tance is about 1,400 miles. The area is estimated at nearly 500,000 square miles. In the maritime districts, the climate is delightful; but on the interior table-lands the winters are cold and long, while the low plains and deep valleys have excessive summer heat. There is great diversity in the aspect of the surface. Bold ranges of mountains extend along the shores of the Black Sea and Mediterranean, clothed to their very summits with magnificent woods; elevated levels, treeless, but grassy, forming fine pasture lands, occupy the interior of Asia Minor, and are prominent also in Armenia and Kourdistan; a low flat country extends between the maritime highland region of Syria and the Euphrates, covered with herbaceous vegetation in winter, but converted into a perfect desert by the fierce heat of summer; and a confused assemblage of naked rocks incloses the hollow of the Dead Sea, in the south of Palestine, presenting a picture nowhere surpassed in its features of wild and stern desolation. The principal islands of Asiatic Turkey are Cyprus, the largest, in the east of the Mediterranean, mountainous and fertile, flourishing in ancient times, but reduced by mis government to a comparative desert; Rhodes, near the south west coast of Asia-Minor, the residence of the Knights of St. John from 1309 to 1525, famous for its colossus erected about 300 B.C., and thrown down by an earthquake about a century afterwards; Samos, Scio (Chio), Mytilene (Lesbos), and several others in the archipelago, among which is the small Isle of Patmos, the scene of the exile of the evangelist John, and of the Revelation forming the last book of Scripture. 312. Asia Minor, denominated simply Asia by the ancients, is now called Anatolia or Anadoli, a term signifying the "east," equivalent in its meaning to the French Levant. It forms a peninsula between the Black Sea on the north, the Archipelago on the west, and the Mediterranean on the south, closely approaching the shores of Europe at the channels of Constantinople and the Dardanelles, and terminating inland with a line drawn from the bay of Scanderoon northwards to Trebisond. The south coast, occupied by the immense mass of Taurus, presents a very bold front to the sea; the interior consists, for the most part, of a series of highland plains, intersected by Anti-Taurus, and many subordinate ranges; the north coast has a mountain slope, remarkable for its noble woods of ash, elm, plane, poplar, larch, beech, and oak, from which the Turkish navy is recruited. This forest region extends 120 miles in length from west to east, by 40 in breadth, and is locally known by the significant name of Agatch Degnis, the "Sea of Trees."―There are few rivers with any considerable volume of water, but almost all are historically celebrated. The Kizil-Irmak (Halys), or red river, once the boundary between the Lydian and Median empires, is the most important, flowing to the Black Sea, along with the Bartin (Parthenius) and Sakaria (Sangarius); the Menderel (Scamander), Bakir (Caicus), Sarabat (Hermus), and Meander, enter the Archipelago; the Ghiuk (Calycadnus), Tersus (Cydnus), Sihoon (Sarus), and Jihoon (Pyramus), discharge into the Mediterranean.-Salt water lakes are common on the high central plains, and beautiful fresh water expanses occur in the north-western districts.- Few countries display more of the capability of fertility, fruits of the finest kinds growing spontaneously, or receiving only the slightest and rudest culture; and it may be added, that few countries exhibit more of human neglect, an immense area of the richest soil lying wholly unimproved.-Of the native animals, the Angora goat is the most valuable, the hair of which is nearly as fine as silk, and made into camlets.-Though at an early period the seat of civilization, the whole interior of the peninsula has remained very little known to a comparatively recent date, and our knowledge of several tracts is still imperfect. It comprehends six eyalets or governments of the Ottoman empire. Governments. Anatolia ............... Adana ..................................... Marash.................. Siwas Chief Towns. Kutaiah, Smyrna, Brusa, Karahissar, Scutari, Adalia. Adana, Tersoos. Marash, Malatia. Siwas, Tokat, Amassiah, Samsoun. ANCIENT DIVISIONS. In the north-Pontus, Paphlagonia, Bithynia. In the south-Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia. In the centre-Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Galatia, Cappadocia. Kutaiah (Cotyæum), on a branch of the Sakaria, is the residence of the pasha of Anatolia, the highest authority of Asia Minor, having military jurisdiction over the whole country within the barrier of the Euphrates.