. C H A P . LVII.
Fjki-hijfar — "Remains o f Stratonicea — Its hiflory — Mount
Taurus — Temples o f Hecate and Jupiter — Infcriptions ___
Introduction o f tobacco and cofee into Turkey — Anfwer to
41 query.
T H E merchants preparing to leave Mylafa, and telling us,
we (hould find ruins at Elki-hiflar, where they (hould flop next,
we agreed to accompany them to that place, diftant fix hours
eaftward. We eroded the plain, with a long train of mules
carrying their goods and fervants, and afeended a mountain of
veined marble, when the track became very deep and rough,
winding by vaft precipices. The dopes were covered with large
pines, many fcorched or fallen, and fome then on fire. The
conflagration, we have before mentioned, had extended far into
the country, fpreading wide, as driven on and diredled by the
wind. About mid-way we alighted to refrefh, near a clear
murmuring brook (haded by pines and plane-trees. In the vales
farther on, were (balks of Turkey wheat, with camels feeding-
and booths of the Turcomans. A (hepherd, whom we met in
a narrow pafs, was armed and followed by two dogs, and thefe
by his flock. We faw fome of the Turcomans, the women
with boots on, and one carrying a gun ; and their children leading
camels. After travelling an hour and an half, Mylafa bore
north-weft; and on our return, we had the plain in view in
about four hours.
E s k i - h i s s a r , once Stratonicea, is a fmall village; the
houfes fcattered among woody hills, environed by huge mountains
; one of which, toward the fouth-weft, has its fummit as
white as chalk. It is watered by a limpid and lively rill, with
cafcades. The fite is ftrewed with marble fragments. Some
(hafts
(hafts of columns are (landing, (ingle; and one with the capital
on it. By a cottage we found two, with a pilafter, fupporting
an entablature, but enveloped in thick vines and trees. In the
fide of a hill is a theatre, with the feats and ruins of the profee-
nium, among which are pedeftals of ftatues; one inferibed, and
recording a citizen of great merit and magnificence. Above it
is a marble heap; and the whole building is overgrown with
mofs, bufties, and trees. Without the village, on the oppofite
fide, are broken arches, with pieces of mafly wall, and farco-
phagi. One of thefe is very large, and double, or intended for
two bodies. Several 'altars with infcriptions remain, once placed
in the fepulchres. The inhabitants were very civil to us; and
the Greeks, fome of whom went about with us, as inquifitive
as ignorant.
S t r a t o n i c e a was a colony of Macedonians, and named
from Stratonice, the wife of Antiochus Soter. The Seleucida;
or kings had adorned it with fumptuous ftru&ures ; and it was
a free city under the Romans. Hadrian is faid to have re-edified
and named it Hadrianopolis; and the remnants of architecture
in general favoured of this emperor and of Antoninus,
whofe name occurred on a piece of architrave, much more
than of the purer sera of the Seleucida.
. T he mountains round about Stratonicea are branches of
Taurus, which beginning in Caria and Lycia, and becoming
exceedingly wide and lofty, extends eaftward from the coaft oppofite
Rhodes, to the extremities of India and Scythia, dividing
the continent of Alia into two parts. The fame mountain
fpreads in Caria to the river Masander. Befides the city above
mentioned a fmall town is on record, called Stratonicea by
Taurus.
t T he . Stratoniceans had two temples in their territory ; one
qf Hecate, at Lagina in .the way to Ephefus from Phyfcus,'
very famous, and vilited by multitudes of people at the yearly
B b congrefles;