DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0289
xxxix.] " the gates" and kef ai.ovrysis. 267
at a very striking pass, represented in the opposite
plate, and called " The Gates'."
The width of this lofty chasm is about ten feet at the
ground, and widens to about thirty, or at the most forty
feet at the top. The length of way along which we have
to pass in the middle of the rapid stream, is about sixty
paces : and for a hundred paces further we are more
in the water than out of it, having to cross the torrent
several times. After gazing awhile on the grandeur of
this defile, I left it at half-past nine. In about twenty
minutes more the rocks again contract, so as to become
nearly perpendicular. I observe several pieces of wood
in the river, which elicit an observation from my Rume-
lidte guide2. A little before ten we reach a spot called
" the Turk's pass3," from the fact of a Mohammedan
having been killed there in 1770.
At twenty minutes past ten we arrive at a cluster
of fine plane trees, and a copious source called Kefalo-
vrysis', which now supplies the river with half its water ;
and which, after the melting of all the snow on the
mountains above Samaria, towards the end of July or
the beginning of August, still causes a considerable
stream to flow from this spot to the sea below Haghia
Rumeli. The contortions of the rocks in this neigh-
bourhood shew how violent must have been the operation
of the causes which threw them into their present shapes.
Cypresses may be noticed scattered over the moun-
tains of this elen along' its whole extent; and as we
approach Samaria, they are seen in great numbers. We
arrived in the village at half-past eleven.
I find the belief in the ancient site said to exist
above Samaria, and to have been the last refuge of the
ancient Hellenes5, is entertained by the Samaridte peasant
1 Tgjj tloprais.
2 He said, Ovpa tdSth t(i £upa <pepei 6 iroTap-os «7ro Accra : where uvpa
is used for ouXa or o\a, and ^vpa for %{>\n.
3 Eis tou TovpKov to irepafxa. 4 Ke(pako[3pi'icnv,
3 Compare what is said above, p. 86.
vol. it. s
at a very striking pass, represented in the opposite
plate, and called " The Gates'."
The width of this lofty chasm is about ten feet at the
ground, and widens to about thirty, or at the most forty
feet at the top. The length of way along which we have
to pass in the middle of the rapid stream, is about sixty
paces : and for a hundred paces further we are more
in the water than out of it, having to cross the torrent
several times. After gazing awhile on the grandeur of
this defile, I left it at half-past nine. In about twenty
minutes more the rocks again contract, so as to become
nearly perpendicular. I observe several pieces of wood
in the river, which elicit an observation from my Rume-
lidte guide2. A little before ten we reach a spot called
" the Turk's pass3," from the fact of a Mohammedan
having been killed there in 1770.
At twenty minutes past ten we arrive at a cluster
of fine plane trees, and a copious source called Kefalo-
vrysis', which now supplies the river with half its water ;
and which, after the melting of all the snow on the
mountains above Samaria, towards the end of July or
the beginning of August, still causes a considerable
stream to flow from this spot to the sea below Haghia
Rumeli. The contortions of the rocks in this neigh-
bourhood shew how violent must have been the operation
of the causes which threw them into their present shapes.
Cypresses may be noticed scattered over the moun-
tains of this elen along' its whole extent; and as we
approach Samaria, they are seen in great numbers. We
arrived in the village at half-past eleven.
I find the belief in the ancient site said to exist
above Samaria, and to have been the last refuge of the
ancient Hellenes5, is entertained by the Samaridte peasant
1 Tgjj tloprais.
2 He said, Ovpa tdSth t(i £upa <pepei 6 iroTap-os «7ro Accra : where uvpa
is used for ouXa or o\a, and ^vpa for %{>\n.
3 Eis tou TovpKov to irepafxa. 4 Ke(pako[3pi'icnv,
3 Compare what is said above, p. 86.
vol. it. s