124 
CITADEL OF TIFLIS. 
of the oven, where it stuck. The wall of the oven being kept 
continually hot, by a constant supply of burning wood beneath, 
in a couple of minutes the cake was baked, and removed by the 
point of a stick. This kind of bread is in use over most part of 
Asia, and serves, not merely as food, but for plate and napkin 
during the whole meal. 
On arriving at the old citadel, I found it well worth the labour 
of ascending the many hazardous declivities which lead to its 
base. It exhibited a mass of ruins, but they were grand and 
imposing, and the situation in which they stood, increased the 
wild majesty of these Eastern towers. When the Turks took 
possession of Georgia in the year 1576, they erected this fortress, 
to awe the province from its capital; and when the Persians 
over-ran the same, about two centuries after, they dismantled 
the venerable structure, and left it gradually to sink into the 
dark heaps of ruins which now mingle with the natural cliffs of 
the rock. Its site was well chosen, on the summit of a very 
high promontory, which forms the termination of the mountain 
that overshadows the town on its south-western side. Within 
the old battlements may still be found the remains of the mosque 
mentioned by Chardin, and which is now used as a prison for 
malefactors, under an officer and guard. Besides this main 
fortress, the Turks of the same period strengthened their hold 
of the town by a range of towers and walls, which enclosed it 
on every side; but all are gradually disappearing, (except the 
wall facing the river, which still stands ;) and the spoliation of 
hands at home, by taking materials from these ruins, as well as 
from those of the citadel above, to assist in building or repairing 
places in the city, has done more than even the ravages of war, 
to level these ancient bulwarks. 
