Note 1 — Chapter IV · VAN

Strabo, xi. 529. This account exactly corresponds to the phenomena presented by Lake Urmi, and it is impossible to apply it to Lake Van as Ritter (Erdkunde, ix. p. 784) has done. It is quite true that Strabo has already six chapters back mentioned and described the former under the name of Spauta, which is quite likely a misprint for Kapauta, a corruption of the Armenian name Kapotan, which, in turn, is evidently derived from the Armenian word kapoyt, signifying blue (Saint Martin, Mémoires, i. p. 59). In that passage he rightly places the lake in the Atropatian Media; while in chapter 529 he speaks of it under a different name, that of Mantiane, and says that it extends as far as Atropatia. But that the Mantiane, as described by Strabo, is not our Lake Van, and that the latter is in many respects most faithfully portrayed by him under the name Thopitis in sentences immediately following, there can, I think, be little doubt. ↑