DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4719#0363
336
LTCIA.
to halt for several days, to examine further into the remains
of this chief of the Lycian cities, and to make accurate draw-
ings of its interesting sculpture.
April 21st.—This is my fourth day among the ruins of
Xanthus, and how little do I know of this ancient city! its
date still puzzles me. It certainly possesses some of tbe
earliest Archaic sculpture in Asia Minor, and this connected
with the most beautiful of its monuments, and illustrated by
the language of Lycia. These sculptures to which I refer
must be the work of the sixth or seventh centuries before
the Christian sera, but I have not seen an instance of these
remains having been despoiled for the rebuilding of walls;
and yet the decidedly more modern works of a later people
are used as materials in repairing the walls around the back
of the city and upon the Acropolis ; many of these have
Greek inscriptions, with names common among the Romans.
The whole of the sculpture is Greek, fine, bold, and simple,
bespeaking an early age of that people. No sign whatever
is seen of the works of the Byzantines or Christians.
To lay down a plan of the town is impossible, the whole
being concealed by trees; but walls of the finest kind, Cyclo-
pean blended with the Greek, as well as the beautifully
squared stones of a lighter kind, are seen in every direction;
several gateways also, with their paved roads, still exist. I
observed on my first visit that the temples have been very
numerous, and, from their position along the brow of the
cliff, must have combined with nature to form one of the
most beautiful of cities. The extent I now find is much
greater than I had imagined, and its tombs extend over miles
of country I had not before seen.
The beautiful gothic-formed sarcophagus-tomb, with cha-
riots and horses upon its roof, of which I have before spoken
and have given a sketch of a battle-scene upon the side, accom-
panied with a Lycian inscription*, is again a chief object of
* See page 171.
•n amit:
:nc
ML
fa rod
:e sami
hasberi
in the earth.
:: -
MAI
■ -
hav
occuj
is will
upon t:
vautifui.
Sften
LTCIA.
to halt for several days, to examine further into the remains
of this chief of the Lycian cities, and to make accurate draw-
ings of its interesting sculpture.
April 21st.—This is my fourth day among the ruins of
Xanthus, and how little do I know of this ancient city! its
date still puzzles me. It certainly possesses some of tbe
earliest Archaic sculpture in Asia Minor, and this connected
with the most beautiful of its monuments, and illustrated by
the language of Lycia. These sculptures to which I refer
must be the work of the sixth or seventh centuries before
the Christian sera, but I have not seen an instance of these
remains having been despoiled for the rebuilding of walls;
and yet the decidedly more modern works of a later people
are used as materials in repairing the walls around the back
of the city and upon the Acropolis ; many of these have
Greek inscriptions, with names common among the Romans.
The whole of the sculpture is Greek, fine, bold, and simple,
bespeaking an early age of that people. No sign whatever
is seen of the works of the Byzantines or Christians.
To lay down a plan of the town is impossible, the whole
being concealed by trees; but walls of the finest kind, Cyclo-
pean blended with the Greek, as well as the beautifully
squared stones of a lighter kind, are seen in every direction;
several gateways also, with their paved roads, still exist. I
observed on my first visit that the temples have been very
numerous, and, from their position along the brow of the
cliff, must have combined with nature to form one of the
most beautiful of cities. The extent I now find is much
greater than I had imagined, and its tombs extend over miles
of country I had not before seen.
The beautiful gothic-formed sarcophagus-tomb, with cha-
riots and horses upon its roof, of which I have before spoken
and have given a sketch of a battle-scene upon the side, accom-
panied with a Lycian inscription*, is again a chief object of
* See page 171.
•n amit:
:nc
ML
fa rod
:e sami
hasberi
in the earth.
:: -
MAI
■ -
hav
occuj
is will
upon t:
vautifui.
Sften