Kitabı oku: «Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)», sayfa 19
The castle is a large and barbarous edifice, with square towers. You ascend to it over heaps of stones, intermixed with scraps of marble. "An outwork," continues Dr. Chandler, "which secured the approach, once consisted of two lateral walls from the body of the fortress, with a gateway. This is supported on each side by a huge and awkward buttress, constructed chiefly with the seats of a theatre, or stadium, many marked with Greek letters. Several fragments of inscriptions are inserted in it, or lie near. Over the arch are four pieces of ancient sculpture. Two in the middle are in alto-relievo, of most exquisite workmanship, and parts of the same design; representing the death of Patroclus, and the bringing of his body to Achilles." A third is in basso-relievo. "The figures are, a man leading away a little boy, a corpse extended, two women lamenting, and soldiers bearing forth the armour and weapons of the deceased, to decorate his funeral pile." This referred to the story of Hector. The fourth is much injured, but sufficient remains to show boys and vine-branches. The gateway faces the sea. Within the castle were a few huts, an old mosque, and a great deal of rubbish. "If you move a stone, it is a chance but you find a scorpion under it."
The grand mosque is situated beneath the castle. The side next the foot of the hill is of stone; the rest of polished marble, veined. In front is a court, having a large fountain; there are, also, broken columns – remains of a portico. The fabric was raised with old materials; and the large granite columns which sustain the roof, as well as all the marbles, are remains of what were long supposed to constitute ancient Ephesus.
In regard to the aqueduct, the piers are square; not large, but many, with arches formed with brick. These are constructed with inscribed pedestals, on one of which is the name of Herodes Atticus, whose statue it once supported. These ruins abound in snakes. Chamelions and lizards, also, are frequently seen basking in the sun. "The marbles, yet untouched, would form a copious and curious harvest, if accessible. The downfall of some may be expected continually, from the tottering condition of the fabric; and time and earthquakes will supply the place of ladders; for which the traveller wishes in vain at a place, where, if a tall man, he may almost overlook the houses."
And yet these ruins, strictly speaking, are in Dr. Chandler's opinion not those of Ephesus: those lie nearer the sea; and are visible from the castle hill. The ruins of Aiasaluck are those of a town, built in great part, if not entirely, of Ephesian ruins; and it may be supposed, by the Mahometan potentate, Mantakhia, who conquered Ephesus and all Caria, in the year 1313.
The site of Ephesus is to be sought for in the way from Aiasaluck to a square tower of white marble, which stands on a ridge, projecting from the chain of Corissus, the southern boundary of the plain of the Cayster. For about half a mile from the village the route is over a flat, interspersed with thickets of tamarinds, agnus-castus, and other shrubs; it then arrives at a low round hill which extends to the north-east from the high range of Corissus. All the inhabitants of the once famous Ephesus, the chief of this part of Asia, as the mistress governing the rest, by the residence of the proconsul here, amount now not to above forty or fifty families of Turks, living in poor thatched cottages, without, says Wheler, one Christian among them. They lie in a knot together, on the south side of the castle. "Within the gate, on the castle wall," continues he, "we saw a marble, whereon is cut a face, representing the moon, with two snakes; one on one side of the head, and the other on the other; joining their heads in the middle of the crown, and their tails pointing outwards; with each of them a circle in such shape, they both represent a bow. This was to represent the deity Hecate triformis; the moon in the heavens, represented by the large round visage; Proserpine in Hell, represented by the snakes; and Diana upon earth by the bow."
All the principal part of the ruins are on the side of the hill, lately mentioned, and in a flat recess between the west side of it and the high mountains. On the slope of the hill which is called Pion, or Prion (sometimes Lepre Acte), is a large arch of white marble, built, like the aqueduct before mentioned, from ancient ruins. On another part of the hill are two arches and vestiges of a theatre. This was, doubtless, the theatre into which the people rushed, shouting, "Great is Diana!" when St. Paul, by his preaching, produced a tumult at Ephesus. In both wings of this theatre, the seats and the ruins of the proscenium of which are removed, are several architectural fragments; and over an arch, once one of the avenues, is an inscription, enjoining the reader: "If he did not think proper to approach the festive scene, at least to be pleased with the skill of the architect, who had saved a vast circle of the theatre; all-conquering time having yielded to the succour he had contrived."
