural bul¬ 
warks, walls and towers have been substituted, formed of im- 
4 L 
VOL. II. 
