About the fourth hour crossing a small river we have the village of _Baricle_ on the left hand, and larger than that, the village of _Achmetléer_ on the right. Not far from hence the road divides into two paths for _Sardis_. The lower of these we chose, tho declining a little too much to the left hand, and so passing by a few cottages, which are called by the name of _Zericle_, we arrive in seven hours at _Sardis_, one of which is now likewise to be deducted for the stay, which our mules occasioned. Instead of that _Sardis_, which antiently was the seat of the kings of _Lydia_, afterwards in great renown, under the Persian, Grecian, and Roman Empires, and at last honoured with the title of a Metropolitan Christian church; we now find in the same place, at the foot of mount _Tmolus_, a small Turkish village by the name of _Sart_. We here had the liberty of a ruinous inconvenient _kane_, erected in this place for the service of _caraváns_ from Persia; but we much rather embraced the opportunity of pitching our tents under the covert of a few plane trees, which spread a cool and grateful shade upon the bank of _Pactólus_. This river is constantly mentioned as rising in _Tmolus_, and washing the Walls of _Sardis_, particularly it is said by _Herodotus_ to run thro the very market place of the ancient city[27]. Its chanel does not now appear to be considerable, yet it deserved our particular notice for the fame of its golden streams; a story celebrated not more by poets[28] than historians, the latter of whom have imagined this to be the treasure, whence _Croesus_ and his ancestors collected that mighty wealth.