opposite side of the valley. They are composed of great blocks of granite piled one on the other without cement, and sometimes as much as six feet in thickness and in height, and the interior forms a narrow enclosure, in which are the remains of some rude edifices. Everything here shows the infancy of art, and recalls the Cyclopean constructions of Greece, or even the Gaulish camps of France and Switzerland.

On the eastern side of the Kastele, the only remains of the Greeks or Genoese, are the foundations of a little edifice outside the fort in the midst of some trees looking towards Alouchta. The Tauri are probably the builders of a second fortress much more considerable than the first, and occupying a part of the summit of the mountain. A wall, constructed without cement, here runs from north to south from one precipice to another, and encloses numerous traces of habitations, and fragments of pottery. The traveller, after passing the gorge, soon finds himself at the top of the descent leading to Alouchta, with the town placed on the opposite side of the valley, which here widens out again considerably, presenting its usual features of wildness and Asiatic luxuriance. Here ends the really fine scenery of the southern coast, which extends over a distance of about forty miles from Phoros to Alouchta.

i Dubois, vol. v. p. 455.

k

Dubois, vol. v. p. 446.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE EASTERN COAST AND SOUDAK.

Alouchta The Eastern and Western Coast - Oulou Ouzéne, the property of Mrs. Lang - Mdlle. Jacquemart―The Bay of Soudak -- Ruins of the triple fortress-The Kiz Koullé, or Girl's Tower — Ancient Soldaya Its history - Remains-Vandalism of the Russians - Ruined barracks - The Crimean Wine Company - The wines of the Crimea - Prices of land in the Crimea -Road to Theodosia - Tatar hospitality - Koktebel.

ALOUCHTA is beautifully placed on the sloping side of a gentle elevation, near the sea-shore, and the cultivation of the vine has made here rapid progress. Its situation, in a wide and fertile valley, at nearly the centre of the southern coast, must always have rendered it an important place, although the only mention of it in ancient times is with reference to the castle built here by Justinian, the remains of which are to be seen on a little hill near the sea-shore. The ancient town of Alouchta was built in front of the fort on the right bank of the river Oulou Ouzéne, but the place is now deserted and covered with the wild vine and tamarisk. Some remains may still be discovered of houses and of several Greek churches placed on the most elevated positions. The churches are nearly as large as those of Kherson; and in the principal one a semicircular apse shows that either a bishop or at least a priest of high rank presided over the clergy attached to it. Alouchta is the limit between the eastern and western coast, which are great rivals for public favour. There can, however, be no doubt that in remarkable scenery and romantic beauty the western coast has greatly the advantage. The igneous jets of ophitic granite do not come further east than Alouchta; and while the

Dubois, vol. v. p. 429.

granite domes of Kastele, Aioudagh, and Liméne form promontories and bays, and sublime variations of scenery, the eastern coast is a monotonous repetition of narrow ravines, covered with meagre vegetation, of the wich elm (the commonest tree in the Crimea), the turpentine-tree, and the oriental juniper, some specimens of which measure as much as a foot and a half in diameter.

A ride of eight miles along a sterile and desert shore of the eastern coast brings the traveller to the valley of another river, called Oulou Ouzéne, the property of Mrs. Lang, who has planted vineyards and orchards, and converted it into one of the most agreeable residences along the coast. Some miles further on is the bay of Soudak, and the residence of an eccentric French lady, Malle. Jacquemart, who, having originally gone to Russia as a governess, and then, by her brilliant conversation and wit having gained a great reputation in the highest circles, both in Petersburg and Vienna, suddenly renounced the world, and retired to solitude on the shores of the Crimea. Marshal Marmont, in his works, tells a romantic tale about a rejected and despairing lover, who in a paroxysm of fury attempted her life; but according to Mdlle. Jacquemart's own account the story differs wonderfully from the unpoetic truth, which was, that a Greek, whom she had never seen before, brutally attacked and nearly murdered her, as she was returning home one evening to her solitary dwelling.

The view of the bay of Soudak, on approaching it from the west, is very striking. Its shores present a charming rural prospect; and the valley which leads down to the water is entirely occupied with orchards and vineyards. Near the extremity of the bay, on the right, the rocks jut out boldly, and the fortifications of the old Genoese town crown the heights. Soudak, as will presently be more fully explained, was in ancient times a very im

b See H. de Hell, vol. ii. p. 484.

portant place, and its beautiful position attracted here the population of a town even in time of the ancient Greeks. The Russians, since they have possessed it, have done much injury to the ancient remains; but even the ruins of the fortress and citadel, which alone have been spared, possess great interest. The traveller threading his way among the vineyards may approach the pyramidal rock, on which is built the three stages of the vast and carefully-constructed fortress, which once protected the surrounding city of Soldaya, as Soudak was anciently called. The rock is inaccessible on the side of the sea, but may easily be approached from the interior of the valley, where it opens on a broad terrace, defended by an immense rampart, flanked by ten towers.

The entrance-gate is defended by an exterior work; and in front of it, where a German colony has lately been planted, there formerly stood the Genoese part of the town of Soldaya. Between the colony and the gate is a beautiful fountain, of ancient workmanship, the water of which formerly supplied the fortress; and above it is placed a bas-relief, which has been brought from the ruins, of St. George killing the Dragon, and the scutcheon of the Doge Adorno. Over the gate is an inscription, declaring it to have been built in the year 1385, when the noble and puissant lord, James Gorsevi, was the consul and castellan of Soldaya.

On entering the gate the traveller stands within the lower fortress, and finds the ground covered with ruins. Here are the immense brick cisterns which contained enough water to supply the garrison for several years; and the aqueducts of earthen tubes, which conducted the rain-water from the rocks above are still visible. Near them are the remains of some Genoese houses in the Gothic style, with dates and scutcheons; the only ones which escaped destruction when the Russians occupied the place. Here are also the most uninteresting remains of the Dubois, vol. v. p. 350-360.

с

huge Russian barracks, to construct which, the beautiful architectural erections of the Genoese were destroyed. These barracks were built by Prince Potemkin after the conquest of the Crimea, when he entertained an idea, which was afterwards abandoned, of making Soldaya the Russian capital of the peninsula.

Beyond the ruins of the barracks, in the north-east corner of the platform, where the rock overhangs the sea with a sheer precipice, is a curious edifice, which bears traces of many styles of architecture. It must have been originally built as a mosque, because it does not look east and west, like a Christian church, but north and south, with the altar, formerly the maharab of the mosque, turned in the direction of Mecca. It was probably raised by the Tatars, when, in a moment of fanaticism, they drove the Greek Christians from Soudak in the beginning of the fourteenth century, as the arrangement of the parts and the style of the ornaments are of an earlier date than the Turkish occupation. In 1323, on the demand of Pope John XXII., Soldaya was restored to the Greek Christians; and it was from them that the Genoese captured it in 1365, when the Greek churches were turned into Catholic ones. In 1575 Soudak was taken by the Ottomans, and all the churches were again turned into mosques; and thus they remained till, on the conquest of the Crimea by the Russians, the mosques were once more devoted to the Greek form of Christianity. Thus this church has undergone no less than five changes of religious destination, having first been built as a Tatar-Mongul mosque, then converted into a Greek Christian church, then changed to a Latin Catholic church, then once more a mosque, and being at the present day, for the second time, a Greek church."

d Maharab is a kind of pulpit, generally in stone-work, on which the "imam" or "mollah "stands in every mosque, and it is always turned in the direction of Mecca: thus in Africa it

would look towards the east, in India towards the west, and in the Crimea nearly due south.

e

See Dubois, vol. v. p. 355–358.