DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0027
2 I. THE LYCOS VALLEY.
time the frontier was not so certain and was commonly placed further
away from the coast. This pass was the open gate of Phrygia, through
which Greek letters and Koman officers entered the country and the
products of the country were carried away to the coast.
The scene before the traveller as he traverses the pass is a suitable
introduction to that Phrygian land, which always seemed to the Greek
mind something strange and unique. Close on the left rises the ridge
of Messogis, which bounds the Maeander valley on the north, stretch-
ing from the central plateau of Anatolia far out into the Aegean sea at
Mykale. On the right the long thin ridge of the Tchibuk-Dagh
extends far back to the south-east till it merges into the huge mass of
Baba-Dagh (Salbakos). In front of Salbakos, which runs east and
west, shutting in the view with its wall of rock 7,600 feet high \ a dis-
turbed, irregular wilderness of alluvial hills, intersected by deep
winding canons, breaks the transition from the perpendicular mass of
the mountains to the low flat valley of the Maeander. After the end
of the Tchibuk-Dagh is passed, the valley widens a little, as the allu-
vial hills sink into the valley a mile or more south of the river.
Numerous hot springs emerge from the soil on both sides of the river
and in its very channel. On the north side, at Kizil-Dere, a glen of
M. Messogis, the hot vapour and water burst forth hissing and roaring,
the ground is warm beneath the feet, and, as one walks, sudden spurts
of hot steam rush up under one's step. The upper springs at Kizil-
Dere are boiling hot. and break forth with a noise like that of an
engine blowing off steam. Further down they are not so hot; but even
the lowest have a temperature above ioo° F.2
In the pass there is a mined old bridge which stretches out from
the north bank; it was perhaps built in the early Seljuk period to
take the place of the Roman bridge which had once spanned the river
further down. Near it, on the south bank. Chandler mentions pheno-
mena similar to those of Kizil-Dere ; but the chief group of hot springs
was a little further east, about a mile N.E. from Tekke-Keui. Here
1 The highest point, Kar-ji (Snow help, in ways too numerous to mention,
Peak), is 8,166 feet, and Beshik Kaya throughout the fourteen years since
7,929 feet above sea-level. The heights I began this study,
of these and other peaks are reckoned ■ The ruined buildings at Kizil-Dere
by vertical angles on calculated dis- seem all Turkish. We saw nothing of
tances from- the railway as base (by au earlier date. The oldest had been
Mr. S. YVatkins), and may be relied on overwhelmed by a land-slip, and only
within £ per cent, error either way. the top was visible above the soil
They have been kindly sent me by Mr. in 1SS4. No doubt Greek or Roman
Purser, manager of the Ottoman Rail- remains have been buried in this
way, to whom I am indebted for much way.
time the frontier was not so certain and was commonly placed further
away from the coast. This pass was the open gate of Phrygia, through
which Greek letters and Koman officers entered the country and the
products of the country were carried away to the coast.
The scene before the traveller as he traverses the pass is a suitable
introduction to that Phrygian land, which always seemed to the Greek
mind something strange and unique. Close on the left rises the ridge
of Messogis, which bounds the Maeander valley on the north, stretch-
ing from the central plateau of Anatolia far out into the Aegean sea at
Mykale. On the right the long thin ridge of the Tchibuk-Dagh
extends far back to the south-east till it merges into the huge mass of
Baba-Dagh (Salbakos). In front of Salbakos, which runs east and
west, shutting in the view with its wall of rock 7,600 feet high \ a dis-
turbed, irregular wilderness of alluvial hills, intersected by deep
winding canons, breaks the transition from the perpendicular mass of
the mountains to the low flat valley of the Maeander. After the end
of the Tchibuk-Dagh is passed, the valley widens a little, as the allu-
vial hills sink into the valley a mile or more south of the river.
Numerous hot springs emerge from the soil on both sides of the river
and in its very channel. On the north side, at Kizil-Dere, a glen of
M. Messogis, the hot vapour and water burst forth hissing and roaring,
the ground is warm beneath the feet, and, as one walks, sudden spurts
of hot steam rush up under one's step. The upper springs at Kizil-
Dere are boiling hot. and break forth with a noise like that of an
engine blowing off steam. Further down they are not so hot; but even
the lowest have a temperature above ioo° F.2
In the pass there is a mined old bridge which stretches out from
the north bank; it was perhaps built in the early Seljuk period to
take the place of the Roman bridge which had once spanned the river
further down. Near it, on the south bank. Chandler mentions pheno-
mena similar to those of Kizil-Dere ; but the chief group of hot springs
was a little further east, about a mile N.E. from Tekke-Keui. Here
1 The highest point, Kar-ji (Snow help, in ways too numerous to mention,
Peak), is 8,166 feet, and Beshik Kaya throughout the fourteen years since
7,929 feet above sea-level. The heights I began this study,
of these and other peaks are reckoned ■ The ruined buildings at Kizil-Dere
by vertical angles on calculated dis- seem all Turkish. We saw nothing of
tances from- the railway as base (by au earlier date. The oldest had been
Mr. S. YVatkins), and may be relied on overwhelmed by a land-slip, and only
within £ per cent, error either way. the top was visible above the soil
They have been kindly sent me by Mr. in 1SS4. No doubt Greek or Roman
Purser, manager of the Ottoman Rail- remains have been buried in this
way, to whom I am indebted for much way.