Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎24v] (51/154)

454
A JOURNEY IN THE VALLEY OF THE UPPER EUPHRATES.
in various parts of the town ; and on an eminence below the larger of the
two castles there stands a magnificent mosque, built, according to
an inscription on the north door, for Kai Kosru II. (c. 1240), which must
he one of the most splendid monuments of its style and period in
existence. As it has attracted very little notice from previous travellers,
it will he well briefly to describe it.
The mosque is oblong in shape, lying north and south, and measures
87 yards by 47 yards. It has three great stone portals, two on the west
side, and one on the north. The north door is very richly decorated,
and, except at the bottom, where it has been in part rebuilt, is in a good
state of preservation. The system on which it is designed is that of a
pointed arch within a rectangular frame. The sides of the frame are
supported by clusters of pillars, and on each side of the arch and above
it a line of very elaborate ornament, consisting of rose-medallions,
crescents and stars, and lotus-buds, is worked. These are in many cases
almost completely detached from the background. The south door of
the west side is similar in shape and design to the north door, the chief
ornament used being heavy and elaborately carved foliage. The third
door is more simple in style, and is ornamented almost entirely with the
honeycomb pattern. On each side of it, in panels cut in the projecting
buttresses, are representations of the two-headed eagle, the badge of the
Seljuk sultans ; and against the main wall, close to them, another strange
bird, which is probably meant for a hawk. The mosque inside has a
stone vaulted roof, ornamented at the keystones with bosses, on which
shells and flowers are carved. It was originally supported by sixteen
hexagonal piers, which have been roughly built up in recent times.
From one of the cupolas hangs a “ blue stone,” i.e. a ball of Persian
porcelain, to which magical properties are ascribed. The whole huildino-
is now, unfortunately, in a very bad state of repair, and a large portion
of it will probably within a short time fall into ruins.
Irom Divrik we made our way hack to Zimarra by a longer but
easier route, which skirts the base of the high mountain which we had
climbed in coming. We followed the Sivas road on leaving Divrik for
half an hour, and then took a path which goes off to the right and crosses
the river by a stone bridge with two arches. We then followed the
course of one of its tributaries, the Hornova Chai, until we reached the
rmenian Vllla g e °f Hornova, and soon after crossed the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins.
between that stream and another which flows into the river of Divrik.
Our path then led us down a small and gradually deepening gully to
the village of Karagehan, which is six and a half hours distant from
Dm’ik. Ivarageban is a village of sixty houses inhabited by a
singularly handsome race of people, who spoke Turkish and claimed to
be lurks. Here we spent the night, and the next day proceeded to
uuarra, which we reached m two and a half hours. From Zimarra we
took the direct route by Hassan Ova to Kemakh.