acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

86 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
people of any, the only people of their race to erect
fine permanent buildings in a native style, have left
little of recorded history. So you go through Amasia
—and other cities—and see their buildings, more or
less intact, or come by accident upon beautiful doorways
and other fragments and tiles and carving, and
see them chiefly as so much curious excellence.
During the hot afternoon I went with Achmet to
the " Mirror Tomb," the finest rock-hewn monument
of the district. It stands in the gorge about two
miles below the town, and is cut in a face of rock
looking eastward across the river. Outwardly it is
an arch, nearly semicircular, thirty or forty feet in
span and more in height, sunk in the cliff to a depth
of ten feet. A flight of eight steps leads up to a
narrow platform from which the sides of the arch
rise. Twelve or fifteen feet above the platform is a
rectangular doorway to the tomb. The whole outward
surface within the arch is polished, and so, it
is said, is the interior of the tomb, and from these
polished surfaces comes the name.
One would suppose tliat around a monument like
this, and the similar Tombs of the Kings, overlooking
Amasia, traditions of some sort would gather.
But there are none. What you do hear are merely
echoes of European theories coupled with tales of
treasure. These monuments are known to have existed
in the time of Strabo ; but by whom hewn and
what sovereigns ever filled them, even the approximate
date of execution—all are matters of unfettered
conjecture. Too many floods of conquering people
have passed over the country for any authentic
traditions to remain. To the present population each
such monument, great or small, is simply "shey"—
a thing.
The front of the Mirror Tomb was shaded by
walnut-trees, making a grateful shelter as I sat on
the steps and looked across the river and gardens to
the opposite rocks. The only sound was the ticking
of a solitary water-wheel, except when herds of black