Fellows, Charles: Travels and researches in Asia Minor, more particularly in the province of Lycia (London, 1852)

380

CHAPTER XXII.

AVELAN", — ITS LAKE. — EXTENSIVE PLAINS.—DISAPPEARANCE OF A
RIVER.—ALMALEE.—ITS POPULATION.—MOSQUES.—TRADE.—SITE OP
ANCIENT CITY, PROBABLY POD ALIA.—SOURCE OE RIVERS.—PASSAGE
OR MOUNTAIN.—HIGH PLAINS.—THE YEEILASSIES.—ANNUAL MIGRA-
TION OE THE TRIBES.—VALLEY OE THE XANTHUS.—MACBV.—RHODES.
—CITY OE RHODES.—SAILOES.—LAVISSE.—CARMYLESSUS.—RETURN
TO THE YEEILASSIES.—REVIEW OE LYCIA,

May Sth, Almalee.—This district is entirely unknown to
Europeans, and has quite a distinct character from that of
the country through which we have before passed: no maps
of course exist. The disadvantages of this are very great, as
we know not where to steer or what places to ask for; but
there are also advantages, and the surprise on arriving last
evening at Avelan was one, for at this elevation (above
three thousand feet above the sea) we found a large lake,
three or four miles wide and ten long, and a plain of three
times that size covered with corn just springing above the
ground, without a tree to break the perfect monotony of the
level. At the north-east end of this plain stands the largest
town in Lycia—almost the largest in Asia Minor; it far ex-
ceeds the size of Idin, and probably contains twenty-five thou-
sand inhabitants. We were in some degree prepared to ex-
pect this, by the hundreds of people we yesterday met on
the road, at the distance of twenty miles, returning from the

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