Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-30
Tasker Bros.
GARDINER, MAINE


survey of it's neighborhood, most inn
portant for Psychologists and historic
ans of the near East.
We know no ancient name for that
central site--it seems to have been as
nameless in the later Greek and the
Roman times as now-and for want of
a better, Ramsay. who has explored
the district more thoroughly than any
one else, called it the Midas City.
This name was suggested to him by
the great tomb--if it be one-which is
the principal monument of the place
and of the district, and, in it's way, of
all Asia Minor. I saw it % years ago,
and still hold it without a rival of its
kind cliff nearly 100 feet high has
been artifically scarped from top to
bottom and cut back to smooth face.
an interlacing fret design being left
standing out in relief over the whole
vast expanse. At the foot is a small
false door; at the top the rock has
been shaped into a noble pediment,
like that of Greek temple, and in
scribed in large Greek-looking Phrygi-
an characters with words among which
stands out the name of Midas, son of
z Lavaitas. - q - III ii'aasss als4s
The holiness of the whole concep-
ton on that great scale, its faultless
execution, and the rich simplicity of
the decoration produce the most pow
erfnl impression. Standing before it.
but far enough away to take in the
general effect, one confesses it, is noe
to be surpassed And one can imagine
the feelings of Martin Leake when,
ut nd
valley after dark one night in 1900, all
unconscious, like everybody else in
Europe, that such thing existed, he
woke to see the tomb of Midas in the
first light of morning
"A tomb it should be on the analo-
gy of lesser monuments in the district
which have its facade, or something
like it, in miniature; but no burial
chamber of Midas has been detected
The lesser tombs often show reliefs of
human figures. or of lions, or both
sometimes of the Phrygian Cybele
guarded by her lions
After the Midas tomb, the most ia
nous are the Lion tombs at Ayazinn.
some distance to the south. One of
these, now fallen in huge fragments
has not only magnificent lions of yerv
Assryian appearance on the sides Qt
was made out of a projecting bastion
OF fecks} but a relief of two warriors
III crested helmets attacking a strange
Gorgon creature with their leveled
spears; the other has two rampant
hons guarding its door, which have
often been compared to the rampant
beasts over the gate of the citadel at
MYccnae. Some of the smaller tombs
In the district also are we'll worth no.
tee, especially one in the wooded glen
OF Bakshish, which stands free. fash
Toned like house
We wish to learn many things from
this exploration. Of what race were
these kings called Midas, who seemed
TO the Greeks of the west country 90
godlike, and left such legends of their
wealth? How much of the peninsula
ala they rule? Whence did they derive
the art with which their tombs were
made and the letters with which they
were inscribed? Were they the same
as those kings called Mita, who. ac-
cording to Assryian annals, marshaled
the people of the Muski against Sar
gon and Ashurbanipal? If they were.
they must have been lords of no mean
territory; for the Muski were undoub
teddy the dominant race in Cappado-
cia, too.
tro all such questions, and especial
~ TO that important one-whence did
the Phrygians get their alphabet2-
some sort of answer may be expected
from excavation at the Midas city. On
that nat top of the cliff -ringed acropo-
lis, an extraordinary fortress of inn
mense strength, there seemed. when I
saw II, to be not much earth; but one
never knows till one tries, and there
is certainly plenty round the foot OF
the cliffs, where, presumably, the bulk
OF the city lay. There are other walled
tortresses near by, and any number OF
tombs, and thickly- wooded labyrin-
thine valleys which 7lnay we'll conceal
any number more. know few dis
triets more likely to repay exploration
and none more likely to delight the
explorer and keep him in the best of
health
Galveston's present sea wall. finished
IN 1906. which extends for a distance