Sat 18 May. [18 May 1907] Off at 6 to Ma'lech on the extreme top of
the K.D. [Kara Dag] We passed by the spring from which we get our
water, a very small trickle a good half hour up the hill. The people of
M.S. say they wd give a hundred pounds for the water to be brought
into the village - they are dying of the bad water, and I don't wonder.
We rode up a little above the hill I rode to from Daileh, Jandar they
call it, then left the horses with Abdullah and went on to the top, an
hour's walk. Here I found a fine church, chapel and monastery with
cisterns and sent Hassan back for the lunch. It was a beautiful day,
the air and view delicious. The church was a cruciform of the hill top
type. It's main merit was that it was so well preserved that all its
roofing cd be seen. The arms barrel vaulted, a tambour over the
cross with a dome in it. No doubt the others were like this. The
chapel was connected with it by a passage. It was perfect except that
the dome had fallen in and I cannot believe that these side chapels
are baptisteries. They must have been memorial chapels of some
kind and the hill top cruciforms places of pilgrimage. Worked at these
till past 2. The monastery much ruined. Skulls and bones in a cave
near by. A very curious bit of rock covered with patterns below the
church. When I came home I drew it all out and it came out right.