The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1923-06-15
TURK CAPITALS
RICH IN HISTORY
Angora Stronghold on Frontiers
of Roman Empire.
WAS OCCUPIED BY CRUSADERS

| kct OulSiue IL, IOI only tueu Cdu yot
see the two Gibraltar-like rocks that
form the background to the present
day town. They lie end to end, sep
arated by steep ravine through
which rushes a narrow, muddy stream
The hill on the further side of this
river is bare, except for a crumbling
| pile Of stones which passes for the
ruins Of a memorial to the legend that
| Tamerlane stood there In 14O2 to re.
| view his army Of Mongols after II
| had overthrown Sultan Bayazid in the
plain below. But the rocky height
that looms above Angora town is
crowned with an unbroken wall of
medieval Notifications.
Its bastiOns are of red sandstone,
! and shaped to 4 sharp point, like the
bows Of ship. The unconscious van
dalism Of the Middle ages Is witnessed
in its structure, for among the huge
freestone blocks that form 1t are built
in all sorts Of relics of the dead and
gone Angoras of the past. Here Is q
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 q
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 castle of feudal type. Per-
haps Godefroy de Bouillon built it
when the Crusaders held Angora for
twenty years. 1t has an oddly for
eign look here in the heart of Asia
Minor Its crumbling battlements
would harmonic much better with
background Of green English meadow
land or Norman orchards.
But apart from this hill citadel An
CORA has no. characteristics that it
does not share with every other Of the
drab village towns Of Anatolia. Yet,
half hidden behind its 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 Roman temple Of
Augustus, just square decorated
archway 30 feet high, leading to a
chancel, In which flight of steps
goes down to 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
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 its eventful history
since those times.
Made by Crusader
Here is a Maltese cross hammered
)ut with the chisel. Did some idle
crusader, perhaps from far away Eng
and, fill in his afternoon by making
t? Close by an Industrious Turk has
clipped a long phrase in the difficult
Of his language, and oppo-
lite modern Greek, in an impulse Of
'ravado, has scratched his name with
he date 1914-1922.
Tombstones of old Roman projects
lie prone on the ground and close by
hem stand the turbaned headstones Of
he graves of Turkish janissaries who
lied here in the Sixteenth and Seven
zenith centuries.
The idea of rebuilding some such
IMPOSING city as the Romans set upon
his open and lofty plateau is strong =
l the minds of the new Turkish gov G
rnment. They plan it in the plain
Inside the present town and say that
s. avenues will be broader than the r
hamps Elysees. The scheme, in it's
resent form, reminds one rather OF
ne layout of the city of Eden, where
fartin Whitehall Of Angora is the vi
ailway station, for there the Premier H.
yes in what was meant for the sta T,
Onmaster's house, while the French !.
has similar building :.
n the platform and the American =
nissary to the Angora government ~
18th his wife occupies a railway coach =,
tied up inside as the most delight D
lily compact bungalow imaginable. g.