Note 3 — Chapter XXI · OUR SOJOURN ON BINGÖL

Before pursuing a more intimate and detailed study, it may be well to fix in our mind some of the leading positions, and to assign to them convenient names. Our predecessors have given three such names to the principal eminences. The western summit is called by them Bingöl Kala (the Bingöl castle), that on the east Demir or Timur Kala (the iron castle or the castle of Timur), and the intermediate hump, which is joined to the meridional ridge, Kara Kala (the black castle). I took some pains to ascertain whether these names were known to the Kurds, for none of my escort had ever heard of them. The yaila from which we drew supplies was the most considerable in the district, and belonged to one Mahmud Bey. This Kurdish chieftain was absent from his encampment, scared by the presence of Suleyman Pasha, with his demands for Hamidiyeh, in the close neighbourhood of his lair. But his son came to our camp, and one of his near relations, a middle-aged and unusually intelligent man. He said that they knew the mountain under the name of Bingöl Koch, or, translated, the Bingöl caldron. They had no particular designation of the highest parts. When I mentioned the three castles he reflected a little, and then answered that the western eminence was known in old times as Bingöl Kala; but with the other names he was quite unfamiliar. I see no reason on that account to reject these designations. Kara Kala is well adapted to express the prevailing sombreness of that peak with its dark and broken ridge. Demir Kala may serve to remind us of what is probably a historical fact, that the Great Timur, or Cold Steel, marshalled his armies among these congenial surroundings, and here celebrated his victories with women and wine and song. The statement, however, of one traveller that the eastern summit consists of several storeys of walls, put together by a human hand, must be regarded as fabulous. He vouches for the fact, and adds that, according to what he learnt, an iron door had been removed from the castle and taken to Khinis some forty years previous to his visit.3 He supposes the fortress to have been erected by Timur. The manner in which the lavas have cooled upon the rampart suggests the appearance of such a human structure at certain points. But the feature is most noticeable just west of Kara Kala, where the outline assumes the shape of two round towers.