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1 4 2 T R A V E L S i n ASIA MINOR,
1
W e came in an hour to the gap in Coriffus,'and left the plain
hehind ; our courfe winding fouth-eaftward, and the caftle of
Aiafaluck bearing iom north of eaft. We foon had the back
of CorilTus on our left hand, with the exterior front of the
city-wall, high in the air, on the ridge, which is fteep and in-
acceffible. On the mountain, between the gap and the fea, are
likewife traces of a wall. Before us was a pleafant valley, in
which is a Turkilh burying-ground, and a mean ruinous aquse-
du£t, with a village beyond it named Arvifia. The road approaches
the aqusduét, and then becomes rough and rugged,
leading over thé rock, in view of the fea, of the mouth of the
Cayfter, and of the extremity of the plain of Ephefus, into
which a track defcends, eroding a piece of wet low ground at
the end of the mountain. We met a peafant on an afs laden
with grapes, and purchafed fome of admirable flavour.
G oing on fouthward, we palled under a fragment of a wall,
which appears from the earthen pipes in it, to have conveyed
water acrofs the road from the mountain on our left, which had
a channel Hill in ufe, running a confiderable way along its fide.
Near this remnant, on our right, were veftiges of a fmall town,
Pygela or Phygela, upon a hill. There once was a temple of
Diana Munychia, founded, as they related^ by Agamemnon,
He was faid to have touched at this place, in his voyage homeward,
and to have left behind fome e f his men, who were disabled
by rowing. The wine of Phygela is commended by
Diofcorides ; and its territory was now green with vines. We
had remarked, that about Smyrna the leaves were decayed, or
ftripped by the camels and herds of goats, which are admitted
to browze after the vintage. We came foon after in fight of
the fea and of Scala Nova.
In the Ephefian decree, inserted in a preceding chapter, the
city is filled, The Nude of her own Goddefs. The local ftory
was, that Latona had been delivered of her in Ortygia, a beautiful
T R A V E L S i n ASIA MINOR. j4J
tiful grove o f trees of various kinds, chiefly cyprefles, near
Ephefus 5 on the coaft, a little up from the fea. This place
was filled with fhrines and images. A panegyris or general
alfembly was held there yearly ; and fplendid entertainments
were provided, and myftic facrifices folemnized. The Cen-
chrius, probably- a crooked river, ran through it ; and above it
was the mountain Solmiflus, on which, it was fabled, the Curetés
flood and rattled on their Ihields, to divert the attention
of Juno.
As the fite of Ortygia is marked by a mountain and a river,
we expended to difeover it without much difficulty ; and with
that view preferred, in our fécond journey from Ephefus, the
lower way to Scala Nova, going from the Gymnafium, where
we had pitched our tent, to the extremity of the plain, and then
along by the fea. We came in fight of the town fooner than
before, and turned into the road near Phygela, a little beyond
the broken wall, without meeting with any thing remarkable.
T h e improved face ef a country is periffiable like human
beauty. Nçt only the birth-place of Diana and its fandity are
forgotten, but the grove and buildings, which adorned it, appear
no more: and, perhaps, as I have fince fufpeéted, the land
has encroached on the fea, and the valley, in which Arvifia is, was
once Ortygia. The houfes of Damianus, in the fuburbs of the
city, with the pleafant plantations on his eftate, and the artificial
iflands and portlets, which he made by the fea-fide, are all now
equally invifible,
Sc a l a Nova is fituated in a bay, on the Hope of a hill, the
houfes riling one above another, intermixed with minarees and
tall llender cypreffes. A ftreet, through which we rode, was
hung with goat-lkins expofed to dry, dyed of a moft lively red!
At one of the fountains is a farcophagus, ufed as a.ciftern. The
port was filled with fmall-craft. Before it is an old fortrefs on
a rock or iilet frequented by gulls and fea-mews. By the
water