Coming to a narrow valley, broken columns and pieces of marble are observed, with vestiges of an Odeum, or music-room; this is stripped of the seats, and is naked. Beyond this are the remains of a large edifice, greatly resembling the one with an arcade at Troas. The top of one of the niches is painted with waves and fishes; and amongst the fragments lying in the front are two trunks of statues, of great size, without heads and almost buried; the drapery of which is both the same, alike remarkable. This was the gymnasium. "We pitched our tents," says Dr. Chandler, "among the ruins of this huge building, when we arrived from Claros, and employed on it three days in taking a plan and view. We found the area green with corn, and the site in general overrun with fennel, in seed, the stalks strong and tall."
At the entrance from Aiasaluck is a street, and from the remains still existing, it must have been a noble one. The edifices must have been, also, ample ones, with colonnades. There are many bases and pedestals of columns; and the vaulted substructions of the fabrics are still entire.
Turning towards the sea, the traveller is greeted with the sight of a prostrate heap, once forming a temple. The cell, or nave, was constructed of large, coarse stones. This temple had four columns between the antæ. Their diameter is about four feet six inches; their length about thirty-two feet; but, including the base and capital, forty-six feet and about seven inches. Though the dimensions of these pillars was so great, the shafts are fluted. The most entire of them, however, are broken into two pieces. The ornaments were rich; but "of inferior taste, and the mouldings ill proportioned248." This temple is supposed to be the remains of that erected at Ephesus, by permission of Augustus, to the god Julius. Some, however, have imagined that it might have been that dedicated to Claudius Cæsar on his apotheosis.
About a mile from this are the remnants of a sumptuous edifice; among the bushes beneath which are altars of white marble. These stand upon an eminence; and from that is beheld a lovely prospect of the river Cayster, which there crosses the plain from near Gellesus, into a small but full stream, and with many luxuriant windings.
Mount Prion, according to Chandler, is among the curiosities of Ionia enumerated by Pausanias. It has served as an inexhaustible magazine of marble, and contributed largely to the magnificence of the city. "The Ephesians, it is related, when they first resolved to provide an edifice worthy of Diana, met to agree on importing materials. The quarries, then in use, were remote, and the expense, it was foreseen, would be prodigious. At this time a shepherd happened to be feeding his flock on mount Prion249, and two rams fighting, one of them missed his antagonist, and, striking the rock with his horn, broke off a crust of very white marble. He ran into the city with this specimen, which was received with excess of joy. He was highly honoured for this accidental discovery; the Ephesians changing his name from Pixodorus to Evangelus, the good messenger, and enjoining their chief magistrate, under a penalty, to visit the spot, and to sacrifice to him monthly." This custom continued to be observed, even so late as the time of Augustus Cæsar.
Not far from the gymnasium, are cavities with mouths, like ovens, forming burial-places, made to admit bodies, which were thrust in. This was supposed to have belonged to the oratory or church of St. John, rebuilt by Justinian. Near the city, also, are quarries in the bowels of the mountain, with numberless mazes, and vast, silent, dripping caverns. In many parts of this, Dr. Chandler informs us, are chippings of marble and marks of tools. He found chippings, also, which supplied marble for the city wall, and huge pieces lying among the bushes at the bottom.
The Ephesians, at the time in which the learned traveller to whom in this account we have so frequently referred, were a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and insensibility; "the representatives of an illustrious people, and exhibiting the wreck of their greatness; some, the substructions of the glorious edifices which they raised; some beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions; and some by the abrupt precipice, in the sepulchres, which received their ashes."
