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452 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
wide-skirted coat, with wig and sword, and the bridle
of his restive horse hooked upon his sketching arm,
Althouo:h nature has not made a harbour at
Alexandretta, she has gone a good way towards
providing one. For just at Alexandretta the coastline
coming down from the north sweeps sharply
towards the west for two or three miles, and encloses
a bay, sheltered from any direct swell from the
Mediterranean, but affected by the range of such
seas. All that is needed to make a fine port is to
construct a snug harbour within a gulf which is too
large to be a harbour itself.
To understand what the future importance of
Alexandretta may be it is necessary to look far
ahead, and suppose the country furnished with
railways and ports. Then it will be seen that owing
to the configuration of land and water great territories
of the Turkish Empire can have only two conceivable
outlets to the sea. One of these must be on the
Persian Gulf, the other on the Gulf of Alexandretta.
The Persian Gulf outlet will perhaps serve the greater
area, but even so there remain about 100,000 square
miles of country, much of it the richest in the
Turkish Empire, for which a port on the Gulf of
Alexandretta will be the outlet, and have no rival.
This area will begin west of the Taurus mountains
extend north of Kaisariyeh ; include the Cilician
plain ; and passing eastward through Kharput almost
to Lake Van, take in the Diarbekr region and part of
Mesopotamia, and extend south of Aleppo. And it
should be borne in mind that for reaching European
ports the Gulf of Alexandretta gives a voyage shorter
than from the Persian Gulf by nearly 4000 miles, and
also saves the canal dues.
For all this great region, rich in minerals, richer
still in the possibilities of grain of all kinds, of cotton
and sugar and fruit, the port most centrally placed
can be only on the Gulf of Alexandretta. In the
past there has been debate where this port should
be. Some considered Ayas, on the western side of