DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4376#0297
TOPOGRAPHY OF HALICABNASSTJS. 279
the eastern Avail of the city and Kislalik, crossing
the Mylasa road. This must have altered its bed
since the time of the ancients, as it now has car-
ried away several of the tombs which formerly
must have stood on its banks.0
0 The physical features of the site of Halicarnassus are thus
described by Captain Spratt in his Memoir cited ante, p. 272 :—■
" The beauty and advantages of the position chosen by Mausolus
for his capital are not seen until the basin within the island (Ka-
rada) is entered, when the Castle of St. Peter presents itself to
view, in bold relief against a theatre of hills lying close at the
back. Between the foot of the hills and the Castle intervenes a
narrow strip of land, covered with olive, vine, and fig-trees, among
which are interspersed many flat-roofed cottages. This luxuriant
patch of cultivated ground nearly defines the extent and limits of
the ancient city, as the mountain's sides above it produce only
a stunted vegetation on its limestone surface. The bay is formed
on the west by a rugged sterile promontory composed of volcanic
ejections, peperino, and trachyte, and does not exceed 300 feet in
height. This ridge is almost cut off from the main chain, being
connected with it only by a narrow neck of rising ground springing
from the base of a conspicuous conical hill in the north-west angle
of the city. This cone is composed of volcanic matter, while the
higher ranges immediately behind it are of nummulite limestone,
uplifted and greatly disturbed by these eruptions."
the eastern Avail of the city and Kislalik, crossing
the Mylasa road. This must have altered its bed
since the time of the ancients, as it now has car-
ried away several of the tombs which formerly
must have stood on its banks.0
0 The physical features of the site of Halicarnassus are thus
described by Captain Spratt in his Memoir cited ante, p. 272 :—■
" The beauty and advantages of the position chosen by Mausolus
for his capital are not seen until the basin within the island (Ka-
rada) is entered, when the Castle of St. Peter presents itself to
view, in bold relief against a theatre of hills lying close at the
back. Between the foot of the hills and the Castle intervenes a
narrow strip of land, covered with olive, vine, and fig-trees, among
which are interspersed many flat-roofed cottages. This luxuriant
patch of cultivated ground nearly defines the extent and limits of
the ancient city, as the mountain's sides above it produce only
a stunted vegetation on its limestone surface. The bay is formed
on the west by a rugged sterile promontory composed of volcanic
ejections, peperino, and trachyte, and does not exceed 300 feet in
height. This ridge is almost cut off from the main chain, being
connected with it only by a narrow neck of rising ground springing
from the base of a conspicuous conical hill in the north-west angle
of the city. This cone is composed of volcanic matter, while the
higher ranges immediately behind it are of nummulite limestone,
uplifted and greatly disturbed by these eruptions."