These ruins were visited by Sir John Hobhouse. "The desolate walls of the mosque of St. John, and the whole scene of Aiasaluck," says he, "cannot but suggest a train of melancholy reflections. The decay of these religions is thus presented, at one view, to the eye of the traveller! The marble spoils of the Grecian temple adorn the mouldering edifice, over which the tower of the Mussulman, the emblem of another triumphant worship, is itself seen to totter, and sink into the mouldering ruins." Not a single inhabitant, not even a shepherd's hut, was to be seen on the actual site of this once resplendent city! "Its streets are obscure and overgrown," says Chandler. "A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun at noon; and a noisy flight of crows from the quarries seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre, and of the stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered; and Christianity, which was there nursed by apostles, and fostered by general councils, until it increased in fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible."
Since this, the state of Christianity there has fallen still lower. In 1812, one Greek, who was a baker, living at Aiasaluck, and three or four fishermen, who lived in sheds near the river, were the only Christians to be found in the city of Ephesus250.
NO. XXXVI. – GERASA. (DJERASH.)
This city is placed among those of the Decapolis, in Matthew, vii. 28; and it is from a rock near it, from which the swine are described as having ran down into the Dead Sea. By some it is included in Cœlosyria; by others in Arabia.
The ruins of this city were discovered by the well known traveller, M. Seetzen (Conseiller d'Ambassade de S. M. l'Empereur de Russie). His letters were addressed to M. von Zach, Grand Marshal of the court of Saxe Gotha, and part of them appeared, at different times, in the Moniteur. Some members of the National Institute sent over these papers to Sir Joseph Banks, by whom they were forwarded to the Palestine Association.
One of the most interesting portions of this journal is that, which comprises the account of the ruins of Jerrash, situated in about the centre of the Holy Land, the dilapidated buildings of which had, till then, escaped the notice of its lovers of antiquity, and which, for beauty and importance, may be compared to those of Palmyra and Balbec.
"Jerrash," says our journalist, "is situated in an open and tolerably fertile plain, through which a river runs. Before entering the town, I found several sarcophagi, with very beautiful bas-reliefs, among which I remarked one, on the edge of the road, with a Greek inscription. The walls of the town are mouldered away, but one may yet trace their whole extent, which may have been three-quarters of a league, or a whole one. These walls were entirely built of hewn marble. The ground within it is of unequal heights, and falls towards the river. Not a single private house remains entire; but on the other hand, I observed several public buildings which were distinguished by a very beautiful style of architecture. I found two superb amphitheatres, solidly built of marble, with columns, niches, &c. the whole in good preservation. I found also some palaces, and three temples, one of which has a peristyle of twelve grand columns of the Corinthian order, eleven of which are still upright. In another of these temples, I saw a column on the ground, of most beautiful polished Egyptian granite. I also found a handsome gate of the city, well preserved, formed of three arcades, and ornamented with pilasters.
"The most beautiful thing I discovered was a long street, crossed by another, and ornamented on both sides with a row of marble columns of the Corinthian order, and one of whose extremities terminated in a semicircle, that was set round with sixty pillars, of the Ionic order. At the points where the two streets cross, in each of the four angles, a large pedestal of hewn stone is visible, on which probably statues were formerly set. A part of the pavement remains, formed of hewn stones.
"To speak generally, I counted about two hundred columns, which yet partly support their entablatures, but the number of those overthrown is infinitely more considerable: I saw indeed but half the extent of the town, and a person would probably still find in the other half, on the opposite side of the river, a quantity of remarkable curiosities.
"Jerrash can be no other than the ancient Geresa, one of the Decapolitan towns. It is difficult to conceive that so much ignorance of its real situation should exist, as would allow Monsieur Paulus, in his map, to have placed it to the north-east of the northern extremity of the Lake of Tiberias. I do not know whether any ancient geographer has made the same mistake. From a fragment of a Greek inscription, which I copied, I am led to conclude, that several of the buildings of this town were erected under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The Roman history may, perhaps, furnish some data in corroboration of this conjecture. It is, at all events, certain, that the edifices of this town are of the age of the most beautiful Roman architecture."
