Note (38) — Chapter V · OF THE ANCIENT PLACES ON THE SOUTHERN COAST OF ASIA MINOR.
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The great plain situated between the lower course of these two rivers and the sea was called Aleium. The only hill which it contains rises from the shore of the gulf of Iskenderun, and forms at its southern extremity the northern cape of that gulf under the name of Karadash. Here Captain Beaufort observed the vestiges of an ancient town. This I believe to have been Megarsus, and that Mallus was situated on another hill which rises from the eastern bank of the Pyramus near its mouth; for these two situations accord perfectly with the evidence which the ancients have left respecting the position of Megarsus and Mallus. 1. Megarsus was a sea-beaten hill in the neighbourhood of Mallus and the mouth of the Pyramus[283], and Karadash is the only hill near the Aleian plain which borders the sea-coast. 2. Mallus was upon a height near the Pyramus, as Euphorion[284], Scylax[285], Strabo, Stephanus[286], and Mela[287], all indicate, and not far from the sea-coast, as appears from its being noticed in the Periplus of Scylax, as well as in the Stadiasmus. 3. Strabo and Ptolemy agree in naming the Pyramus before Mallus in proceeding from west to east. 4. This position of Megarsus, the Pyramus, and Mallus, agrees perfectly with the proceedings of Alexander, as related by Strabo, Arrian, and Curtius[288]. Alexander having sent his horse under Philotas from Tarsus across the Aleian plain to the Pyramus, marched the infantry from Soli along the sea-coast to Megarsus; from whence, after having sacrificed to Minerva Megarsis, he proceeded to Mallus, which it appears that his army did not enter until they had thrown a bridge across the Pyramus.