DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0449
416
RAVLI.
[Chap, xxiir.
and extensive plain of Tchibulc-Ova. In this district, or
lease, there are eighty-four hamlets, with from five to fifty
houses in each, of which Ravli, where we halted at a quartet
after twelve, is the chief. This plain is talked of as the
scene of the great battle between Bajazct II. and Tamerlane,
a.d. 1402. I was not aware of it at the time, or I should have
examined it with greater interest. In the burial-ground,
and other parts of the village of Ravli, distant six hours
from AkjahTash, I found many large blocks of hewn stone,
evidently intended for some considerable building; as well
as architraves, cornices, columns, and sepulchral cippi. All
retain distinct marks of the chisel, and appear never to have
been finished. The limestone hills we had just left pro-
bably contained the quarries which supplied Angora with
marble; and these blocks may have been on their way
thither, when the wave of destruction rolled over the Ro-
man empire, cheeking the further progress, and for a time
destroying the very existence, of civilization. The rough
appearance of many of them justifies this supposition;
for otherwise, why should we find so many pedestals and
cippi in such an unfinished state, without ornament or
inscription ?
Friday, September 2.—Ravli to Angora, six hours. We
started at half-past seven, and found the morning fresh,
and even cool. The road led along the south-east edge of
the plain of Tchibuk-Ova for about two miles, with a lazy
stream on our right, from which rose numerous plovers,
while several coveys of bagrakalas got up from the low
hills on the left. Leaving the plain, our course changed
to S. by W., over ridges of hills and intermediate val-
leys, in which horizontal beds of red sandstone conglo-
merate were resting against the underlying unconformable
schistose rocks. At a quarter before ten, after ascending
a steep ravine, I found myself upon an elevated plateau
of trappean or granitic rocks, against which the red sand-
stone appeared to have been deposited as in a basin. Cross-
ing this plain, the two remarkable rugged and pointed
RAVLI.
[Chap, xxiir.
and extensive plain of Tchibulc-Ova. In this district, or
lease, there are eighty-four hamlets, with from five to fifty
houses in each, of which Ravli, where we halted at a quartet
after twelve, is the chief. This plain is talked of as the
scene of the great battle between Bajazct II. and Tamerlane,
a.d. 1402. I was not aware of it at the time, or I should have
examined it with greater interest. In the burial-ground,
and other parts of the village of Ravli, distant six hours
from AkjahTash, I found many large blocks of hewn stone,
evidently intended for some considerable building; as well
as architraves, cornices, columns, and sepulchral cippi. All
retain distinct marks of the chisel, and appear never to have
been finished. The limestone hills we had just left pro-
bably contained the quarries which supplied Angora with
marble; and these blocks may have been on their way
thither, when the wave of destruction rolled over the Ro-
man empire, cheeking the further progress, and for a time
destroying the very existence, of civilization. The rough
appearance of many of them justifies this supposition;
for otherwise, why should we find so many pedestals and
cippi in such an unfinished state, without ornament or
inscription ?
Friday, September 2.—Ravli to Angora, six hours. We
started at half-past seven, and found the morning fresh,
and even cool. The road led along the south-east edge of
the plain of Tchibuk-Ova for about two miles, with a lazy
stream on our right, from which rose numerous plovers,
while several coveys of bagrakalas got up from the low
hills on the left. Leaving the plain, our course changed
to S. by W., over ridges of hills and intermediate val-
leys, in which horizontal beds of red sandstone conglo-
merate were resting against the underlying unconformable
schistose rocks. At a quarter before ten, after ascending
a steep ravine, I found myself upon an elevated plateau
of trappean or granitic rocks, against which the red sand-
stone appeared to have been deposited as in a basin. Cross-
ing this plain, the two remarkable rugged and pointed