DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62355#0257
ISTENIA.
111
size, whose bright leaves and scarlet berries are perfectly magnificent during
the season.
Association is thus blent with natural beauty in wreathing about the Riven
Tower a distinct and powerful interest for the imagination; while the extra-
ordinary duration of the pile in so apparently insecure and threatening a state,
when, to the eye, it seems as though the next gust of wind heaving its ivied
drapery must inevitably prostrate it to the earth, cannot fail to attract the notice
of the curious in gravitation, from whose law it appears to be so singularly
exempt.
ISTENIA.
" -in famed Attica such lovely dales
Are rarely seen; nor can fair Tempe boast
A charm they know not; loved Parnassus fails,
Though classic ground and consecrated most,
To match some spots that lurk within this lowering coast."
Byron.
The beautiful little village of Istenia, called by the Greeks Mirgheun, and
principally inhabited by that nation, is situated in one of the prettiest spots on
the Bosphorus; although the opposite shore is rocky, sterile, and fantastically
flung together; the edge of the water at the base of the dusky chain of hills,
being, however, fringed with houses, and gay with trees.
The Moorish fountain, which forms the subject of the accompanying sketch,
is of an extremely graceful character, and built of a marble whose whiteness is
almost dazzling. It occupies the termination of the main street of the village,
where it touches upon the channel; and is entirely overshadowed by the far-
stretching branches of a glorious maple-tree, which after spreading its gay green
canopy over the dome and richly-wrought roof of the fountain, finally mingles
its leafy honours with those of two other trees of the same description, beneath
whose shelter the cool wooden terraces of a couple of coffee-kiosques have
been erected.
Crowds of caiques dance on the heaving current within twenty paces of the
fountain; the transparent nets of the fishermen hang in festoons from the
111
size, whose bright leaves and scarlet berries are perfectly magnificent during
the season.
Association is thus blent with natural beauty in wreathing about the Riven
Tower a distinct and powerful interest for the imagination; while the extra-
ordinary duration of the pile in so apparently insecure and threatening a state,
when, to the eye, it seems as though the next gust of wind heaving its ivied
drapery must inevitably prostrate it to the earth, cannot fail to attract the notice
of the curious in gravitation, from whose law it appears to be so singularly
exempt.
ISTENIA.
" -in famed Attica such lovely dales
Are rarely seen; nor can fair Tempe boast
A charm they know not; loved Parnassus fails,
Though classic ground and consecrated most,
To match some spots that lurk within this lowering coast."
Byron.
The beautiful little village of Istenia, called by the Greeks Mirgheun, and
principally inhabited by that nation, is situated in one of the prettiest spots on
the Bosphorus; although the opposite shore is rocky, sterile, and fantastically
flung together; the edge of the water at the base of the dusky chain of hills,
being, however, fringed with houses, and gay with trees.
The Moorish fountain, which forms the subject of the accompanying sketch,
is of an extremely graceful character, and built of a marble whose whiteness is
almost dazzling. It occupies the termination of the main street of the village,
where it touches upon the channel; and is entirely overshadowed by the far-
stretching branches of a glorious maple-tree, which after spreading its gay green
canopy over the dome and richly-wrought roof of the fountain, finally mingles
its leafy honours with those of two other trees of the same description, beneath
whose shelter the cool wooden terraces of a couple of coffee-kiosques have
been erected.
Crowds of caiques dance on the heaving current within twenty paces of the
fountain; the transparent nets of the fishermen hang in festoons from the