I was anxious to visit Akhlat during the course of my first journey; but the lateness of the season compelled me to push on. The project so long deferred is at length realised. The conception of the place which was present in my mind, before we commenced to investigate the ruins, may be expressed in a few words. A number of beautiful mausolea, illustrating the best traditions of Mohammedan art in a manner by far surpassing the similar buildings we had seen elsewhere--a ruined city with mosques and minarets standing on the margin of the lake, and backed by the remains of a still older city, which perhaps dated from the period of the caliphs--such was the idea, so full of promise, which I had gathered from the oral accounts of travellers or formed from conversation in the country. Not much more is to be gleaned from books. [235] Writing now that we have completed our plan of the place, examined the monuments, and copied the inscriptions, I propose, in the first place, to submit a few general remarks, and then to resume the experiences of our several excursions, blending them into one. Akhlat is the name of a district, comprising a number of oases, on the northern shore of the extensive bay which is bounded on its southern side by the long promontory of Zigag. This district is divided for administrative purposes into five distinct quarters. The first is Erkizan, the seat of government for district and caza, where the Kaimakam resides and where we are encamped. The second is Iki Kube, or the two mausolea--so called from a pair of tombs which stand close together in the desert, some distance west of Erkizan. This district comprises the walled city on the shore, as well as the village of Kulaxis, situated in a ravine, a good walk in a northerly direction from the two tombs. The third quarter embraces the area of the older city, and is called indifferently Kharaba and Takht-i-Suleyman. The remaining two are outlying, Tunus, on the east of Erkizan, at an interval of about half-a-mile; and Kirklar, in the opposite direction, west of the quarter of Kharaba and the ravine in which the older city lies. The population of the entire district cannot much exceed 6000 souls, of whom the majority inhabit the quarter of Kharaba or the gardens of Erkizan. Of this number only 200 would appear to be Armenians, residing about the ravine of the older city.