Note 6 — Chapter XXI · OUR SOJOURN ON BINGÖL

It remains to notice some of the features of the panorama which expands from the summits of Bingöl. The view comprises Palandöken, the Akh Dagh, the plain of Khinis; Khamur, with Kolibaba; Sipan, Bilejan, Nimrud. The patience even of an assiduous reader would be exhausted by the attempt to draw its full meaning from this varied scene. We may confine ourselves with more advantage to a particular segment of the circle, taking our standpoint on the western summit, Bingöl Kala (Fig. 194). I may mention that one day, while we were making our way in that direction from our camp on the south of the rampart, Oswald discovered, just behind the actual peak, a large stone with a cuneiform inscription. It was lying on the ground, only distinguishable by an eye like his from the adjacent blocks of lava. Over the almost obliterated characters had been incised the figure of a cross, with a circle at its upper end. This stone may have served to define a boundary, both in the times of the Vannic and of the Armenian Kings.6