This castle is a pentagon of stone situate on a chalk cliff; it may be compared to the castle of Sín-hissár on the frontiers of Erzerúm. On the opposite side of the Euphrates is a height by which it is commanded, but the distance is too great to make it of consequence. It has three strong gates one behind the other; on the right and left of the first gate are two brass guns, well worthy to be seen, of such dimensions that a cobbler might very well work in them without complaining of the narrowness of the place. They are of the time of Sultán Súleimán; their length twenty-seven spans and their balls of three quintals weight. The greatest wonder is how they succeeded in bringing such large guns to so high a place. At the innermost or third gate is suspended the mace of a Pehliván, and a bow of Alí. The number of the houses great and small is six hundred, but they want gardens and water. Five magazines have been filled with rice and millet ever since the time of Sultán Selím I., which seem as though they had been laid up but to-day. There are eleven mosques; the Beg’s is a large mosque with a minareh of stone; though this castle is built on a rock, yet the houses are paved with flat stones. On the tower called the Martyrs towards the north are thirty-two large and small guns; from the gate of the Martyrs, a water-way cut in the rock leads down to the foot of it, by which they fetch the water at the time of a siege. There are three cisterns here near one another, the first is full of good water, the second smells of saltpetre and the third is very salt. Though this town is a town of Turkistán, situated on the territory of Erzerúm, yet its inhabitants are goodnatured, sound people. The linen for tents, the white salt and the cheese called Katik-peinirí, which is better and sweeter than that of Mytilene and of Koreisha at Damascus, are famous all over Asia. The quails, which in summer come in great numbers, the inhabitants preserve in vinegar for the winter. Near the magazines are the pilgrimage of Kend Effendí and at the head of the bridge, that of Melek Ghazí. As this town is not situated on the great road, caraváns do not pass here. The Euphrates on the east comes from the mountains of Rúmlí Sultán and flows round the rock towards the west to the Izúlí Kurds. From the Alps of a thousand lakes (Bíngol) comes the Murad river, which joins the Euphrates. Whoever travels from Malatia, Kharpút, Ekín, Pálava, or Diárbekr can only cross it in a boat. I viewed this town for three whole days, collected what was due by the Voivode to the Páshá, and received from him an hundred piastres as a present of arrival (Kúdúmie). I returned in five days to Kumákh and set out next day northward along the Euphrates to Shúrím, which has two hundred houses; ten hours further, to the station of Jebjeh-khání; then leaving the Euphrates to the right, to the village of Jemen, an Armenian village on the plain of Erzenján; from whence we arrived at Erzenján.