DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0545
512
PETRIFYING STREAM.
[Chap. xxix.
other, and continue to overhang the river until a natural
bridge was completed by the touching of the opposite sides,
while the arch or passage of the river below would be kept
clear, the rapidity of the stream not allowing the deposi-
tion of the calcareous matter. It is indeed most apparent
that this has been the case, that the two cliffs have been
here joined, and thus formed the through which,
as Herodotus reports, the water flowed by a subterranean
channel for half a mile, the soft crust having been in all
probability subsequently broken up by an earthquake. I
have already mentioned that in the hollow below the bridge
are several mills which are turned by the petrifying stream
of the Ak Sii; in consequence of the rapid accumulation
of calcareous matter, it has been frequently necessary to
change their position ; they would otherwise be soon choked
up, and buried in the calcareous silt deposited round them
by the spray and overflowings of the mill-stream.
There can be no doubt that this is the spot within the
city of Colossas, where Herodotus describes the disappear-
ance of the Lycus, although it may still remain a question
which of these two rivers was the real Lycus, whether that
now flowing through the centre of the plain, or the re-
markable stream of which the modern Turkish name of
Ak Su expresses the colour of its water. But in confirmation
of this position of Colossae, I may mention an expression in
the work of the Byzantine historian Curopalates, already
quoted, but not correctly understood by Mr. Arundel, owing
to his not having visited the spot, and not having found
the real yjia^a. yris. It proves that this must be the Co-
lossian subterranean course of the Lycus, for in allusion
to it he says, lv uttzq oi TrappiovTss wotcc/aoi exeats •xjuvtuon.twi, re-
ferring in the most decisive manner to the existence of
several rivers uniting their streams just above the narrow
gorge. *
There is also a passage in Pliny f which bears in an in-
* Arundel, Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 179. Curopalates, Hist., p. 652.
t Hist. Nat., lib. xxxi. c. 20.
PETRIFYING STREAM.
[Chap. xxix.
other, and continue to overhang the river until a natural
bridge was completed by the touching of the opposite sides,
while the arch or passage of the river below would be kept
clear, the rapidity of the stream not allowing the deposi-
tion of the calcareous matter. It is indeed most apparent
that this has been the case, that the two cliffs have been
here joined, and thus formed the through which,
as Herodotus reports, the water flowed by a subterranean
channel for half a mile, the soft crust having been in all
probability subsequently broken up by an earthquake. I
have already mentioned that in the hollow below the bridge
are several mills which are turned by the petrifying stream
of the Ak Sii; in consequence of the rapid accumulation
of calcareous matter, it has been frequently necessary to
change their position ; they would otherwise be soon choked
up, and buried in the calcareous silt deposited round them
by the spray and overflowings of the mill-stream.
There can be no doubt that this is the spot within the
city of Colossas, where Herodotus describes the disappear-
ance of the Lycus, although it may still remain a question
which of these two rivers was the real Lycus, whether that
now flowing through the centre of the plain, or the re-
markable stream of which the modern Turkish name of
Ak Su expresses the colour of its water. But in confirmation
of this position of Colossae, I may mention an expression in
the work of the Byzantine historian Curopalates, already
quoted, but not correctly understood by Mr. Arundel, owing
to his not having visited the spot, and not having found
the real yjia^a. yris. It proves that this must be the Co-
lossian subterranean course of the Lycus, for in allusion
to it he says, lv uttzq oi TrappiovTss wotcc/aoi exeats •xjuvtuon.twi, re-
ferring in the most decisive manner to the existence of
several rivers uniting their streams just above the narrow
gorge. *
There is also a passage in Pliny f which bears in an in-
* Arundel, Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 179. Curopalates, Hist., p. 652.
t Hist. Nat., lib. xxxi. c. 20.