see.

PRESENT DESOLATION OF LAODICEA.

143

Be zealous, therefore, and repent."—(Rev., iii., 18, 19.) And because they heeded not," The doom of excommunication was pronounced by the Saviour; their separation from the pale of the Church, as something nauseous and loathsome, was threatened; and, after a lengthened course of vicissitudes and humiliation, they have been blotted from the map of nations and from the family of God. A prospect of mouldering sarcophagi, dilapidated theatres and circuses, and half-entombed ruins, meets the eye of the occasional visiter; and the wind, sighing over the hill of Laodicea, with the melancholy cry of the jackal, are the only sounds which break in upon the solitude."

144

ROMANTIC SITUATION OF DHERGEE.

CHAPTER XVIII.

SARDIS.

Dhergee. Its romantic Situation.-Valley of Soupetran.-Approach to the Plain of Sardis.-The City.-Disappointment.-Acropolis.-The Amphitheatre.-Ruins of the Church of St. John.-Of the Church of the Virgin. -Rude Lodgings.-Palace of Croesus.-Disappearance of Building Materials.-Pactolus.-Columns of the Temple of Cybele.-Sardian Cemetery. -Mounds.-Desolation of Sardis.

ANXIOUS to ascend Mount Tmolus, and pass through the elevated valley of Soupetran on our way to Sardis, we repaired to the large Greek town of Dhergee, about two hours from Odemes. It is romantically situated on both sides of a deep gorge which descends from Tmolus, and through which, as we passed it, a headlong torrent was rushing, carrying the rocks far into the plain, and scattering them amid the extensive olivegroves. Over the torrent extended several bridges, by which the two parts of the town communicated with each other. Under the wide-spreading trees that lined the banks were rude stages, beneath which the rushing floods resounded, delighting the groups of noisy smokers. Orientals always love the conjunction of shade and falling water. Amid these luxuries of nature the Turk is silent, but the Greek talks incessantly. From the upper end of the town, a difficult zigzag path, worn deep into the rock, leads directly up the face of the mountain.

In two hours from Dhergee we attained the summit, at the head of Soupetran, one of the most beautiful romantic mountain valleys I have ever seen. It is well watered, adorned with fine trees, covered with rich