and Poser (1621). The last-mentioned traveller describes a marble bas-relief and Greek inscription which he saw upon one of the gates. I have little doubt that this bas-relief is the same of which Yusuf spoke to me as having been copied by Consul Taylor in the sixties and taken to the British Museum. The document is, however, not forthcoming in our national treasure-house, and the original has disappeared. Only in the central and more southerly quarters of Erzerum did I observe a few remnants of the old walls. The citadel is still in existence, crowning the highest ground in the city, and it still contains the famous old tower. It seems to have served as a watch-tower, and was provided with a clock which the Russians carried away in 1830. In old days the captain of the Janissaries resided in the citadel; and the only occasion upon which a pasha of Erzerum would enter that sanctuary was if he came to have his head cut off. [188] Not many ancient buildings remain in the city, which has not seldom been visited by severe earthquakes. One of the most violent occurred in the month of June 1859, destroying or seriously damaging 4500 houses, overturning several portions of the old walls and levelling nine minarets with the ground. [189] The most pretentious edifice is the old medresseh or college, called [Chifteh Minareh.] Chifteh Minareh or the double minaret (Fig. 166). My illustration is from a photograph taken many years ago, before the caps of both minarets had fallen away. I was unable to obtain permission to enter the edifice, which was being used as a military store. It has been described at some length by more than one of my predecessors, and it is, I believe, an architectural solecism. [190] The façade of hewn stone with elaborate traceries contrasts with the brickwork of the pair of circular towers which rise from stone piers on either side. The circumference of each tower is diversified by eighteen small shafts, morticed into the main mass. The space between each pair of shafts is filled by a triangular moulding, of which the edge or narrow side faces outwards. Shafts and moulding are built of reddish kiln-burnt bricks, inlaid with small blue bricks. At the base of either pier is a large panel, framing an elaborate ornament in sculptured stone. Between the uppermost sprays of a bunch of foliage or feathers rests the device of a double-headed eagle. The stalks or quills of the garland rest in the hollow of a small semicircle, which is supported by the interlaced forms of two dragons. The question is suggested whether this double-headed eagle be the well-known emblem of the Roman empire over East and West. But we know that the emblem was adopted by the Seljuk dynasty of the Ortukids and by their successors the Ayubids; [191] and, indeed, if one were left to one's own judgment, one might well suppose that this was a monument of the Seljuk period. On the other hand, a Cufic inscription, communicated to Professor Koch in the forties