ROUND NIMRUD BY LAKE NAZIK
July 25.--A sharp ride of an hour and a half brought us down from the
crater to the village of Tadvan. The descent is more continuous than
on the side of Akhlat; the outer slopes of the mountain are seared
with deep gullies. Crossing the orchards of the straggling settlement,
we pitched our tents on the west of the village, upon the margin of
a field of late-sown wheat. A line of well-grown willows, fringing
the bank of a tiny stream, promised shade during the later hours of
the day, when the sun should be at our backs. That welcome shade was
indeed commencing to subdue the brilliance of the young corn while
the canvas was being stretched. We looked out over the green field
across the waters to the smiling landscape of the opposite shore. The
curve of the little harbour of Tadvan was turned towards us, backed
by a lofty boss of rock. Quite a number of picturesque craft were
lying within it; but only one, so far as I know, was laden. She was
carrying wood and charcoal from the Bitlis district. The rest were
doing nothing, many of the men having families here. All this time
I had seen but a single sail upon the lake, besides that of Captain
Elliot's boat. But sea-gulls there are, to give life to the waters,
with their beautiful white wings.
Tadvan was in a state of commotion, or what passes as such, in a
country where all spirit has been gradually extinguished among the
population of Armenian race. Although this village is Armenian, they
did not hesitate to betray to the authorities four of their countrymen,
who had taken refuge in their midst. These individuals appear to
have been under the ban of the law, and, indeed, were alluded to as
brigands. One never hears talk of Kurdish brigands; though I have
never met a Kurd who was not more or less a brigand, nor an Armenian
who either justified or deserved the name. The notorious Ali Bey,
police officer at Bitlis, hurried to the scene. He surrounded the
hut which harboured the men; fire was opened upon them, which they
returned, and a zaptieh was shot. A villager, who tried to mediate,
was killed. Then Ali Bey collected straw, and set light to it, and
literally burnt them out. I was told that all four succumbed. All
this happened a day or two ago. I informed the Kaimakam that I should
like to kick the official if he would be so obliging as to come my
way. When one is kindly treated by the authorities, one endeavours
to avoid getting very angry, except before their face.
We spent several days in the neighbourhood, making excursions, and
mapping in these unmapped shores of Lake Van. The Kaimakam was obliged
to leave us and return to Akhlat; we were sorry to part, having become
mutually attached. The Armenian villages of this district are evidently
very old, and have probably existed from the dawn of history. One of
the most flourishing is Kizvag, which occupies a situation of ideal
quality as a home of Man. It is placed on the southern horn of a
beautiful little bay, sheltered on the north by a bold promontory,
from which rises a knife-like ridge. This ridge is composed of a
lava which has welled up along a latitudinal fissure. One rides
there over layers of lava and pumice, some of which show traces of
having been deposited in water. The corn was already golden in the
fields, very tall in the stalk and heavy in the ear. We had never
seen finer crops. Vines flourish along the base of the promontory;
but a vineyard is a rare occurrence in these scenes. The air was always
radiant and invigorating, in spite of the heat of the sun. Kizvag is a
considerable place; but the houses are the usual ant-hills. The dress
of the people is gay. The women wear the embroidered aprons which
are such a striking feature of their national dress; but the designs
were finer than any we had seen. I endeavoured to purchase a few;
but all the new ones were vastly inferior; it was only the old ones,
now torn and faded, that showed any taste. It is the same in Persia,
and Central Asia--everywhere in the East. It is a fact for which one
may discover explanations; but none appear altogether adequate.
The lower slopes on the opposite shore of the lake are well wooded,
and this pleasing landscape circles round towards Tadvan. The wood is
due to the character of the rock, a mica-schist, yielding a fertile
soil. But higher up on the face of the range the hard marbles come
to view, and, while their surface is well adapted to take the hues of
the sky, it is inimical to all vegetation. About a hundred feet above
the water, you perceive a well-marked terrace, denoting a former level
of the lake. I have already remarked that the level is again rising;
and the same occurrence, which was presented in so striking a manner
at Arjish (Ch. III. p. 30), is already threatening the village of
Kizvag. The hill of Tadvan, at the promontory, is not volcanic, being
composed of marble and mica-schist. It is less lofty and extensive
than that of Kizvag; the summit is crowned by the substructures of
a ruined fort. This fort was erect and proud at the commencement of
the sixteenth century. [253] Nothing remains at the present day but a
deep pit, which was perhaps a reservoir for water. The inhabitants of
Tadvan are in a deplorable condition, the women in rags, the children
mostly naked. It was pitiable to see the women stretching out their
arms towards us, imploring us to give them food. We distributed a
little money.
