File:Tomb of the Virgin (Armenia, Robert Ker Porter).jpg

English: pages 611-612 Chapter: Tomb of the Virgin. An ancient chapel and tomb. arrived at the village of Gurgur, our menzil, at half-past two o'clock; the distance computed eight farsangs ; measured, thirty-two miles. September 21st. — Started this morning at half-past seven, and in two hours reached the banks of the Aras, or Araxes. I found the stream very low, but extremely rapid; the latter striking feature being occasioned by the visible long descent of land over which it rolls to the eastward. After wandering like troubled ghosts for near an hour on its southern margin, we at last got ferried over in one of the lozenge-shaped boats I described in my former passage two years before. The bridge in the vicinity having for nearly two centuries been impassable, the government of Azerbijan established the present ferry at its own expence, for the accommodation of merchants and others. Having passed, I ordered my baggage to proceed, and went off the road myself across some barren hills, which form the bank of the river in a western direction for about four miles, and then suddenly terminate in a vast naked flat expanse, once constituting the fertile plain of Eski Julfa, (or Julpha,) marked out into fruitful fields, and blooming gardens. At this point the Aras makes a bend; and here the ruins of the bridge just mentioned, form a picturesque and melancholy object. Its remains appear a few hundred yards from the spot which once supported the great arch of the eastern gate of the city. The masonry of the bridge is of the first order, finely hewn, and the stones admirably joined. Only two of its immense arches have been required to stand immediately over the stream ; and their lofty and massy ITS FINE BRIDGE. Qh bulwarks yet defy the utmost fury of the current. Two others advance on the land, one on each side. The span of each arch may have embraced about ninety feet ; and from the firm and noble structure of the whole, I should be inclined to say, that had not the contests of man's ambition been engaged in its overthrow, " the indignant waters" of this proud stream, with all its mountain-torrents, might have poured through it for ages, without starting one stone of its mighty fabric. At the present comparatively dry season, the water flowed through its northern arch only ; so that this sometimes formidable river, is not now so wide here as at the ferry ; and at a mile lower down, they tell me it is fordable. The first ruin of the bridge is attributed to Shah Abbas, who ordered its destruction when he transferred the inhabitants of the city to the great suburb of Ispahan, which afterwards adopted the Armenian name. About fifty yards above the bridge, the river rushes through a narrow and rocky valley, or rather vast chasm in the side of the mountain. On its northern acclivity, remains of houses, churches, walls, and other mouldering masses of considerable extent, mingle with the rugged cliffs. The town anciently touched the verge of the river, which formed its defence on that side ; while the high mountains, over whose slope the buildings extended, seemed an impregnable bulwark on the other. The two extremities then were all that needed protection from the art of man ; and we find the remains of strong walls, in the wide and massy places of entrance still standing. Beyond that to the eastward, a very beautiful relic presents itself, of an ancient chapel and tomb. One side of the latter shows a finely wrought cross cut in stone, ajid embosomed in the most intricate fretwork, intermingled with mazy interlacings, bands, tendrils, and a variety of climbing, interwoven leaves, the whole of which is enclosed exhibiting altogether a rich specimen of this style of Armenian architecture, bearing date, probably, about the middle of the eleventh or twelfth century. An old peasant, our guide, (who, on our chancing to meet him at the bridge, had offered to show us the ruins,) said, this was the burial-place of a female saint, whose name was no longer known, but tradition always called it the Tomb of the Virgin.