. -VILLAGli OF .VXO, .>^HOWING SUN-UKIIU) BRICKS .\NU l-llvl. adopted and whole settlements have been excavated underground. Here the motive seems more probably to have been the desire for security in a troubled land. When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand were fighting their adventurous way to the sea after the Battle of Cunaxa had stranded them masterless and friendless in the heart of hostile Asia, they encountered upon the borders of Armenia a people who lived in underground burrows. " The houses were underground structures with an aperture like the mouth of a well by which to enter, b
. -VILLAGli OF .VXO, .>^HOWING SUN-UKIIU) BRICKS .\NU l-llvl. adopted and whole settlements have been excavated underground. Here the motive seems more probably to have been the desire for security in a troubled land. When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand were fighting their adventurous way to the sea after the Battle of Cunaxa had stranded them masterless and friendless in the heart of hostile Asia, they encountered upon the borders of Armenia a people who lived in underground burrows. " The houses were underground structures with an aperture like the mouth of a well by which to enter, but they were broad and spacious below. The entrance for the beasts of burden was dug out, but the human occupants descended by a ladder. In these dwellings were to be found goats and sheep and cattle and cocks and hens with their various progeny. The flocks and herds were all reared under cover upon green December 401 Over a brazier a large felt rug is spread, and round it the members of the patriarchal household recline with their lower extremities beneath the rug. Thus through the worst of the winter man and beast hibernate together in an atmosphere which, if warm, must jiossess other less pleasant qualities. Beneath these villages, which are inhabited for the most part by a Christian Greek-speaking population, there lies a rabbit warren of subterranean dwellings, and in them the inhabitants may formerly have lived. Local tradition at Misti, a large village of 800 house- holds, which lies on the high road from Xigde to Kaisarieh. assigns a recent date to the emergence of its population from these burrows, and it is improbable ' Xenophon, Anabasis, iv. 5 (trans. Dakyns).
Size: 3181px × 1571px
Photo credit: © The Bookworm Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcontribu, booksponsoruniversityoftoronto, booksubjectscience