From Tadvan we directed our course towards the head of Mush plain
across the volcanic plateau west of Lake Van. [254] Our track conducted
us past a projecting outwork of the opposite range, well wooded and
consisting of mica-schist. The extremity towards Nimrud is faced with
lava. You mount gradually above the fertile surroundings of the lake
to arid and, therefore, sterile ground. A few patches of burnt grass,
some beautiful hollyhocks, with very large white flowers, are about
the only vegetation which it supports. On the right hand rises the
Kerkür Dagh, covered with flourishing brushwood, and, behind Kerkür,
the immense mass of the Nimrud crater. In the opposite direction the
barrier of the Kurdish mountains is less bold and imposing than at
other points. This is partly, no doubt, due to the flooding against
them of volcanic matter. The plateau attains its highest level at
about a third of the whole distance from the point where we gained
its surface to the head of Mush plain. The altitude by boiling-point
was 6320 feet, or 680 feet above Lake Van.
We were impressed by the fact that in the immediate neighbourhood
of the Kerkür the ground slopes towards that upstanding mass. And
the broad valley, which we knew must contain the beginnings of the
Bitlis Chai, was screened by a somewhat higher level of the field
of lava. It may be that this is due to the lavas having swept round
Kerkür, leaving a slight depression at its southern foot. Oswald
rode off to investigate the material of the Kerkür, and found it to
consist of a mass of trachyte. The slopes are covered almost to the
summit with talus, and it is evidently a very old volcanic boss.
The plateau descends to the plain by two lower terraces, the descent
being fairly gradual in each case. The Kerkür is also screened by a
bastion-shaped terrace of talus which sinks into the plain. I have
already described this stage of our journey (Ch. VII. p. 162); and
I shall only pause to give some account of our visit to the pool of
Norshen, which I had omitted to examine during my first journey.
About fifty yards west of the tomb of Karanlai Agha lies an
almost circular pool. It is slightly embanked for the purposes of
irrigation, and, in places, on its margin there are distinct vestiges
of masonry. It is thirty-five yards in diameter; and, in the centre,
did not appear to be much more than five feet deep. But our guide
from the village believed it to be deeper, adding that it had recently
drowned a bullock, which had ventured too far in. There is no trace of
this pool having arisen in a crater, although the material, through
which the spring wells up, is a tuff. The water is crystal-clear,
and is furnished in abundance, giving rise to a little river. It
is extremely pleasant to the taste, like water which has come from
the chalk. It is cold too; for at 7 P.M., while the temperature
of the air was 80° Fahrenheit, that of the water was only 51°. The
villagers believe that it is derived from the lake on Nimrud. It is
much more likely to be in connection with the springs of the chain
on the south. The tomb exactly recalled those of the same period at
Akhlat; indeed it is of the same date. The upper portion has fallen
into ruin. In the adjacent cemetery there are the same headstones
with the honeycomb friezes which we admired about the site in the
ravine at Akhlat. A stork was standing on the topmost pinnacle of the
crumbling edifice, of which the outline was clearly defined on the
western sky. The great plain was veiled in haze, due to the intense
heat. Beyond the headlands and little promontories, the sun--a red
orb--sank behind delicate beds of perfectly settled cloud.
The situation of the pool of Norshen is well adapted to serve as
a standard of the elevation of the head of Mush plain. Tested by
boiling-point, the level is 4630 feet, which represents a decline of
1000 feet from that of Lake Van. This difference in level is mainly
responsible for a distinct change of climate; the plain of Mush is
quite a furnace in July. Norshen itself, although high-seated above
the floor of the depression, must be one of the hottest places in the
plain. It is screened by the volcanic plateau and by the outworks of
the great range, under the wall of which it lies. The level ground at
its foot has been flooded with lava; and the pavement, thus formed,
glows in the sun. There are a few shady trees on the outskirts of
the village, but we were obliged to erect our tents in the open,
for want of a suitable place among those groves. In the morning the
heat became unbearable under canvas. The inhabitants are a surly,
unmannerly set of people, all of Kurdish extraction. The news of
the death of the Vali of Bitlis had already reached them; and they
were evidently quite out of hand. Our zaptiehs--an abominable lot,
sent from Bitlis by the deceased Governor--came near to exciting
a serious affray. It did not promise well for the success of an
excursion into the wildest districts, that those blackguard Kurds
at Bitlis had poisoned the Vali, and that our escort seemed as much
pleased by the removal of the least vestige of discipline as the
unruly people through whose country we were about to pass.
