DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.748#0156
INVESTIGATIONS AT ASSOS, 1881. 125
standing the lamentable injury lately done to them by the
Turks, are still in a wonderfully perfect state of preservation.
The remark of Texier appears hardly an exaggeration ; in
places the walls " seem rather a commenced and unfinished
work than a ruin." Throughout their entire extent, — a length
of over three kilometres, — these fortifications are built with
unvarying care, being skilfully so planned as especially to pro-
tect the points by nature most exposed to the attack of a besieg-
ing enemy. The greater part of the circuit can be traced ; it is
only at the north of the Acropolis, near the precipitous descent
from the village to the river valley that the position of the wall
is uncertain.
The rectangular blocks, exactly jointed, are laid without mor-
tar in horizontal courses of equal height, bonded from face to
face by headers. This regular masonry is at times built upon
and on the face of the polygonal walls of an older period, as is
shown by Plate 26, which represents a breach at the extreme
west. The principle of the vault is employed in one of the
towers, but not in any of the gate-openings where circular and
pointed blind-arches are cut from the horizontal courses, — as
at Ephesus, Thoricos, Messene, etc., — or where the edges of
the projecting stones form an oblique transition to a compara-
tively short lintel, as in the portal, Plate 27. This opening,
marked A upon the topographical plan (Plate 1) is in the
transverse division wall, which runs from the Acropolis cliff to
a re-entering angle of the outer fortifications. The northern
and southern enclosures of the city were connected only by
this narrow passage, in the jambs of which the bolt and pivot
holes of the heavy doors are visible.
The chief gateway of the northwest upon the ancient road
leading to Lecton and Alexandria Troas is flanked by enormous
towers, one of which is shown in Plate 28. The view is taken
towards the Acropolis, the northwestern corner of which, show-
standing the lamentable injury lately done to them by the
Turks, are still in a wonderfully perfect state of preservation.
The remark of Texier appears hardly an exaggeration ; in
places the walls " seem rather a commenced and unfinished
work than a ruin." Throughout their entire extent, — a length
of over three kilometres, — these fortifications are built with
unvarying care, being skilfully so planned as especially to pro-
tect the points by nature most exposed to the attack of a besieg-
ing enemy. The greater part of the circuit can be traced ; it is
only at the north of the Acropolis, near the precipitous descent
from the village to the river valley that the position of the wall
is uncertain.
The rectangular blocks, exactly jointed, are laid without mor-
tar in horizontal courses of equal height, bonded from face to
face by headers. This regular masonry is at times built upon
and on the face of the polygonal walls of an older period, as is
shown by Plate 26, which represents a breach at the extreme
west. The principle of the vault is employed in one of the
towers, but not in any of the gate-openings where circular and
pointed blind-arches are cut from the horizontal courses, — as
at Ephesus, Thoricos, Messene, etc., — or where the edges of
the projecting stones form an oblique transition to a compara-
tively short lintel, as in the portal, Plate 27. This opening,
marked A upon the topographical plan (Plate 1) is in the
transverse division wall, which runs from the Acropolis cliff to
a re-entering angle of the outer fortifications. The northern
and southern enclosures of the city were connected only by
this narrow passage, in the jambs of which the bolt and pivot
holes of the heavy doors are visible.
The chief gateway of the northwest upon the ancient road
leading to Lecton and Alexandria Troas is flanked by enormous
towers, one of which is shown in Plate 28. The view is taken
towards the Acropolis, the northwestern corner of which, show-