-Population 50,000 Smyrna, called Ismir by the Turks, a sea-port at the east extremity of the gulf of the same name, is one of the largest and richest cities of the Levant, the rendezvous of merchants from almost all parts of the world. It was the seat of one of the Seven Churches addressed by the evangelist John, (Rev. i. 11). Population 130,000. Of the Christian cities, Pergamos, 48 miles N.; Thyatira, now Ak-Hissar, les N E.; and Philadelphia, now Allah-Shehr, 85 miles E., are still con siderable places. Sardis, 50 miles E., only survives in ruins and the miserable village of Sart; Laodicea, 120 miles s.E., has perished, but has Eski-hissar, a poor village, near its site; and Ephesus, 40 miles s. of Smyrna, has shared the same fate. The other principal towns are Brusa (Prusa), the ancient capital of Bithynia, and of the Ottoman empire before the taking of Adrianople, at the foot of Olympus; Karahissar, near the source of the Meander, the chief site of the production of opium; Scutari, on the Bosphorus, an Asiatic suburb of Constantinople, rather more than a mile from Seraglio Point on the opposite side of the strait, the station where the great caravan is annually formed for the purpose of taking the pilgrims of the capital to the birthplace and tomb of their prophet; Konieh (Iconium), formerly the residence of the sultans of the Seljukian dynasty, on a remarkably fertile plain, a place of considerable trade and manufactures; Tokat (Eudokia), on the Jekel-Irmak, or green river, the ancient Iris, the centre of extensive inland commerce; Kaissaria (Cæsarea), in the central part of Asia Minor, at the foot of its culminating point, Mount Argish; Siwas (Sebaste), on an extensive plain, near the source of the Kizil-Irmak; Trebisond (Trapesus), a principal port on the Black Sea, in the shape of a parallelogram (Tрaneous), from whence it derives its name; Tersoos (Tarsus), on the Cydnus, the birthplace of St. Paul, still a large town; Adana, on the Sihoon, beautifully situated in the vicinity; Adalia, a flourishing port on the Mediterranean, at the head of the gulf to which it gives its name; and Angora (Ancyra), on a branch of the Sakaria, formerly the capital of Galatia, now a populous place celebrated for its silky-haired goats. Nicæa, on the banks of the lake Ascanius, the seat of the ecclesiastical council which drew up the Nicene Creed, A.D. 325, is now represented by Isnik, a wretched hamlet. Nicomedia, made by Dioclesian the capital of the Roman Empire, now Ismid, is a small town on an inlet of the Sea of Marmora. Amasia, the chief city of Pontus, and the birthplace of Mithridates and Strabo, now Amassiah, is an unimportant place on the Jekel-Irmak. Alexander Troas, founded by Alexander the Great, and rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, the scene of Paul's vision of "a man of Macedonia," Acts xvi. 8, has its site marked by ruins and a poor village on the north-west coast. Halicarnassus, one of the most celebrated cities of the Greek colonists, the birth-place of Herodotus, now Budrun, is a small port and naval arsenal of the Turks, on the south-west coast. Patara, Acts xxi. 1, formerly a large city on the south coast, and the port of Xanthus, is entirely desolate. Antioch, in Pisidia, an inland province of which it was the capital, remarkable as the place where Paul publicly opened his mission to the Gentiles, Acts xiii. 14, and first encountered personal violence in the cause of the gospel, is now no more, and its site has only very recently been identified. Colosse, visited by Xerxes on his march to Greece, and the seat of a flourishing Christian church addressed in the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, has perished, but probably its ruins have given rise to the town of Khonas, near an upper branch of the Meander. Hierapolis, Coloss. iv. 13, (the Holy City), so called from its numerous temples, and celebrated as the Bath of Asia from its hot springs, now Pambouk Kalesi, is a collection of magnificent remains, with a few Turkoman cottages, near the site of Laodicea. Lystra and Derbe, "cities of Lycaonia," Acts xiv. 6, towards the centre of the peninsula, have long since perished, and their particular situation is unknown. Miletus, the birthplace of Thales, and one of the most powerful of the Greek colonies, the scene of Paul's affecting address to the Ephesian elders, Acts xx. 17, is represented by Palatia, a poor place near the mouth of the Meander. Cerasus, from whence Lucullus introduced the first cherries into Italy, now Keresoun, is a small port on the Black Sea. The Galatians, to whom Paul addressed a memorable epistle, were the descendants of a colony detached from the great Gaulish emigration under Brennus, B.C. 270, which crossed the Hellespont, and settled in the north of Phrygia and Cappadocia. From the mingling of the settlers with some Grecian colonies, the country obtained the name of Gallo-Græcia, or Galatia. The Celtic language was spoken there in the days of Jerome, six centuries after the emigration. The western part of Asia-Minor has been repeatedly shaken by earthquakes, and presents decisive traces of volcanic action, in numerous hot springs, and the remarkable "burnt region," Kaтakeкavμe, on the confines of Lydia and Phrygia, so styled by the Greeks from its memorials of fiery activity in past times. The salt lake Tuziah (Saltern in Turkish), near the centre of the peninsula, is one of the most ren.arkable of the class. The water is so extremely salt that no fish or other animals can live in it; birds avoid touching it, as their wings would become stiffened with a thick crust of salt; and anything thrown in is soon covered with that substance. The remains of a causeway, built across the lake by sultan Selim, are now almost concealed by an incrustation. The lake has a circuit of about ninety miles. The salt is a government monopoly, farmed by the pasha of Konieh, who disposes of it. The chief exports of the country are fruit, drugs, silk, wool, and copper. Copper and argentiferous lead ores occur profusely in the northern districts. 