of the Cilician Gates as the main channel of communication with the east. Later in these pages[40] we shall find reason to believe that the western part of the great Royal Road, which led the Persian posts in crossing Asia Minor to make the wide détour by way of Pteria (even though the city was in ruins),[41] had been made and established by the Hittites in the thirteenth century B.C., when the stone walls of their capital crowned the hilltops of Boghaz-Keui. Possibly the earliest communication with the East was by way of the valley of the _Tochma Su_,[42] or by Marash; but the development of this southern branch of the main chariot-way cannot well be later than the tenth century B.C., when the second kingdom of the Hittites grew prominent with Tyana (or maybe Cæsarea) as its centre. [Illustration: PLATE X INJESU: VIEW OF THE MOSQUE AND TOWN] In passing now to a closer examination of the geography of those portions of the tableland with which we shall be most concerned in later chapters, we cannot begin more appropriately than by a description of the Halys River itself, as one of the definite landmarks of the interior, and as including in its circuit some of the most instructive Hittite works. This splendid river, known in the Turkish language as the Kizil Irmak, has a total length of five hundred miles, without counting its minor windings. Its sources must be sought in the map beyond Sivas, far up the northern slope of the lower Armenian hills,[43] where at one point but a few miles divide it from several tributaries of the Euphrates. For nearly two hundred miles it holds on in a south-westerly direction through hilly country, fed by numerous short streams on either hand, which scour for themselves deep channels in their swift descent. Its waters are deeply stained red-brown in colour by the rich sediment which it carries. Its banks are rugged, and like most main rivers of western Asia it flows deep below the general level of the basin which it drains. The bridge opposite Cæsarea (Chok-Geuz) is only gained by a steep climb on either side. Between this and the other bridge some fifteen miles lower down, the river flows characteristically through a steep-sided valley, with only narrow strips of verdure along its banks. These strips are precious, and, though liable to be washed out by flood,[44] are cultivated with great care by individual peasants, who are rewarded with fruits and even flowers, as well as the vegetables which are their chief concern.[45] Sometimes these strips, which are never more than a few feet in width, give way entirely where the rocks protruding from the bank present an obstacle around which the deep waters swirl. Ever and again, however, the steep banks recede, leaving a green oasis wherein a village lies among its crops. Yamoola is such a place, where the right bank lies back as the lower bridge is approached. But for the most part the edges of the