July 30.--Starting at eleven o'clock, we made our way across the
plain towards the lofty block of heights by which it is confined upon
the north. We could already see our track, showing white among the
brushwood towards the summit of that long barrier. Even at its upper
end, the plain of Mush is of considerable breadth, the distance,
measured direct, between Norshen and the foot of that parapet being
about eight miles. Two gently vaulted hills, standing close together,
are conspicuous features in the plain. We reached the base of the
largest and most easterly of the two in about three-quarters of an
hour. Oswald rode off at the canter to examine its composition, while
we continued our course. He found it to consist of a cindery lava,
the flows radiating outwards, especially towards north-east. It has
therefore been an independent centre of emission. The ground which we
had been crossing is not cultivated, from want of streams, and the
slabby lava was aflame with sun. Pushing our horses, we distanced
the hill and were approaching the opposite confines of the plain,
when I called a halt in the hamlet of Göl Bashi, the first that we had
seen. It takes its name from a delightful spring that wells up in the
village, with a temperature of only 55°. Inasmuch as the stream was
dry which passes Morkh and Norshen, this pool is perhaps entitled to
be regarded as the source of the Kara Su, owing to the permanence of
the water which it supplies. Another such source is the pool beside
the tomb.
A little river collects below Göl Bashi, fed by this and by other
springs. The plain is perfectly flat in that direction, and was green
with cultivation. The adjacent farms belong to a bey in Bitlis, who
has built a good stone house for his steward in the hamlet. Proceeding
on our course, and when near the foot of the wall before us, we rose
gradually over the surface of a flow of lava. The flow skirts the
base of the opposite parapet for some distance towards the west. At
the same time it radiates into the plain. It is strewn with blocks
and small fragments of jet-black obsidian, which have come from the
cliffs above. High up on the terrace, thus formed, is a grove of
lofty oak-trees, by the side of water running down from the face
of the cliff. A small Kurdish hamlet nestles beneath them, and an
ancient cemetery, buried in foliage. Cattle and a flock of sheep were
resting in the shade, the sheep panting, and the bullocks lolling
their tongues. Black goats, alert and elastic with life, browsed the
lower shoots of the oaks. The ascent of the wall begins at this hamlet
of Karnirash, and took us over half-an-hour to complete.
The face of the parapet was seen to be the side of a stream or
streams of rhyolitic lava with the usual obsidian. They are overlaid,
towards the summit, with a pavement of basaltic lava. These lavas
have probably proceeded from Nimrud; but at a time when the crater
was in its infancy, and when its walls had not yet reached their
ultimate height. For those walls towered high and abruptly above us,
nor did we think that these lavas could have welled over from that
lofty rim. How far west the emissions may extend it was impossible to
determine exactly; but the appearance of the block in that direction,
when we reached the summit, seemed to disclose, at no great interval,
the stratified rocks. The upper slopes of the barrier are abundantly
wooded, though only with dwarf oak. We were astonished at the great
size and beauty of the hollyhock petals, large as clematis on our
English garden walls. The hollyhock is the flower of the surroundings
of Nimrud, as the yellow mullein is the flower of Bingöl. It flourishes
on the plateau of tuff to which this pass leads over, blossoming white
and, much more rarely, a purple pink. The pass has an elevation of
6950 feet or of 2300 feet above the plain.
We soon lost the little wood as we proceeded over the plain of tuff
in a north-north-easterly direction. Nothing but the bare pavement,
and here and there a patch of burnt herbage; and only those large white
flowers to refresh the eye. On our right hand the vast crater, steeply
contoured down towards us; before us Bilejan, again exposed. But
the stifling atmosphere of the trough behind us had given place to
pleasant breezes, and we rode along gaily over the even ground. All
of a sudden I hear shouts in the direction in which we are going;
and, coming up, observe a group of men in fierce altercation by
the side of a small drove of cattle. They prove to be one of our
escort and another zaptieh, unknown to me; the rest are peasants,
on foot. Our man is threatening a peasant, bending over on his horse;
his comrade has blood on his face. The fellow pays not the slightest
heed to my peremptory orders; so I send for the zabet or officer of
the company, in whom, however, owing to his fussiness and manifest
cowardice, I have not the slightest confidence. The zabet, with his
extravagant verbiage, does nothing better than inflame the matter;
and the wretched wayfarer is on the point of being murdered when I
seize his assailant and pull him off. The would-be murderer then faces
round, and, as we are both on horseback, extricates himself and turns
on me. In an instant he levels his rifle at my chest, and brings it
to the cock. Happily for me, my companions all ride up at the same
moment, and force his arm up from behind. None of us can learn the
cause of the dispute. I take the man on with the greatest reluctance,
fearing he may do worse harm if allowed to rove.
