Note 8 — Chapter VI · BITLIS

The connection of Bitlis with Alexander is probably apocryphal; but the number of Greek coins that are dug up and offered for sale to the traveller argue the extension of the later Hellenic culture into the recesses of this distant valley. During my stay at Akhlat in the course of my second journey several of these pieces in silver, derived from Bitlis and the neighbourhood, were brought into my tent. One of them, a coin of Antiochus the Sixth of Syria, lies before me as I write. Greek inscriptions, perhaps of the Roman period, are said to be forthcoming in the vicinity. But such hearsay should be received with considerable caution; and the same remark will apply to the statement made to Shiel by an aged native that there had existed an inscription on the wall of the castle ascribing its foundation to a date 300 years before the prophet Mohammed.8 The Arabic writings seen on the ruins, but unfortunately not copied or translated by modern travellers, have most likely, almost without exception, disappeared.