The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and SpainTaylor, Bayard
History
The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain
Taylor, Bayard
Middle East -- Description and travel; Spain -- Description and travel
From the circuit of the walls, on every side, there are grand views over
the plain, the city, and the gorges of the mountains behind. The valley of
the Pursek, freshened by the last night's shower, spread out a sheet of
vivid green, to the pine-covered mountains which bounded it on all sides.
Around the city it was adorned with groves and gardens, and, in the
direction of Brousa, white roads went winding away to other gardens and
villages in the distance. The mountains of Phrygia, through which we had
passed, were the loftiest in the circle that inclosed the valley. The city
at our feet presented a thick array of red-tiled roofs, out of which rose
here and there the taper shaft of a minaret, or the dome of a mosque or
bath. From the southern side of the citadel, we looked down into the gorge
which supplies Kiutahya with water--a wild, desert landscape of white
crags and shattered peaks of gray rock, hanging over a narrow winding bed
of the greenest foliage.
Instead of taking the direct road to Brousa, we decided to make a detour
of two days, in order to visit the ruins of the old Greek city of
OEzani, which are thirty-six miles south of Kiutahya. Leaving at
noon, we ascended the gorge behind the city, by delightfully embowered
paths, at first under the eaves of superb walnut-trees, and then through
wild thickets of willow, hazel, privet, and other shrubs, tangled
together with the odorous white honeysuckle. Near the city, the
mountain-sides were bare white masses of gypsum and other rock, in many
places with the purest chrome-yellow hue; but as we advanced they were
clothed to the summit with copsewood. The streams that foamed down these
perennial heights were led into buried channels, to come to light again in
sparkling fountains, pouring into ever-full stone basins. The day was cool
and cloudy, and the heavy shadows which hung on the great sides of the
mountain gateway, heightened, by contrast, the glory of the sunlit plain
seen through them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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