Fri 21. [21 April 1905] Up at 5 and off at 6 to measure churches with
Khalil. All the plain was covered in mist but the mountain top and fort
were in sun and the Taurus [Toros Daglari] wonderful. The grass
dripping. Measured and photographed the Armenian church. I doubt
if I shall get the fresco. Then the half way church on which I found a
date. Then the one in the middle of the town. They appear to be all of
the Bin Birk. type which is curious. The 2 big ones must have been
very fine. Photographed lavishly. So in at 11 when it had become
very hot, lunched slept and wrote. At 3.30 I rode off with Khalil to the
east of the rock. On the way we met my merchant friends who were
going in our direction, so we rode together. At the E foot of the rock I
met a shepherd boy and he took me up the only path that leads to the
top. We got in to the castle through a little hole in the wall. The view
splendid - the great drop below, the plain all round and the ring of
Taurus beyond, deep in snow. Gulgul as usual most beautiful of all.
The vultures were sitting in a row on the castle top - in one small deep
window embrazure we found a nest with 2 brown eggs and a horrid
smell in it. There is a small chapel in the centre of the castle and a
bath and in one chamber what looks very like a mosque, with the
mehrab apse to the S. A long passage leads down to the Armenian
tower, there is a rough carving in the entrance. One bit of marble
rosette work on the chapel door - ?Greek. The pink hollyhocks were
growing all down the steep E precipice and today I saw the first fat red
pomegranate bud. Moreover it was blazing hot today. Back at 6 - a
bath and dinner.