DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0399
368
SECRET PASSAGE.
[Chap. xxi.
tion, and to which he alludes in the words ■■neitvqyai^a.i
Trayx-aXcus. The xoputpat were not, as I had at first imagined,
two distinct points connected by a narrow intermediate ridge,
but one only, from which two narrow ridges extend, one to
the north, and the other to the cast, which last terminates
abruptly close to the river. The angles of the walls and
towers of Hellenic masonry are admirably executed; each
stone is slightly convex on its outer surface, the centre
projecting three or four inches beyond the plane of the
joints; the masonry too is very regular, each course being
sixteen inches thick.
But the object of greatest interest is the under-ground
passage above alluded to, evidently the avpiyyss of Strabo,
closely resembling those subterranean flights of stairs which
I had seen in several other castles similarly situated on
rocky eminences, as Unieh, Tocat, Tourkhal, and Zilleh.
Whether intended merely for procuring water, or to serve
as secret sally-ports to the fortress, there can be no doubt of
their antiquity and Hellenic origin. There seem to have
been two of these covered passages or galleries at Amasia,
one of which led from the xoputyai or summit in an easterly
direction to the ridge, and the other from the ridge into
the rocky hill in a northerly direction. The former, how-
ever, is not excavated in the rock, like the latter, but is
built of masonry above ground, yet equally well concealed.
Having seen so many of these places, I determined to de-
scend this one, and to explore its recesses, having procured
a guide and lights, and being told that a fountain of ex-
cellent water existed at the bottom. My opinion of its an-
tiquity was at first rather shaken, by finding the entrance,
sides, and roof arched over with bricks, but after descending
about 20 feet 1 reached the old entrance, formed of Hel-
lenic masonry. The descent, which was extremely steep,
the steps being either worn away or filled up with mud and
gravel, commenced rather inauspiciously, by my sliding
down 15 or 20 steps at once. Here I observed that the
SECRET PASSAGE.
[Chap. xxi.
tion, and to which he alludes in the words ■■neitvqyai^a.i
Trayx-aXcus. The xoputpat were not, as I had at first imagined,
two distinct points connected by a narrow intermediate ridge,
but one only, from which two narrow ridges extend, one to
the north, and the other to the cast, which last terminates
abruptly close to the river. The angles of the walls and
towers of Hellenic masonry are admirably executed; each
stone is slightly convex on its outer surface, the centre
projecting three or four inches beyond the plane of the
joints; the masonry too is very regular, each course being
sixteen inches thick.
But the object of greatest interest is the under-ground
passage above alluded to, evidently the avpiyyss of Strabo,
closely resembling those subterranean flights of stairs which
I had seen in several other castles similarly situated on
rocky eminences, as Unieh, Tocat, Tourkhal, and Zilleh.
Whether intended merely for procuring water, or to serve
as secret sally-ports to the fortress, there can be no doubt of
their antiquity and Hellenic origin. There seem to have
been two of these covered passages or galleries at Amasia,
one of which led from the xoputyai or summit in an easterly
direction to the ridge, and the other from the ridge into
the rocky hill in a northerly direction. The former, how-
ever, is not excavated in the rock, like the latter, but is
built of masonry above ground, yet equally well concealed.
Having seen so many of these places, I determined to de-
scend this one, and to explore its recesses, having procured
a guide and lights, and being told that a fountain of ex-
cellent water existed at the bottom. My opinion of its an-
tiquity was at first rather shaken, by finding the entrance,
sides, and roof arched over with bricks, but after descending
about 20 feet 1 reached the old entrance, formed of Hel-
lenic masonry. The descent, which was extremely steep,
the steps being either worn away or filled up with mud and
gravel, commenced rather inauspiciously, by my sliding
down 15 or 20 steps at once. Here I observed that the