It consists of two great castles between the edge of Mount Bozdepeh and the shore of the Black sea, and is divided into three parts; the first is the lower castle, the second the middle castle, and the innermost or tower castle, it is extremely strong being protected by mount Bozdepeh. The ditch is very deep, and seventy paces broad, all cut in lime-stone; inside this castle is a mosque, barracks for the garrison, magazines and storehouses. On the north side a gate leads to the middle castle, which is the only open gate; a second secret gate (Oghrún Kapú) is always kept closed. The middle castle is an oblong square enclosed by walls. The gate on the east side which leads from the tower or innermost castle is called the New Friday’s gate, the second gate is also at the end of the same wall. The tanneries are outside of it, and it is therefore called the tanner’s gate. In front of it flows a rivulet which rises in the mountains of Bozdepeh and the Lezgían mountains on the east, and passes through the tanneries into the sea; it sometimes swells into a furious torrent. In the centre of the tanner’s market is a large bridge built of stone by Úzún Hassan the lord of the castle, it lies to the east of Erzerúm. The third gate of the middle castle is on the western wall and is called the prison gate, where the malefactors and debtors are confined. From this gate you pass over a stone bridge to the gate Za’anús. The fourth gate is on the northern side of the wall, and leads to the lower castle, or third division of the town, and is therefore called the lower castle gate. _Description of the Lower Castle._ The north wall abuts on the sea, the castle is of a square form, nineteen thousand paces in circumference. It has also four gates, viz.—the gate of Za’anús next the prison gate close to the walls, leading to a long bridge; the gate of Sútkháneh leading to the quarters of the Christians; the gate of Mevlúz which signifies in Greek (?) a small stone, from the abundance of pebbles that lie on the shore. In the language of the Lazes, Mevlúz is the name of spurs or piers which are raised to support ruined walls. The walls of the lower castle extend on both sides to the sea, so that the town is closed against hostile invasion, by a wall running along the seashore. The fourth gate is that of Múm Kháneh or the wax fabric, because all the candles, of which a great number are made at Trebisonde are manufactured outside of this gate. Three quarters of the town are inhabited by Moslims and Christians, but by no Jews. The houses rising one above the other are all faced with brick and look to the north or west. _Description of the Mosques._