DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0528
Chaf. Xxvnii]
13ULDUU.
495
are much softer than the pumiceous bed which contains the
caves.
Tuesday, October 4.—Returning from Kadckli yesterday
evening my guide amused me with a long account of ruins
on the opposite side of the lake, which he proposed I should
visit to-day; when however the morning came, all sorts of
excuses and difficulties were made to prevent my going
there. He said that although only one hour across the
lake, the distance was much greater by land. Then my host
said that the boats were unsafe, and neither he nor his bro-
ther would venture to go. The next excuse was that there
were no boats at all. Then again the distance was too great,
and at last my guide of yesterday said he could not go
without his brother's leave, adding that he had never seen
them himself, but had only heard of their existence from
others; and I was at length compelled to give it up, and
order horses for Ketziburlu; and I began to suspect either
that there were no ruins to be seen, or that Hafiz Agha,
impatient at my delaying another day on the road, was at
the bottom of the scheme.
We started at nine for Ketziburlu, six hours. Soon
after leaving Buldur, where I had observed a few fragments
of columns, some of them fluted, and having copied a short
inscription,* we quitted the Isbarta road, and keeping a
more northerly course across the plain, reached in a few
miles the borders of the lake. The country was flat, stony,
and uncultivated, and much cut up by rapid torrents, which
in the rainy season, rushing down from the neighbouring
hills, have worn deep beds in the sandy soil. Here in
some few places were slight attempts at cultivation, and
particularly below Iskeri, where we passed through several
considerable gardens and orchards watered by the stream
which flows down the valley of Kadekli.
On reaching the borders of the lake the banks were so
soft and muddy that I had great difficulty in getting near
enough to taste the water, which, instead of being so
* Sec Appendix, No. 100.
13ULDUU.
495
are much softer than the pumiceous bed which contains the
caves.
Tuesday, October 4.—Returning from Kadckli yesterday
evening my guide amused me with a long account of ruins
on the opposite side of the lake, which he proposed I should
visit to-day; when however the morning came, all sorts of
excuses and difficulties were made to prevent my going
there. He said that although only one hour across the
lake, the distance was much greater by land. Then my host
said that the boats were unsafe, and neither he nor his bro-
ther would venture to go. The next excuse was that there
were no boats at all. Then again the distance was too great,
and at last my guide of yesterday said he could not go
without his brother's leave, adding that he had never seen
them himself, but had only heard of their existence from
others; and I was at length compelled to give it up, and
order horses for Ketziburlu; and I began to suspect either
that there were no ruins to be seen, or that Hafiz Agha,
impatient at my delaying another day on the road, was at
the bottom of the scheme.
We started at nine for Ketziburlu, six hours. Soon
after leaving Buldur, where I had observed a few fragments
of columns, some of them fluted, and having copied a short
inscription,* we quitted the Isbarta road, and keeping a
more northerly course across the plain, reached in a few
miles the borders of the lake. The country was flat, stony,
and uncultivated, and much cut up by rapid torrents, which
in the rainy season, rushing down from the neighbouring
hills, have worn deep beds in the sandy soil. Here in
some few places were slight attempts at cultivation, and
particularly below Iskeri, where we passed through several
considerable gardens and orchards watered by the stream
which flows down the valley of Kadekli.
On reaching the borders of the lake the banks were so
soft and muddy that I had great difficulty in getting near
enough to taste the water, which, instead of being so
* Sec Appendix, No. 100.