Gerasa has been since visited by other travellers, from whose report we learn, that the principal curiosities of antiquity are, a temple adorned in front with a double row of six columns in each row, of which nine are standing; and on each side of the temple there remains one column belonging to the single row of pillars, that surrounded the temple on every side except the front. Of these eleven columns are entire, and two are without capitals. They are of the Corinthian order; their capitals being beautifully ornamented with the acanthus leaf. The interior of this temple is choked with the ruins of the roof. The number of columns which originally adorned the temple and its area, was not less than from 200 to 250. "The whole edifice," says Burckhardt*, "seems to have been superior in taste and magnificence to every public building of the kind in Syria, – the temple of the Sun at Palmyra excepted."
To the west of this, at about two hundred yards distance, are the remains of a small temple, with three Corinthian pillars, still standing. Not far from this are two colonnades, of which thirty broken shafts are yet standing, and two entire columns, but without capitals; and opposite to these are five columns, with their capitals and entablatures. Originally there were about fifty.
At a short distance from these there are other columns, much larger; and still farther on seventeen Corinthian, all of which are united by their entablature. Some of these are twenty-one, some twenty-five, and others thirty feet high. Their entablatures are slightly ornamented with sculptured bas-reliefs.
In other parts of the ruins are other columns; and a large open space is enclosed by a magnificent semicircle of columns in a single row; fifty-seven columns are yet standing; originally, it is supposed, there were sixty. On entering the forum there are four, and then twenty-one, united by their entablatures. To the left, five, seven, and twenty, united in the same manner. They are of the Ionic order; thus differing from all the others.
At the end of a semicircle are several basins, which seem to have been reservoirs of water; and remains of an aqueduct are still visible. To the right and left are some other chambers. From this spot the ground rises; and on mounting a low but steep hill, Mr. Burckhardt found on its top a beautiful temple, commanding a view over the greater part of the town. Not far from this are the remains of a theatre. It fronted the town; so that the spectators, seated on the highest row of benches, enjoyed the prospect of all its buildings and quarters. At the back runs the town wall.
In another part of the town are found in every direction columns of considerable height, some still standing, others lying prostrate, some having inscriptions on their pedestals. In many parts, the streets are absolutely rendered impassable from fragments; indeed we have not space to describe all that is to be seen among these splendid remains. There are 190 columns still standing, and 100 half columns. In respect to private habitations, there are none in a state of preservation; but the whole of the area within the walls is covered with their ruins.
In one of the temples Mr. Irby noticed a curious singularity, viz. – a chamber under ground, below the principal hall of one of the temples, with a bath in the centre. "There are numerous inscriptions in all directions," says Mr. Irby, "chiefly of the time of Antoninus Pius; most of them much mutilated. On the whole, we hold Djerash to be a much finer mass of ruins than Palmyra. This city has three entrances of richly ornamented gateways; and the remains of the wall, with its occasional towers, are in wonderful preservation.
"Gerasa," says Mr. Robinson, "was nearly square, each side something less than a mile, the walls crossing the river in two places at right angles; the other two sides being parallel to each other on opposite sides of the hill. The greater part of the inclosed space is covered with the ruins of houses, forming a deep contrast with the elegant specimens of art, whichever way the eye is turned. From the triumphal arch on the south-west side to the wall inclosing the north-east, along both sides of the stream, the whole space is covered; also east and west of it, up the sides of the hill. There are several small eminences within the walls, from one of which, near the northern theatre, the view of columns seems interminable, and that of the rest of the ruins is beyond every thing attractive from this spot; – it is indeed a perfect gallery of art."
The smaller theatre, Mr. Robinson is inclined to believe, was used for purposes different from the other; the area below the seats being more extensive, and furnished with a suite of dark, arched chambers, opening into it. The latter was, probably, used to confine the wild beasts destined to combat in the arena; such exhibitions being in vogue at the time Gerasa may be supposed to have flourished251.
