DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4719#0233
212
0011
WEST OP PHBYGIA.
principal remains are the vast silent walls, which must have
been built about the time of the Eomans and Christians,
although their purpose is involved in much doubt: for
churches they are inapplicable, and in the places in which I
have before noticed them such remains would be impro-
bable. There is little trace of the architecture and orna-
ment of churches, and but few tombs are to be seen which
appear by their carvings to be of Christian date.
Up the valley towards the south-east stands Mount
Cadmus, and I heard that at its foot, about twelve miles
from Laodiceia, there were considerable ruins, probably the
ancient city of Colossse. Descending rapidly into the flat and
swampy valley of the Lycus, we crossed in a diagonal line
to the city of Hierapolis, six or seven miles from Laodiceia.
My attention had been attracted at twenty miles' distance
by the singular aspect of its hill, upon which there ap-
peared to be perfectly white streams poured down its sides;
and this peculiarity may have been the attraction which first
led to the city being built there. The waters, which rise in
copious streams from several deep springs among the ruins,
are also to be found in small rivulets for twenty miles around;
they are tepid, and to appearance perfectly pure; indeed I
never saw more transparent water, although I perceived
at a depth of perhaps twenty feet a dark green hue, visible
between the surface and the white marble of the columns
and Corinthian ornaments which lay at the bottom. Gas
continually rises in bubbles, emitting the noxious smell of
hydrogen. This pure and warm wrater is no sooner exposed
to the air, than it rapidly deposits a pearly wdiite substance
upon the channel through wrhich it flows, and on every
blade of grass in its course ; and thus, after filling its bed,
it flows over, leaving a substance which I can only compare
to the brain-coral, a kind of crust or feeble crystallization;
again it is flooded by a fresh stream, and again is formed
another perfectly white coat. The streams of water, thus
K01 ' ^
-
:•■■ ■:■
:anfc>:
■;.:; : •••• ;
.:: i ■!■
k U ii i
- ■/ .
■TfcL
******
-C>* ft
:"^\
---'.-
0011
WEST OP PHBYGIA.
principal remains are the vast silent walls, which must have
been built about the time of the Eomans and Christians,
although their purpose is involved in much doubt: for
churches they are inapplicable, and in the places in which I
have before noticed them such remains would be impro-
bable. There is little trace of the architecture and orna-
ment of churches, and but few tombs are to be seen which
appear by their carvings to be of Christian date.
Up the valley towards the south-east stands Mount
Cadmus, and I heard that at its foot, about twelve miles
from Laodiceia, there were considerable ruins, probably the
ancient city of Colossse. Descending rapidly into the flat and
swampy valley of the Lycus, we crossed in a diagonal line
to the city of Hierapolis, six or seven miles from Laodiceia.
My attention had been attracted at twenty miles' distance
by the singular aspect of its hill, upon which there ap-
peared to be perfectly white streams poured down its sides;
and this peculiarity may have been the attraction which first
led to the city being built there. The waters, which rise in
copious streams from several deep springs among the ruins,
are also to be found in small rivulets for twenty miles around;
they are tepid, and to appearance perfectly pure; indeed I
never saw more transparent water, although I perceived
at a depth of perhaps twenty feet a dark green hue, visible
between the surface and the white marble of the columns
and Corinthian ornaments which lay at the bottom. Gas
continually rises in bubbles, emitting the noxious smell of
hydrogen. This pure and warm wrater is no sooner exposed
to the air, than it rapidly deposits a pearly wdiite substance
upon the channel through wrhich it flows, and on every
blade of grass in its course ; and thus, after filling its bed,
it flows over, leaving a substance which I can only compare
to the brain-coral, a kind of crust or feeble crystallization;
again it is flooded by a fresh stream, and again is formed
another perfectly white coat. The streams of water, thus
K01 ' ^
-
:•■■ ■:■
:anfc>:
■;.:; : •••• ;
.:: i ■!■
k U ii i
- ■/ .
■TfcL
******
-C>* ft
:"^\
---'.-