DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0133
72 TROY AND ITS REMAINS. [Chap. II.
Another curiosity of this estate is, that close to the
temple of Apollo there exists a round hill, called " Chanai
Tepe," about 32? feet in height, and 2i6£ feet in diameter
at its base. It used to be considered a natural hill, till
Mr. Frank Calvert, in the year 1856, made a cutting in it,
and found upon a flat rock, 16 feet high, a circular space,
enclosed by a wall 6£ feet in height. The whole of the
inner space, as far as the edge of the surrounding wall,
was filled with calcined bones, which the surgeons of the
English fleet pronounced to be human bones. In the
centre Mr. Calvert found the skeleton of a human being.
The whole was covered with about 10 feet of earth.
The Plain of Troy is traversed from the south-east to
the north-west by the Scamander, which is distant from
Hissarlik 2,5 minutes' walk, and the bed of which I can
recognise from here by, the uninterrupted row of trees
growing upon its banks. Between the Scamander and
Hissarlik, at a distance of only 15 minutes from the latter,
the Plain is again intersected by the river Kalifatli-Asmak,
which rises in the marshes of Batak (Thymbria), and is
filled with running water only in late autumn, winter, and
spring; but during the hot summer months, till the
end of October, it consists of an uninterrupted series of
deep pools. This stream, even during the continual heavy
winter rains, and in comparison with its splendid and im-
mensely broad channel, has but a very scanty supply of
water—in fact, never so much as to cover even the tenth
part of the breadth of its bed. I therefore believe that its
huge bed must at one time have been the bed of the
Scamander; I believe this all the more, as the Simois still
flows into the Kalifatli-Asmak at a quarter of an hour s
distance north of Ilium, where I am digging.* By identi-
fying the channel of this river, which may be traced to
the Hellespont near Cape Rhceteum, with the most ancient
See the Map.
Another curiosity of this estate is, that close to the
temple of Apollo there exists a round hill, called " Chanai
Tepe," about 32? feet in height, and 2i6£ feet in diameter
at its base. It used to be considered a natural hill, till
Mr. Frank Calvert, in the year 1856, made a cutting in it,
and found upon a flat rock, 16 feet high, a circular space,
enclosed by a wall 6£ feet in height. The whole of the
inner space, as far as the edge of the surrounding wall,
was filled with calcined bones, which the surgeons of the
English fleet pronounced to be human bones. In the
centre Mr. Calvert found the skeleton of a human being.
The whole was covered with about 10 feet of earth.
The Plain of Troy is traversed from the south-east to
the north-west by the Scamander, which is distant from
Hissarlik 2,5 minutes' walk, and the bed of which I can
recognise from here by, the uninterrupted row of trees
growing upon its banks. Between the Scamander and
Hissarlik, at a distance of only 15 minutes from the latter,
the Plain is again intersected by the river Kalifatli-Asmak,
which rises in the marshes of Batak (Thymbria), and is
filled with running water only in late autumn, winter, and
spring; but during the hot summer months, till the
end of October, it consists of an uninterrupted series of
deep pools. This stream, even during the continual heavy
winter rains, and in comparison with its splendid and im-
mensely broad channel, has but a very scanty supply of
water—in fact, never so much as to cover even the tenth
part of the breadth of its bed. I therefore believe that its
huge bed must at one time have been the bed of the
Scamander; I believe this all the more, as the Simois still
flows into the Kalifatli-Asmak at a quarter of an hour s
distance north of Ilium, where I am digging.* By identi-
fying the channel of this river, which may be traced to
the Hellespont near Cape Rhceteum, with the most ancient
See the Map.