DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0555
522
THE LYCUS—AK KHAN.
[Chap. xxix.
Khonos, still seven or eight miles off on the other side of
the plain, the different appearance of the country on the
opposite hills, owing to two different streams from Mount
Cadmus, was very remarkable—one is the source of Bou-
narbashi, flowing through the gardens and orchards of
Khonos, fertilizing everything it touches, and producing
the most luxuriant vegetation, while the other, enveloping
whatever it approaches in its stony mantle, produces nothing
but a barren rock.
After continuing along the foot of the hills for nearly
eight miles S.E. we reached the Lycus, flowing from the
east, between low arid hills; and having crossed it by a
wooden bridge just below its emergence from a rocky chasm
in the calcareous deposit, we proceeded some way up the
left bank to within a mile of the mills of Ak Su. Some Eu-
ruques upon the spot repeatedly assured me that the course
of the river was nowhere subterraneous; and as night was
approaching I was compelled to give up the search, and
return in haste to Denizli, nine or ten miles off. There can,
however, be no doubt that this is the Lycus, and that the
chasm through which it flows has, at a former period, been
concealed by the deposit of the petrifying streams. This
opinion was confirmed by an Armenian of Denizli, who
added the tradition that the river Tchoruk below the mills
of Colosste had once been covered over.
Returning to Denizli, after having crossed the Djok or
Gieuk Bounar Su, near its junction with the Lycus, by a
narrow bridge, we halted to see the ruined khan called Ak
Khan. It was now dusk, but the handsome and elaborate
Saracenic architecture, lighted up by the fires and pine
torches of some camel-drivers who were bivouacking under
its walls, was seen to great advantage. After recrossing the
river, and while looking for the high road to Denizli, we
were delayed by the tatar falling backwards with his horse
into a deep ditch, where he lay for some time on his back,
and the horse was nearly drowned. My steed too got away
in the dark whilst I was assisting my companion, and 1 had
THE LYCUS—AK KHAN.
[Chap. xxix.
Khonos, still seven or eight miles off on the other side of
the plain, the different appearance of the country on the
opposite hills, owing to two different streams from Mount
Cadmus, was very remarkable—one is the source of Bou-
narbashi, flowing through the gardens and orchards of
Khonos, fertilizing everything it touches, and producing
the most luxuriant vegetation, while the other, enveloping
whatever it approaches in its stony mantle, produces nothing
but a barren rock.
After continuing along the foot of the hills for nearly
eight miles S.E. we reached the Lycus, flowing from the
east, between low arid hills; and having crossed it by a
wooden bridge just below its emergence from a rocky chasm
in the calcareous deposit, we proceeded some way up the
left bank to within a mile of the mills of Ak Su. Some Eu-
ruques upon the spot repeatedly assured me that the course
of the river was nowhere subterraneous; and as night was
approaching I was compelled to give up the search, and
return in haste to Denizli, nine or ten miles off. There can,
however, be no doubt that this is the Lycus, and that the
chasm through which it flows has, at a former period, been
concealed by the deposit of the petrifying streams. This
opinion was confirmed by an Armenian of Denizli, who
added the tradition that the river Tchoruk below the mills
of Colosste had once been covered over.
Returning to Denizli, after having crossed the Djok or
Gieuk Bounar Su, near its junction with the Lycus, by a
narrow bridge, we halted to see the ruined khan called Ak
Khan. It was now dusk, but the handsome and elaborate
Saracenic architecture, lighted up by the fires and pine
torches of some camel-drivers who were bivouacking under
its walls, was seen to great advantage. After recrossing the
river, and while looking for the high road to Denizli, we
were delayed by the tatar falling backwards with his horse
into a deep ditch, where he lay for some time on his back,
and the horse was nearly drowned. My steed too got away
in the dark whilst I was assisting my companion, and 1 had