DOI Artikel:
Ramsay, William Mitchell: Prymnessos and Metropolis
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.35009#0148
Prymnessos and Metropolis.
Kara Hissar, the Black or Powerful Castle, distinguished
from tbe many other towns of the same name by the epithet
Afium1, is the chief town of the district of Phrygia in which
it is situated. It derives its name from the lofty rock which,
rising with perpendicular cliffs out of the plain to the height
of a thousand feet, forms a naturally impregnable fortress. A
level and fertile valley extends on the one hand towards the
northwest for many miles, on the other side southeast past
Bulwudun, the ancient Polybolos, and Ak Scheher, Philome-
lion, to llghun, Tyriaion. The valley therefore forms a na-
tural road leading right across Phrygia from Iconion and the
east. This position has made the valley of great importance
inhistory: the earliest mention of it is when the Ten Thousand
Greeks marched along it from end to end. The fortress of Kara
Hissar is the natural key of the district and must liave been
a central point in a border warfare. An examination of the
city however shovvs that it was not a town of the Greek or
Iloman time,but is. the foundationof a later period. 11 is full of
ancient fragments,but these liave been brought from the Greek
cities of the district, which formed convenient quarries to
buiid the modern town. None of these Greek cities liave up to
the present time been identified with certainty : the plain of
Kara Hissar and its river bear no ancient name.
In Afium Kara Hissar I copied the foliowing inscription on
a small block of Synnadicor Docimian marble, which isplaced
over a grave in the Armenian cemetery. The block has been
1 The chief produce of the valley is opium.
Kara Hissar, the Black or Powerful Castle, distinguished
from tbe many other towns of the same name by the epithet
Afium1, is the chief town of the district of Phrygia in which
it is situated. It derives its name from the lofty rock which,
rising with perpendicular cliffs out of the plain to the height
of a thousand feet, forms a naturally impregnable fortress. A
level and fertile valley extends on the one hand towards the
northwest for many miles, on the other side southeast past
Bulwudun, the ancient Polybolos, and Ak Scheher, Philome-
lion, to llghun, Tyriaion. The valley therefore forms a na-
tural road leading right across Phrygia from Iconion and the
east. This position has made the valley of great importance
inhistory: the earliest mention of it is when the Ten Thousand
Greeks marched along it from end to end. The fortress of Kara
Hissar is the natural key of the district and must liave been
a central point in a border warfare. An examination of the
city however shovvs that it was not a town of the Greek or
Iloman time,but is. the foundationof a later period. 11 is full of
ancient fragments,but these liave been brought from the Greek
cities of the district, which formed convenient quarries to
buiid the modern town. None of these Greek cities liave up to
the present time been identified with certainty : the plain of
Kara Hissar and its river bear no ancient name.
In Afium Kara Hissar I copied the foliowing inscription on
a small block of Synnadicor Docimian marble, which isplaced
over a grave in the Armenian cemetery. The block has been
1 The chief produce of the valley is opium.