DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0371
Chap, xx.]
PLAIN OF PHANARCEA.
341
Magnopolis. I was also positively assured that no ruins
whatever existed in the plain itself, which is probable, for
there was little or no wood to conceal them. The whole plain
belongs to Hadji Oglu, one of the former Dere Beys, who
resides at Herek. I determined, instead of returning to
Amasia, to follow the route given me by the Agha of Ladik,
and to visit Boghaz Hissan Kaleh on my way to Herek and
Niksar.
In answer to my inquiries at Sonnisa, where I was de-
layed some time for want of horses, I was told that the best
cultivated land in the plain produced seven or eight fold,
and the price of wheat was twenty piastres the kilo,
which here consisted of sixteen batmans. Strabo, in his
description of the Phanarcea, calls it kXaiotyuTov wsSioy; *
now no olives grow there in the present day, whether culti-
vated or wild; and from its elevation and position I should
doubt whether they had ever nourished in this plain. I
shall have occasion to mention another district to which
Strabo has applied the same epithet, equally inappropriate
at the present day; I am therefore inclined to think that
the geographer merely intended to say that it was a fertile
plain, producing in abundance the most useful fruits, f
Although we remained at Sonnisa until noon, the conti-
nued cloudy state of the sky prevented my obtaining a me-
ridian altitude of the sun. At mid-day we descended into the
plain, having on our left a rocky wall of mountains consisting
of trachyte in a state of decomposition, and on the right the
narrow prolongation of the hills which formed the southern
boundary of the Sepetli valley. Having reached the plain, we
* Strabo, xii. p. 556.
t The following list of distances was given me by the owner of the house where
I halted :_
Hours. Hours.
Sonnisa to Amasia . • 12 Sonnisa to Samsun . . 24
Sonnisa to Niksar , • -12 Sonnisa to Churshambih . IS
Sonnisa to Herek ... '1 Sonnisa to Tashvoa . . 4
Sonnisa to Tocat ■ 14
It will be seen that these distances generally agree well with the positions ou the
map.
PLAIN OF PHANARCEA.
341
Magnopolis. I was also positively assured that no ruins
whatever existed in the plain itself, which is probable, for
there was little or no wood to conceal them. The whole plain
belongs to Hadji Oglu, one of the former Dere Beys, who
resides at Herek. I determined, instead of returning to
Amasia, to follow the route given me by the Agha of Ladik,
and to visit Boghaz Hissan Kaleh on my way to Herek and
Niksar.
In answer to my inquiries at Sonnisa, where I was de-
layed some time for want of horses, I was told that the best
cultivated land in the plain produced seven or eight fold,
and the price of wheat was twenty piastres the kilo,
which here consisted of sixteen batmans. Strabo, in his
description of the Phanarcea, calls it kXaiotyuTov wsSioy; *
now no olives grow there in the present day, whether culti-
vated or wild; and from its elevation and position I should
doubt whether they had ever nourished in this plain. I
shall have occasion to mention another district to which
Strabo has applied the same epithet, equally inappropriate
at the present day; I am therefore inclined to think that
the geographer merely intended to say that it was a fertile
plain, producing in abundance the most useful fruits, f
Although we remained at Sonnisa until noon, the conti-
nued cloudy state of the sky prevented my obtaining a me-
ridian altitude of the sun. At mid-day we descended into the
plain, having on our left a rocky wall of mountains consisting
of trachyte in a state of decomposition, and on the right the
narrow prolongation of the hills which formed the southern
boundary of the Sepetli valley. Having reached the plain, we
* Strabo, xii. p. 556.
t The following list of distances was given me by the owner of the house where
I halted :_
Hours. Hours.
Sonnisa to Amasia . • 12 Sonnisa to Samsun . . 24
Sonnisa to Niksar , • -12 Sonnisa to Churshambih . IS
Sonnisa to Herek ... '1 Sonnisa to Tashvoa . . 4
Sonnisa to Tocat ■ 14
It will be seen that these distances generally agree well with the positions ou the
map.