Friday 19. [19 July 1907] Off by train to Eregli [(Cybistra Heraclea)] - a
lovely bright cool early morning. Very delightful going all round
Karadagh [Kara Dag]. We got to Eregli at noon. All the line of the
Karajad [Karaca Dag] opposite and Hassan D [Hasan Dagi] in the
distance. Very hot. I lunched in the train just before we arrived.
Found a yaili waiting for us and drove off to Ivriz. The indescribable
beauty of the valley came to me all afresh. We gathered nuts and
apples by the way, neither quite ripe. The road bad, we took 21/2
hours and had to have our things carried down to the Hittite rock.
Here we camped by the edge of the stream with the little canal behind
us. Deliciously cold. We put up Captain DW [Doughty Wylie]'s little
tent, I had some tea and went off with 2 men one of them Hajj Hassan,
to see the other sculpture. We went straigt up the hill to the W and
dropped into another deep narrow rocky valley. On the col there is a
sticking up rock with a Byz castle upon it. The walls on the W and N,
square buttresses with rooms inside them, a makhzan for water and
perhaps a few roughly built rooms inside it. On the opposite side of
the valley, high up, is a great natural arch, Kapujik. The valley they
call Ambarderesi or Hammamli Dere. We went up it a little way - the
whole walk was only half an hour - and came to 2 buildings. That on
the left (E) is called Oglanlar Seraya, on the W Kyzlarseraya. Both
are churches. On the W face of the rock, lower down and a little to the
S of the church is the Hittite sculpture. Very much worn - I doubt if it
was ever completely finished. Exactly the same as the other. The
King's figure best preserved. His right hand saluting as in the other.
The God's legs and pointed shoes, the peak of his tunic between the
legs and his bearded mitred head quite clear. I think there is no
inscription. One can also see the long staff like ends of the corn sheaf
and the right arm lifted across the body. The whole is about 10-20 ft
from the ground. The surface has been prepared, one can see the
arch like outline of the plaque on which it is cut. The W church is
merely a covering wall protecting a cave. It has a rounded bastion in
it which forms inside the apse; the cave runs back to a wall partly built,
partly of rock. The built part is the E point[?] of an oblong chamber
roofed gable with the S side cut out of the rock, the N built. N of this
chamber the cave continues at a higher level with some natural
niches in it. The E church has its apse cut out of the rock. The apse
itself contains several little niches and there is an apsed niche to the
N of it backed by a bit of red stone. Bricks in some of the apses.
Fresco in the main apse and to the S a sort of passage, but the W wall
has fallen, runs along the face of the rock into another sanctuary, rock
cut on the E and S sides, possibly walled to the W. A rounded wall
runs out W between it and the church. The whole has been built on
sustaining walls and vaults most of which have now fallen. In the N
wall is a narrow window high up, niched on the outside. Further along
the face of the rock, N, is a cave the entrance with a small square
heaved[?] door cut in the rock with a ...... rounded porch over it. We lit
a candle and went in about 50 yards. The entrance seems to have
been plastered inside. The whole is natural with great stalagmite and
stalactite columns in it. We went till we came to a drop about 25 ft
deep with apparently a deeper hole at the bottom. The sides were
smooth and slippery with ooze. We cd see the passage continuing
on the further side. They say it goes through to the farther side of the
hill but this must be pure invention for no one has been. They say you
can see its opening at the other side. At the entrance of the cave to
the N is a small rock cut basin in the cliff, possibly for holy water. The
walls of a small chamber further along to the NW. In the valley were
hollyhocks, delicious geraniums and a sort of thyme and the yellow
accacia. They say in spring the hills are full of flower. Returned by
the way we had come and saw a church on the further side of the
Hittite rock by the stream, further N. The masonry here as in the other
buildings is of small roughly squared wedge shaped stones and
rubble. Dined under the cherries and walnuts by the Hittite sculpture,
watched the moon come out and shine on the water, bathed in the ice
cold canal and so to bed. [Pressed flower attached to page].