Note 5 — Chapter XVI · AKHLAT

The character of the walls may be described as a single rampart, with hollow towers at intervals, some round, and others pentagonal. The rampart has a thickness of about six feet, and consists of a pile of stone, faced with hewn and jointed blocks after the manner of the old Armenian masonry. But the greater part of this facing has fallen away or been stripped off, displaying the raggedness of the pile within. We could find no evidence of breaches having been made in the enclosure; nor were there any visible traces of its having undergone a siege. The wall along the shore has long since disappeared;5 and the lake has encroached upon its rocky bank. About halfway down the more southerly wall is situated the inner walled enclosure of the palace or citadel. This inner fortress comprises an area which is roughly rectangular, and which is of no great extent. It is flanked along the three inner sides by a rampart and towers, but the city wall is at the same time the wall of the citadel along the fourth or outer side. The site is signalised by a slight projection of the fortification, and by the greater propinquity of the towers to each other. From the tower at the north-eastern angle of the citadel a cross wall is carried down to the sea. The upper portion of the principal enclosure, as well as the space within the citadel, is now completely bare. Nothing but the foundations of houses and buildings can be discovered within that area. The few modern houses are collected in the south-east corner, and have been built from the material of the old fortress. Their inhabitants resemble phantoms rather than human beings; but the orchards, which are confined to this lower part of the enclosure, enhance the picturesqueness of the old kala, sloping down the hillside to the blue water.