Five hours' journey from Bitlis brings us to the opening of the valley eastward, and as mountain ranges go sweeping around to the north and to the south, suddenly Lake Van bursts upon our astonished vision in all its beauty and grandeur. Fed by the snow upon the mountains, but with no visible outlet, Lake Van is about twice the size of Lake Geneva, as it lies in a hollow of these highlands five thousand feet above the tide. Its extreme length is ninety miles, its breadth where widest is thirty miles. This mountain lake is only five hundred feet lower than the highest sources of the Tigris. On the northwestern shore of the lake are the remarkable ruins of the very ancient Armenian city of Akhlat, on the North Mount Sipan, an extinct volcano with most imposing form and lofty summit, while on the southeastern shore is the Castle rock of Van, which, without exaggeration may be spoken of as one of the wonders of the world from its extraordinary formation, its rock-hewn chambers and its cuneiform inscriptions. Coming down to the lake on its western shore and skirting it northwards, the little valleys are found full of copious springs surrounded by willows and poplars and an abundance of most luxuriant grass. Orchards filled with walnut, plum and apricot trees delight the eyes, and the apricots also the palate, being of excellent flavor. The ruins of Akhlat may be said to consist of three parts, the gardens on the upper, the ruined city on the second level and the castle one half mile distant on the lake shore. In the steep sandstone cliffs which wall in the ruined city, are numerous caves and also many artificial chambers, some of which were inhabited as late as 1880 as many doubtless now are in all parts of the mountains by the destitute Armenians. The most of the ruins here are of a Saracenic style of architecture. The castle is a large rectangular fortress measuring six hundred yards from the sea to the crest of the hill and three hundred yards across, having two gates which stand opposite to one another in the middle of the eastern and the western wall. Two ancient mosques, some fruit trees and ten inhabited cottages are the inventory of its contents. We must cut short the trip up Mount Sipan which is fourteen thousand feet high, for the sail in a very cumbrous craft across the lake to the city of Van. It takes about four hours' sailing to reach the landing place which is about a mile from the city proper. Immediately from the shore rises a curious mass of rocks commanding a most beautiful view. The slopes of the sides are protected by a succession of irregular walls, whose long outline is diversified by towers and other fortifications, and a minaret.