Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c&c: during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 . impregnable bulwark on the other. The two extre-mities then were all that needed protection from the art of man ;and we find the remains of strong walls, in the wide and massyplaces of entrance still standing. Beyond that to the eastward,a very beautiful relic presents itself, of an ancient chapel andtomb. One side of the latter shows a finely wrought cross cutin stone, ajid embosomed in the most intricate fretwork, inter-mingled with mazy interlacings, bands, tendrils, and a variety 4i
Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c&c: during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 . impregnable bulwark on the other. The two extre-mities then were all that needed protection from the art of man ;and we find the remains of strong walls, in the wide and massyplaces of entrance still standing. Beyond that to the eastward,a very beautiful relic presents itself, of an ancient chapel andtomb. One side of the latter shows a finely wrought cross cutin stone, ajid embosomed in the most intricate fretwork, inter-mingled with mazy interlacings, bands, tendrils, and a variety 4i 2 612 TOMB OF THE VIRGIN. of climbing, interwoven leaves, the whole of which is enclosedby a Saracenic arch; exhibiting altogether a rich specimen ofthis style of Armenian architecture, bearing date, probably,about the middle of the eleventh or twelfth century. An oldpeasant, our guide, (who, on our chancing to meet him at thebridge, had offered to show us the ruins,) said, this was theburial-place of a female saint, whose name was no longer known,but tradition always called it the Tomb of the Armenia had been long trampled under foot by the Turks,when Shah Abbas wrested the wealth of Julfa, and the industryof its opulent inhabitants also, from the treasure-house of hisOttoman rival. It was about the year 1603 when this transac- CEMETERY. 613 tion took place, leaving the city utterly deseited. Since whichtime the whole has become a mass of vacant ruins; echoing thehooting of the birds of night alone, or now and then the start-ling voices of a few travellers like myself, who turn aside to readagain and again, in such mouldering monuments, the transitorynature of all human greatness. After this place had lain about a hundred years in an almostforgotten solitude, seven poor Armenian families wandered to-wards the spot, and peaceably established themselves amidst itsdesolated walls. Having abided there ever since, at least intheir descendants, they have increased to thirty
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