Sun 30. [30 June 1907] F [Fattuh] woke me this morning with the
remark that the plain was more beautiful than the hills and really I'm
not sure it isn't. It stretched in the low light up to the barren sides of
Boz Dagh [Boz Dag] which were touched into light and shade by the
low sun, and then it stretched on to Konia [Konya (Iconium)]. We were
off at 6.15. In an hour and a half we reached a low ridge on the other
side of which lies the small village of Karabunar [Karapinar
(Sultaniye)] yaila. At the end of this ridge to the left is a small
jagged[?] mt very barren which Haidar called Surnuf D. On the right
was a line of low hills which appeared to be partly salt and partly
sand. At the extreme end of this is Karabunar - we cd see the
minarets of its mosque long before we reached it. I got there in
another hour and a quarter - according to the pace I judge it just over
13 miles from Otamish [Hotamis (Kayacik)]. A very fine road leads
through the town from nowhere - it goes to Eregli [(Cybistra
Heraclea)]. Karabunar is distinctly zift. The first thing we saw were
small hard apricots and sour cherries which we bought and eat.
There is a fountain with 3 sarcoph for the water to run through, one with
a very rudely carved lion on it. The big mosque was built by Sultan
Selim who built too in Konia and in Karaman [(Laranda)]. It has rather
a pretty doorway with a good door adorned with fine metal work.
Inside a marble mihrab, minbar and some very nice old kilims. A
huge carpet was rolled up in one corner. It covers the whole mosque
and is said to be Persian presented by Sultan Selim. I climbed the hill
to the S of the town. There are two old mills on it. I picked up some
Byz pottery. The Kaimakam came to call. Great difficulty and many
councils about transport. Finally we decided on camels to Salur - not
Salyr as K [Kiepert] has it - which wd be I was told entirely deserted.
The camels did not turn up till a quarter to 2. F got them off at 2.15 and
we left half an hour after. The S. most point is not Sagh K but Seg
(Sey) Kalesi, said the Kaimakam and the other with him who knew the
hills. He didn't know what it meant - it was a name. There is nothing to
be got in Karapunar. The fruit, such as it is, comes from Eregli and so
do the uchinji cigarettes. They fail to bring charcoal. Very hot as we
set out. All the way yesterday and today the ground was whitish with
salt. The barren low hills round Karapunar are all whitish. I solved Sir
W [William Ramsay]'s difficulty about the volcanoes. There are two
big ones, one quite in the plain, the other Meke D, near the Karaja D
[Karaca Dag] between which and it are several small ones hidden
from Karadagh [Kara Dag] by Meke D. We rode 3/4 of an hour or so
along the Eregli road, then turned to the right. At the turn under a little
hill are the ruins marked by K. Nothing visible but heaps of stones.
We went on along the Salur road till I had the good idea to ride up to
the hills and look for a yaila in the first valley which was where I
wanted to be. We found the Salur yaila, Ikikoyu, lying on the bare
hillside and rode straight up to it. A most unpromising little hole of a
place, the houses apparently built partly of old stones. But there was
a beautiful cheshme by which we camped. The camels came in at
5.45. They didn't go badly. All the hillside covered with shih and the
milk tastes of it as it did at Otamish. I have seen in the plain besides 2
kinds of dianthus, a pale pink and a ragged white, something that
looks very like nigella[?], flame red and orange poppies, the little
insignificant whitish thing that makes a fine great seed, a pink clumpy
thing I don't know, yellow and pink thistles and the spindly aromatic
thing, besides a low bushy sort of plant with green flowers. Some
others. Saw this morning enormous green beetles with black stripes
as big as a mouse. Directly we got onto the hillside the mullin and the
blue burrage began. The scanty crops are nearly ripe. A great wind
and thunderstorm just after we had got into camp. Showery later.