For some short time we had been skirting the immediate outworks of
the Nimrud mass; a new feature was introduced when these turned
off to the east-north-east, and gave us space in the direction
we were pursuing. Before us lay a wide depression of the surface,
the levels about us tonguing into that lower ground. The heights
on the further side were of no great relative elevation, but they
screened a considerable portion of the pile of Bilejan, and they
completely concealed Lake Nazik. We could see, at this distance,
our track winding across them; they were evidently of volcanic
origin. Sipan now came in view; and those heights stretched across
the horizon towards the heights on the west of Sipan. The depression
did not appear to have much westerly extension; but it was continued,
mile after mile, towards the east. I can scarcely doubt that the
drainage which collects within it finds its way into Lake Van.
We forded a nice stream of crystal-clear water, flowing into the
plain, along the base of Nimrud. At this point we passed an extensive
cemetery. Perhaps there was a village in the immediate neighbourhood;
but we saw no habitations as we rode across the plain. The trough
of the shallow basin is followed by the course of a rivulet, which,
at this season, had run dry. According to a single reading of the
aneroid, it has an elevation of 6460 feet. The ground consists of a
decomposed lava; nor did we observe lacustrine deposits, though one
cannot doubt that this plain was once the bottom of a shallow lake.
It was six o'clock before we reached the opposite heights, and
commenced to mount the side of a ridge covered with a pavement
of lava. But from the summit of this low vaulting we overlooked a
second ridge, with a grassy valley of some breadth at our feet. Not a
glimpse as yet of the lake. After fording the stream in this hollow,
which was flowing towards the plain, we rode through the Armenian
village of Mezik, situated at the base of the second and principal
ridge. A short ascent brought us to the slope on the further side,
whence, at last, the long-hidden waters came to view. We had struck
the lake close to its south-western extremity, towards which we
lost no time in directing our course. At this upper end there is a
marsh and a considerable stretch of alluvial soil, which, however,
does not extend to the east of the beginnings of the lake. It was
a tedious ride over stony slopes to the floor of these meadows; but
still no village was in sight. Mistrusting our escort, but without a
guide, I hesitated for a moment whether to follow them up the valley
towards the west. But one of them was so positive he knew well where
the village lay, that I resolved to try him for a certain time. He
proved to be in the right; but the light was already failing when we
entered the Kurdish settlement of Nazik.
It is situated out of view of the lake, on the right bank of a pleasant
stream, which feeds the marsh along which we had passed. The ridge,
against which it lies, is the same that we had crossed, and the same
that we had seen from afar. It had first attracted our attention as
we descended into the great depression, having a bold conical peak,
a little west of the village. The people received us with marked
coolness; and no sooner had we commenced to erect our tents by the
side of the stream than they offered objections, and bade us remove
to some other place. They said that our tent would face that of
a great bey on the opposite margin of the water. I answered that
I should place ours in such a way as to respect decency; but that,
if it were a question of either party moving, it would better become
the bey than us, who were his guests. This speech had a good effect;
but supplies were not forthcoming, and, as usual, I summoned the
mukhtar (head of the village). After much delay they bring me a lean
greybeard, with sunken cheeks, beak nose, long yellow teeth and a
cavernous voice. He laughs grimly when I address him as mukhtar. It
is evident that these people hate the Turks.
July 31.--In the early morning our entire escort appear before
the tent, headed by the zabet, whom I admit. He complains that the
villagers refuse, for love or money, to supply food for themselves
and horses. At the same time the five or six privates approach, and
make use of threatening language towards me. Realising how the matter
stands, I endeavour to persuade the officer to get out of the place
as quickly as possible with his men. He urges that we shall then be
at the mercy of these Kurds; I retort that I prefer it so than to be
at his. He answers with some reason that to desert us might cost him
his post; but I reply that he may regard himself as already cashiered
should he dare to disobey my deliberate orders. A compromise is at
length arrived at, under which he undertakes to dismiss his men,
provided I will allow him to remain. He also begs that he may send
the man who attempted my life back to the headquarters at Bitlis. But
this last proposal I refuse to entertain. After much palaver, they
are all induced to take themselves off, with instructions to await
us on the shore of the lake. The villagers, seeing them gone, and
ashamed to abuse our confidence, at once adopt a much more friendly
tone. The Bey of Nazik, a young man, brings his little brother with
him, and converses with us in our tent. On the opposite bank, beyond
the willows, lies the encampment of the older bey, who does not appear
to belong to the village. His two large tents, of black goat-hair,
are open on this side. The coarse canvas, with several supports
and considerable span, descends within a few feet of the ground. At
the bottom, a screen of reeds at once provides shade and a pleasant
draught of air. Similar screens divide the interior into compartments;
in the centre sits the bey, an oldish man, who never smiles, by the
side of a cradled baby which rarely remits its cries. A young woman,
who may be his wife, or one among them, is engaged in swinging to and
fro a large vessel of earthenware, which they use for making cheese.
