Note 8 — Chapter XVI · AKHLAT

The place is first known under the name of Khlath, and as an important Armenian town. Literature thus confirms the surmise which is readily suggested by the little chapel in the gorge at Madavantz. Indeed, one feels that this village of caves is perhaps the oldest of these ancient sites, like the crypt upon which in Europe has risen the edifice of some Gothic cathedral, but which once served as a Druids’ shrine. The shrine still remains; but the churches and monasteries have disappeared which, even as late as the end of the thirteenth century, were flourishing at Akhlat.8 But the city does not appear to have again come into Armenian possession after its conquest by the Arabs during the era of the caliphs. Its close vicinity to the Kurdish mountains and to the passage of Bitlis explains the long sequence of Mussulman rule.