206 
ARDASHIR. 
A small river, called the Gurney, takes its course through the 
dismal solitude of these ruins. How different from the gor- 
geous courts, or gay revels, that, in aforetimes, from these now 
silent banks, may have been reflected from its stream! This 
river takes its rise from four little silver rivulets which issue 
from the mountains, to the north-east of the town, and uniting 
at a short distance beyond the earth-buried walls, takes a rapid 
course along the northern base of the citadel; and winding 
round the mounds, which had once been its outworks, turns to 
the south ; and, flowing onward, takes its melancholy way by 
the trackless heaps of the city ; till, issuing at the south-west, it 
throws itself into the Araxes, a few miles south of the Zengay. 
With my glass, I could plainly perceive the chain of hillocks 
which formed the western front of the city ; but could not dis¬ 
cern whether there were any more distant fortifications beyond 
them. I enquired of my melimandar, how far he supposed the 
Araxes might be from the spot on which we then stood. He 
replied, little more than half an hour’s ride : hence, I judged it 
to be about three miles. But Major Monteith afterwards assured 
me, he had found it to be exactly twice that distance. Indeed, 
from the observations to be made on one side of the town, it 
does not seem improbable that its suburbs, in the opposite di¬ 
rections, might have extended to the shores of that river, which 
would make the situation of Ardashir answer, with a great 
degree of exactness, to the accounts given of it by many of the 
ancient writers, under the name of Artaxata. 
On quitting the remains of Ardashir, my mehmandar informed 
me there were several tracts containing other ruins, not far 
distant from the present solitary scene ; and yet more, amongst 
the adjoining mountains. I could not command leisure at this 