313. Syria, including Palestine, skirts the whole eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and extends from thence inland to an indefinite line towards the basin of the Euphrates. The country comprises a narrow tract of maritime lowland, bordered at a varying distance from the sea by southern extensions of the chain of Taurus, forming mountainous or hilly ranges, the vast plain known as the Syrian Desert, stretching along their eastern base. The bolder and most continuous part of the highland district occupies the south of Syria, where the two parallel chains of Lebanon, nearest the coast, and Anti-Lebanon, more inland, inclose between them the beautiful longitudinal valley called by the ancients Hollow Syria (Colo-Syria). Both ranges terminate their grand course in the north of Palestine, but are prolonged through its entire extent by lower ridges and rocky heights. The south extremity of Anti-Lebanon, formed by Jebel-esh-Sheik, Mount Hermon, which rises 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, is the highest point of the whole region. Of the renowned cedar forests which once clothed these mountains, and furnished materials for the Jewish temple, there are only a few remains, a group of venerable antiquity occurring on the range of Lebanon, at the height of 6,200 feet.-The principal rivers are the Aazi (Orontes), Nahr-el-Kasimiyeh (Leontes), Kison (" that ancient river, the river Kishon," Judges v.21) flowing into the Mediterranean, and the Jordan, which intersects Palestine from north to south, and forms the lakes of Merom and Tiberias, with the Dead Sea, terminating in the latter.-Palestine derived that name from the Philistæi, the ancient inhabitants of the coast, but it is commonly designated the Holy Land, as the promised inheritance of the seed of Abraham, and the scene of the birth, sufferings, and death of our Redeemer. The country is overspread with picturesque ridges, inclosing plains and valleys, susceptible of extensive produce in the hands of an industrious people, except in the south, where sterile rocks, frightful precipices, dreary glens, and sandy wastes are prominent. The olive, fig, citron, orange, pomegranate, and vine, are especially luxuriant in the lower grounds, while natural groves of sycamore, mulberry-trees, evergreen oaks, cypresses, and turpentines, clothe the uplands. Present appearances fully confirm the ancient description of the surface, as an "exceeding good land,” “a land of oil, olive, and honey,' a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates," when cultivation was carefully attended to, and irrigation provided for, while they sufficiently show that the neglect of industrial occupations is a more potent cause of desolation than the ravages of armies. Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the Jews, a remarkable monument of the vicissitudes of human affairs, in lat. 31° 48' N. long. 35° 14′ E., occupies a hilly site, nearly surrounded by ravines. It forms an irregular square, about two miles and a half in circumference, inclosed by embattled walls. The principal buildings are the mosque of Omar, on the site of the temple of Solomon, overlooking the deep valley of Jehoshaphat; and the church of the Holy Sepulchre, supposed to mark the greatest events of the world's history, the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of the Saviour. The stated population is estimated at 30,000. Except at the seasons when pilgrims throng the streets, the whole aspect of the place is melancholy in the extreme, and forcibly recalls the words of the prophet: "How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!" -Lam. i. 1. Aleppo, on a plain nearly equidistant from the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, was formerly one of the largest cities of the east, and though desolated by dreadful earthquakes in 1822 and 1830, it is still a large city, the commercial emporium of northern Syria, celebrated for its silk and cotton manufactures, and its productive gardens.-Population 70,000. Antakia (Antioch), on the Orontes, once the proud capital of Syria, built by Seleucus Nicator, and named in honour of his father Antiochus, the place where the Christian name originated, Acts xi. 26, is now only the shadow of its former self, a comparatively small, poor, and decaying town. Hamah (Hamath of Scripture), on the Orontes; and Homs (Emesa), famous for its temple of the sun, from whence the licentious Elagabalus was taken to the throne of the Roman empire, A.D. 218, are important places. Damascus, on an extensive, fertile, and well-watered plain at the |