1G4 
MSKETT. 
morning’s march a few hours, that I might have time to view 
the many interesting objects of the place, and the magnificent 
country by which they are surrounded. 
Long before Tiflis, the present capital of Georgia, had a stone 
laid of its foundations, or that it could have been even in contem¬ 
plation to disturb the cattle which pastured on its ground, to 
fix the site of a new city, Mskett had been a place of im¬ 
portance, and of great antiquity. It was the residence of the 
sovereigns of the country, of large extent, and numerous popu¬ 
lation ; and many marks of its ancient strength and spaciousness 
may still be found along the angular piece of land which was 
its foundation. The situation was commanding for a royal 
capital, being between the rivers Aragua and Kur (the Aragus and 
Cyrus of the classic ages), and immediately at their point of 
junction ; the former river bounding the province of Kartelania 
(the ancient Iberia) to the south-east; and the latter stream, 
from the commencement of its course, forming a barrier to 
Armenia. 
Pliny, while writing of Iberia, observes that its chief city was 
called Harmastis, and that it was situated near the river Neoris. 
Ptolemy mentions the same place, under the name of Artanissa; 
and then adds, that there is another town called Mestletta, not 
far from the Kur. We have no difficulty in recognising Mskett 
in Mestletta; and in Harmastis, or Artanissa, too, the topo¬ 
graphy ol both being such as to show them to be one city; 
and the ruin on which I was quartered had originally been the 
strong-hold of that ancient capital. In the days of its greatness, 
this strong-hold inclosed the palace of the kings, as well as the 
metropolitan clmrch. What remains of the former, are little 
more than bare and mouldering walls, excepting one small 
gloomy chamber, near the ground, in which a stone couch, 
