Note 18 — Chapter IX · ERZERUM

The most pleasing situation in the city is that which is presented by the disposition of the buildings as you make your way southwards up an irregular ravine or gully, down which trickles a little stream. On your right hand the high ground is crowned by the bastions of the citadel; while to your front, on the same heights a little south of these grim walls, rise the slender towers of Chifteh Minareh. The slopes on the east are much gentler, and are covered with houses, terraced up the incline. Here and there you may discern a pile of stones, or a block of masonry abutting on a house. These fragments are the Relics of the old walls.relics of the old walls, which formerly separated the great mosque, the Chifteh Minareh and the citadel from the suburbs with which these buildings are now continuous. One may turn aside among the houses to visit a Holy well.holy well, which is frequented by both Mussulmans and Armenians. The former assert that it is situated on the spot where the successor of Sheikh Abdul Kader of Baghdad is said to have met his death. The latter attribute its origin to a miracle, by which the water welled up from the ground upon which was shed the blood of two of their martyrs, the brothers Isaac and Joseph. They met their fate in A.D. 796.18 The spring rises from the mud floor of a humble little house, and is quite tepid to the touch.