NO. XXXVII. – GRANADA
The city of Granada252 has twelve gates; and is about eight miles round, defended by high walls, flanked with a multitude of towers. Its situation is of a mixed kind; some parts of it being upon the mountain, and other parts in the plain. The mountainous part stands upon three small eminences; the one is called Albrezzin; which was inhabited by the Moors that were driven out of Baezza by the Christians. The second is called Alcazebe; and the third Alhambra. This last is separated from the other parts by a valley, through which the river Darro runs; and it is also fortified with strong walls, in such a manner as to command all the rest of the city. The greatest part of this fortified spot of ground is taken up with a most sumptuous palace of the Moorish kings. This palace is built with square stones of great dimensions; and is fortified with strong walls and prodigious large towers; and the whole is of such an extent as to be capable of holding a very numerous garrison. The outside has exactly the appearance of an immense romantic old castle; but it is exceedingly magnificent within.
But before we enter, we must take notice of a remarkable piece of sculpture over the great gate; there is the figure of a large key of a castle-gate, and at some distance above it, there is an arm reaching towards it; and the signification of this emblematical marble basso-relief is this: – that the castles will never be taken till the arm can reach the key.
Upon entering, not only the portico is of marble, but the apartments also are incrusted with marble, jasper, and porphyry, and the beams curiously carved, painted, and gilt; and the ceilings ornamented with pieces of foliage in stucco. The next place you come to is an oblong-square court, paved with marble, at each angle of which there is a fountain, and in the middle there is a very fine canal of running water. The baths and chambers, where they cooled themselves and reposed, are incrusted with alabaster and marble. There is an exceeding venerable tower, called La Toure Comazey; in which are noble saloons, and fine apartments; and all perfectly well supplied with water. In the time of the Moors, there was a kind of espalier, or cut hedge of myrtle, accompanied with a row of orange trees, which went round the canal.
From thence you pass into an exceeding fine square, which is called the Square of Lions, from a noble fountain, which is adorned with twelve lions cut in marble, pouring out a vast torrent of water at its mouth; and when the water is turned off, and ceases to run, if you whisper ever so low at the mouth of any one of them, you may hear what is said by applying your ear to the mouth of any one of the rest. Above the lions, there is another basin, and a grand jet-d'eau. The court is paved with marble, and has a portico quite round it, which is supported by one hundred and seventeen high columns of alabaster. In one of the saloons, if you whisper ever so low, it will be distinctly heard at the further end; and this they call the Chamber of Secrets. This sumptuous palace was built by Mahomed Mir, king of Granada, in 1278.
"There is no part of the edifice," says Washington Irving, "that gives us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence, than the Hall of Lions, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In the centre stands the fountain, famous in song and story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve lions, which support them, cast forth their crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, surrounded by high Arabian arcades of open filagree work, supported by slender pillars of white marble. The architecture, like that of all the other parts of the palace, is characterised by elegance rather than grandeur; bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fair tracery of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shock of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet and no less baneful pilfering of the tasteful traveller.
There is a Moorish tradition, that a king who built this mighty pile was skilled in the occult sciences, and furnished himself with gold and silver for the purpose by means of alchymy; certainly never was there an edifice accomplished in a superior style of barbaric magnificence; and the stranger who, even at the present day, wanders among its silent and deserted courts and ruined halls, gazes with astonishment at its gilded and fretted domes and luxurious decorations, still retaining their brilliancy and beauty in spite of the ravages of time.
The Alhamrā, usually, but erroneously, denominated the Alhambra, is a vast pile of building about two thousand three hundred English feet in length; and its breadth, which is the same throughout, is about six hundred feet. It was erected by Mūhammed Abū Abdillāh, surnamed Alghālib Billāh, who superintended the edifice himself, and, when it was completed, made it the royal residence.
