At twenty minutes past eight o'clock on the morning of the 25th of November we set out for the neighbouring town of Mush. It is the capital of a sanjak, or larger administrative division, belonging to the vilayet of Bitlis. It is situated on the further side of the wall of mountains which divide the watersheds of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and at a distance by road from the provincial capital of rather over fifty miles. You retrace your steps towards the valley of Bor and the telegraph wires, in order to cross by an easy and almost imperceptible ascent to the volcanic plateau on the western side of Lake Van. The lavas from Nimrud, and perhaps from lesser volcanic fissures near the base of the Kerkür Dagh, have levelled the inequalities of the ground in this direction, and have risen, as it were, to the rim of the basin in which the tributaries of the Tigris have their source. Indeed, as you diverge from the valley on a northerly course through a side valley or opening in the hills, you skirt the margin of a shallow stream, an affluent of the Bitlis Chai, which has its origin on the very lip of the volcanic plateau. We made our way up the current babbling over the rocks, through a bleak but comparatively open scene. On our right was an ancient khan in a ruinous condition, of lesser dimensions than the one on the road from Van to Bitlis which we had already passed. In its neighbourhood the track bifurcates, one branch maintaining a northerly direction, and the other inclining a little eastwards in the direction of Tadvan. Sipan now came in view on our right front, seen from the summit to the middle slopes above the outline of the plateau. A little later, we stood upon the actual floor of this table surface, at an elevation of 800 feet above the higher quarters of the town of Bitlis. It was ten o'clock. I called a halt, and took a photograph of the Kerkür Dagh, which rose in front of us, hiding Nimrud (Fig. 150). You just obtain a peep of the crater of the giant volcano on the west of that bold elevation. We could not discover traces of a crater on Kerkür, which appeared to compose an isolated mass. The level ground upon which we stood extended in both directions, towards the west and towards the east; but the configuration of this high land was such as to conceal completely the waters of Lake Van. We now commenced a more westerly course, and in another hour had passed the Kerkür Dagh and were in full face of Nimrud (Fig. 151). The heights of the Kerkür are seen on the extreme right of my illustration, descending by bold bastions to the steppe. After a second halt we arrived upon the edge of the plateau, where it overhangs the great plain of Mush. We had been walking or trotting along for a space of nearly an hour, excluding stoppages, from the point at which my first photograph was taken.