The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1923-05-04
TURK CAPITAL is
RICH IN HISTORY
Angora Stronghold on Frontiers
Of Roman Empire,
WAS OCCUPIED BY CRUSADERS

BNA% A~Fe~ - @AA~
Angora is picturesque directly you
get outside it, for only then can you
see the two Glbraltarlike rocks that
form the background TO the present
day town. They lie end to end sep
arated by a steep ravine through
which PUSHES narrow, muddy stream.
The hill Oh the further side Of this
river is bare, except for crumblng
pile of stones which passes for the
ruins Of Il memorial to the legend that
Tamerlane stood there in 1902 to re-
view his army OF MOngols after 1t
had overthrow Sultan BayaZld in the
plain below But the rocky height
that looms above Angora town is
crowned with an unbroken wall Of
medieval Notifications
It's bastiOns are of red sandstone,
and shaped to a sharp point, like the
bows of "A ship. The unconscious van
dalism of the Middle ages is witnessed
in its structure for among the huge
freestone blocks that form it are built
in all sorts of relics of the dead and
gone AngOras of the past. Here is
delicately fretted cornice from an old
Greek temple Close by the fragment
of some majestic Roman inscription,
clear cut as the day it was first carved,
recalls the time when Angora was d
stronghold of the frontiers Of the
Roman empire Gravestones and brOk-
en- bits of friezes, millstones and Rom
an titles have all gone to strengthen
the still unbroken wall.
Oddly Foreign Look.
Lower down the hill stand the gray
ruins of a castle of feudal type. Per-
haps Godefroy de BouilOn built it
when the Crusaders held Angora for
twenty years. 1t has an oddly for
eign look here in the heart of Asia
Minor It's crumbling battements
would harmonize much better with a
background of green English meadow
land or Norman orchards.
But apart from this hill citadel Ar-
CORA has no characteristics that it
does not share with every other Of the
drab village towns OF AnatOlia. Yet,
half hidden behind it's largest mosque
is a splendid relic of what must have
been an Angora out of all comparison,
more beautiful and stately. 1t is the
ruined fragment Of a Roman temple of
Augustus, just a square decorated
archWay 80 feet high, leading to
chancel, in which flight of steps
goes down to q vaulted dungeon be-
meath where the altar must have
stood, entered by a doorway only two
feet high. The walls of this monu-
ment to race that was not only con-
quering, but constructive, are of free
stone with several courses of sand
stone of a brilliant crimson. They
still bear broken patches of frieze of
Greek wave design, and in another
place, of a conventional pattern rep
resenting apparently an octopus.
Much of this old Roman masonry
that still stands so firmly is inscribed
, with half effaced histories of the cam
paigns of the "Divine Augustus"
carved, as the Latin script says, by
his own order But there are also
many marks of it's eventful history
since those times.
Made by Crusader?
Here is Il Maltese cross hammered
out with the chisel Did some idle
crusader, perhaps from far away Eng
land. fill in his afternoon by making
it? Close by an industrious Turk has
Clipped long phrase in the difficult
calgraphy of his language, and oppo-
site a modern Greek, in an impulse of
bravado, has scratched his name with
the date 1914-1922.
TombstoneS of old Roman projects
lie prone on the ground and close by
{ them stand the turbaned headstones Of
the graves of Turkish janissarieS who
died here in the Sixteenth and Seven
teenth centuries.
The idea of rebuilding some such
imposing city as the Romans set upon
this open and lofty plateau is strong
in the minds of the new Turkish gov
ernment They plan it in the plain
, outside the present town and say that
! it's avenues will be broader than the
champs Elysees. The scheme, in it's
present form, reminds one rather Of
the layout Of the city of Eden, where
| Martin Whitehall of Angora is the
railway station for there the Premier
lives in what was meant for the sta
tionmaster'S house, while the French
representative has similar building
on the platform and the American
emissary to the Angora government
/ with his wife occupies railway coach
fitted up inside rs the most delight
| fully compact bungalow imaginable.
81 cnIC PALS iM A Meet