'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎420] (501/905)

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RUINS OF HIERAPOLIS. [CHAP, XVIII.
from the latter place is the site of the castle; also some fine
caves and scattered ruins, probably those of ancient Ciliciana.
Remains of Nine miles below the mouth of the Sajur, the fine Saracenic
Zeugmas. structure of Kal'-at-en-Nejm commands the remains of the
great Zeugma leading to Seroug, Haran, &c.; and 11 miles
directly south by west from thence, on four hills, are the
extensive remains of the castle and town of Kara Bambuche,
or Buyuk Munbedj, 1 which contains some fine excavations
near the river, and also a Zeugma, but in a more dilapidated
state, being without the slopes which, when passing at Kal'-at-
en-Nejm, served for landing-places at different heights of the
river.
Hierapoiis Sixteen miles west by south of the latter, and 11J miles
or Munbedj. goutb-wcst of the former passage, at about 600 feet above the
river Euphrates, the ruins of the Magog of the Syrians occupy
the centre of a rocky plain, where, by its isolated position, the
city must not only have been deprived of running water, but
likewise of every other advantage which was likely to create
and preserve a place of importance. Yet we know that the
Syrian city of Ninus Vetus 2 flourished under the name of
Bambyce, 3 and subsequently of Hierapoiis, 4 or the Sacred City
of the Greeks, 5 and that it contained the rich temple which
was plundered by Crassus; 6 finally, it bore the name of
Munbedj 7 or Bambuche, and had a succession of sovereigns in
the 5th century of the Hijrah. 8 The ancient city was near
the eastern extremity of Comagene, or Euphratensis, which
had Samosat at the opposite extremity. 9
Some ruined mosques and square Saracenic towers, with
1 Jisr Munbedj, two days from Hdrdn.—Jaubert's Edrisi, p. 155, tome VI.,
Recueil de Voyages, &c. Paris, 1840.
2 Ammian. Mar., XIV., c. viii.
8 The Syrian name of the city, which the Greeks afterwards called Hiera
poiis.—Straho, XVI., p. 747. Amm. Mar., XIV c. viii.
5 Hierapoiis, or Magog, in Syriac.—Plin.. lib, V., c. xxiii.
6 Plutarch in Crassus.
7 It was first built by the Persians, who had a fine temple there. Muham-
med Ibn Sepahi's clear knowledge of cities and kingdoms.
8 Des Guignes, His. des Huns, tome II., p. 215.
9 Amm. Mar., XIV., c. 8.