4

THE WOLFE EXPEDITION

dicular walls, running northward. We pass along the watershed ; on
our right the water goes to the Lamas Su, on our left directly to the
sea. In one hour and a quarter beyond this point we reach a ruined
village, which belongs apparently to the Roman period. Noteworthy
are some walls of very neat polygonal masonry. Among the ruins
are many doorways still standing erect; for, while the houses them-
selves were built of smaller stones, and for that reason could not
withstand the effects of time, the doorways, formed by three stones,
— two posts with a lintel crowning them, — still remain in place. In
one hour more the summit of the mountain is reached at the ruins
_of another ancient village similar to the one just mentioned. Hence
we descend in twenty minutes to__the village Goyerek, situated in a
kettle or loop in the mountains perhaps a mile wide. Three quarters
of an hour beyond Goyerek—our general direction remaining the
same — we pass an ancient cemetery with sarcophagi of solid work-
manship still in place. The surrounding country is a great undu-
lating plateau, but exceedingly rocky and dreary. Twenty minutes
beyond the cemetery we reach the ruins of a large Grffico-Roman
village, with many doorways and several arches, which evidently
belonged to substructures of buildings, still standing. The site is
now a Turcoman Ya'ila, and the ancient cistern of well-hewn and
nicely adjusted stones is used at the present day by the turbaned
nomads.

After eight hours and a half of continuous travel, we reach Oren-
kieui, the fame of whose ruins had led me to expect much. It was.
the site of a large Christian church or monastery, which, having
served as a quarry for the modern huts, has almost entirely disap-
peared. The village is situated on the right bluff of the great canon
of the Lamas Su, the canon being about seven hundred feet deep.
The village Kizil Getchid is situated down in the canon on the left
bank of the river a little below Orenkieui.