Although the glory and prosperity of Granada may be said to have departed with its old inhabitants, yet, happily, it still retains, in pretty good preservation, what formed its chief ornament in the time of the Moors. This is the Alhambra, the royal alcazar, or fortress and palace, which was founded by Mūhammed Abū. Abdillāh Ben Nasz, the second sovereign of Granada, defrayed the expense of the works by a tribute imposed upon his conquered subjects. He superintended the building in person, and when it was completed, he made it a royal residence253. The immediate successors of this prince also took delight in embellishing and making additions to the fabric. Since the conquest of Granada by the Christians, the Alhambra has undergone some alterations. It was for a time occasionally inhabited by the kings of Spain. Charles the Fifth caused a magnificent palace to be commenced within the walls; but owing to his wars and frequent absences from Spain, or, as some accounts say, to repeated shocks of earthquakes, a splendid suite of apartments, in the Spanish style, is all that resulted from an alleged intention to eclipse the palace of the Moslem kings. Like the rest of the Alhambra, it is falling rapidly to decay through neglect. At present the walls are defaced, the paintings faded, the wood-work is decayed, and festoons of cobwebs are seen hanging from the ceiling. In the works of the Arabs, on the contrary, the walls remain unaltered, except by the injuries inflicted by the hand of man. The beams and wood-work of the ceiling present no signs of decay; and spiders, flies, and all other insects, shun their apartments at every season. The art of rendering timber and paints durable, and of making porcelain, mosaics, arabesques, and other ornaments, began and ended in western Europe with the Spanish Arabs.
The palace has had no royal residents since the beginning of the last century, when Philip the Fifth was there for a short time with his queen.
The Alhambra is generally spoken of as a palace, but it is to be understood, that, in the extensive sense, the name applies to a fortress, a sort of city in itself.
The palace, situated upon the northern brow of a steep hill, overlooks the city of Granada on one side, and on the other commands an extensive view over a most charming country. All the wonders of this palace lie within its walls. Externally, according to the account of Swinburne, it appears as a large mass of irregular buildings, all huddled together without any apparent intention of forming one habitation. The walls are entirely unornamented, of gravel and pebbles coarsely daubed over with plaster. We cannot trace the successive courts and apartments, through which the visiter passes as he penetrates to the interior, or attempt to enumerate their separate claims to notice.
The general arrangement of the buildings which compose the palace is exceedingly simple. The courts, for instance, which in our mansions are dull and uninteresting, are here so planned, as to seem a continuation of a series of apartments; and as the whole is on the same level throughout, the prospect through the building, in its perfect state, must have been like a scene of enchantment or a dream; halls and galleries, porticoes and columns, arches, mosaics, with plants and flowers of various hues, being seen in various extensive views, through the haze arising from the spray of the fountains. In every part of the palace its inmates had water in abundance, with a perfect command over it, making it high, low, visible, or invisible, at pleasure.
In every department two currents of air were continually in motion. Also, by means of tubes of baked earth placed in the walls, warmth was diffused from subterranean furnaces; not only through the whole range of the baths, but to all the contiguous upper apartments where warmth was required. The doors were large, but rather sparingly introduced; and, except on the side towards the precipice, where the prospect is very grand, the windows are so placed as to confine the view to the interior of the palace. The object of this is declared in an inscription in one of the apartments, which says – "My windows admit the light, but exclude the view of external objects, lest the beauties of Nature should divert attention from the beauties of my work."
In this mansion the elaborate arabesques and mosaics which cover the ceilings, walls, and floor, give a consequence and interest even to the smallest apartment. Instead of being papered and wainscoted, the walls are provided with the peculiar ornament which, from the Arabs, has been denominated "arabesque." The receding ornaments are illuminated in just gradation with leaf-gold, pink, light blue, and dusky purple: the first colour is the nearest, the last is the most distant, from the eye; but the general surface is white. The domes and arcades are also covered with ornamented casts, which are as light as wood, and as durable as marble.
Besides the inscriptions above alluded to, there are various others. In the king's bath, and in various other parts of the Alhambra, is, "There is no conqueror but God;" and "Glory to our Lord, Sultan Abū Abdallāh!"
