Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/248

Troy. 225 from which the hamlet of Bunarbashi, head of fountains,"^ takes its name. They form a vast morass of running water, broken by patches of wood, walnut and willow trees of luxuriant foliage, with here and there cresses and canes, alive with the warble of birds of many kinds. Presently the plain dips, and all these rills gather themselves into one stream, which flows across the plain almost parallel to the Scamander, with which it formerly mingled its water close to the coast, until a Turkish bey bethought him of diverting its course through his property, and thence to the i^gean, into which it falls, a little to the southward of leni Kioi (Fig. 61). The slope of the height behind the village, though steep, may be climbed without much difficulty ; but the east and south- east, besides being precfpitous, are washed by the Mendere ere it enters a narrow gorge with perpendicular walls. Half-an-hour*s walk^-or rather climb — will take the traveller to the rim of these precipitous rocks, supporting a first natural esplanade ; but beyond a pair of tumuli it betrays no trace of the sojourn of man, though level enough and spacious enough to have carried houses. Proceeding further south, the ridge first rises, then sinks to rise again, and some two hundred paces higher up stretches out the second or upper platform, where the rocky mass appears to have been carefully levelled out, so as to supply erections with a firm footing. Among confused vestiges of habitations, a rampart has been traced on many points along the brink of the ravine, and is by far the most interesting relic to be seen here. It still preserves from two to four courses. According to Lechevalier's theory, the lower plateau having the twin tumuli would be the site of Troy, with the Scaean Gates a little above the springs ; whilst the upper esplanade would represent the citadel surrounded by the wall just referred to.- That Lechevalier was a poor observer is evident, for he never suspected the existence of the upper rampart, which would have ^ Schliemann counted thirty-two springs. The Turks call the site where they bubble forth kirk gheuSy that is to say, " forty eyes," and probably, adds the explorer, there are forty or more. 2 The architect Mauduit, to my knowledge, was the first who pointed out and made drawings of these ruins, which he published with a text and maps in 1840, under the title of Dicouvertes en Troade, VOL. I. Q