It was eleven o'clock before we again reached the corner of the
lake. There we took the boiling-point. We found that the elevation
was 6406 feet, or about the same as that of the depression which
we had crossed on the previous day. The water tasted like very flat
lake water. Proceeding along the southern shore for some distance,
we kept the ridge, over which we had ridden last evening, close up
on our right hand. It had grown considerably lower and was dying
away. It consists of a stream of lava from the little peak which has
already been mentioned. Further eastwards, the line of low heights is
continued by what appears to be an independent, latitudinal volcanic
ridge. The lake widens rapidly from the little bay at its westerly
extremity, and describes, so far as we could judge from a hasty
survey, a triangular figure of which the base is on the south, and
the apex in an inlet of the northern coast. Its greatest length is
from west to east. The opposite shore appeared to consist of a block
of heights in connection with those west of Sipan, and of streams
of lava, descending from Bilejan. The wide stretch of sand along
the shore may perhaps be regarded as an indication of a somewhat
higher normal level during recent times. From a boss of dark lava,
forming a promontory, we obtained a far-reaching view. We could see
but a single village on the lake; and that settlement clustered on
the extreme point of a little cape, just east of the one upon which
we stood. It was Jezirok, partly Kurd and partly Armenian, the only
village, as we afterwards learnt, which is placed immediately upon
these shores. About half-a-mile away, we overlooked an islet, white
with the droppings of waterfowl. Indeed it is a nursery for many
varieties of this description, and was alive with wings and sharp
cries. Pelicans abound on Lake Nazik, swimming, singly, like swans,
over the mirror of waters, or sweeping above our heads with rapid,
shooting flight, in movements perfectly combined. There must be fish
in plenty beneath that blue surface, which lends a touch of beauty
to the dreary, yellow landscape, and derives enhancement from the
distant snows of Sipan.
We now left the lake, and gained the further slope of the low ridge on
the south, whence the view extends over the broad depression at the
foot of Nimrud. Here we remained for some considerable time. While I
was engaged in mapping, Oswald made one of his beautiful drawings of
the wondrous landscape before our eyes. The northern buttresses of the
great crater towered up from the opposite margin of the level ground
at our feet. We could plainly see the volcanic dike leaving the rim
of the caldron, and bursting the northern wall of the little terminal
crater. Turning towards the east, the heights on that side of the
lake displayed a number of conical forms. But the outline appeared
unbroken, as it extended towards Sipan. Between it and the Nimrud
outliers we obtained a distant glimpse of the waters of Lake Van.
Our course was directed towards that vista, over the bare surface of
the plain, which widens considerably; it is completely covered over
with brown lava. It might be made a granary; yet it is now but little
cultivated; and rarely were we deflected by a patch of standing corn
from a course almost as straight as a bee-line. Lake Nazik was never in
sight, although its waters find an outlet into the great lake. [255] We
saw only a single village, at some distance on our left hand. Low hills
confine the plain upon the east, but a dip in the outline disclosed
a deep ravine. The cleft, which was now dry, would give issue to the
water collecting in the depression, which we now left behind.
Soon after crossing these heights, we entered the barren highlands on
the north of Akhlat. The lava, which is thickly covered with pumice
sand, shelves away towards Lake Van. A little river which we forded,
coming from the direction of Lake Nazik, must be the same that cascades
into the delta below the site of the old city, and is perhaps derived
from the lake. Its water had exactly the same flat taste. On our
right, in the direction of Nimrud, we observed a broken-down crater,
which has sent its principal flows to Lake Van. A little further
on we descended into the ravine of Akhlat, and crossed the stream
within the hollow; and not long after we were again in our shady
orchard, and in the society of the Kaimakam. The old imam was there,
squatting among some beanstalks, taking foretastes of paradise. His
mad son was not long in coming, nor his scold of a daughter-in-law;
while in the morning the pretty little girls made their appearance,
slipping gracefully on their errands through the bush. But our home
was no longer there; we felt as emigrants feel when their voyage is
already prepared. I handed over my rascal zaptieh to the Kaimakam, who
consigned him to the prison. The rest of the crew, with their zabet,
I dismissed. After resting a single day, we set out for Adeljivas,
along the shore of Lake Van. The ride was shorter than we expected,
for the position of Akhlat is wrongly placed upon the best existing
maps. [256]