Not far from the Deliktash, on the side of a mountain in Lycia, is the
Perpetual Fire described some forty years since by Captain Beaufort.
It was found by Lieutenant Spratt and Professor Forbes, thirty years
later, as brilliant as ever, and somewhat increased; for besides the
large flame in the corner of the ruins described by Beaufort, there
were small jets issuing from crevices in the side of the crater-like
cavity five or six feet deep. At the bottom was a shallow pool of
sulphureous and turbid water, regarded by the Turks as a sovereign
remedy for all skin complaints. The soot deposited from the flames was
held to be efficacious for sore eyelids, and valued as a dye for the
eyebrows. This phenomenon is described by Pliny as the flame of the
Lycian Chimera.