'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎316] (369/516)

316
ARTAXATA.
thej were still distant about two miles, we took a rapid survey of the
reputed remains of Artamta, now called Ardasht, at one end of
which is a high mound, called by the natives Takht Tiridat, or the
throne of Tiridates. These remains resemble those of Rey, consisting
of mounds of decayed mud-walls, and here and there small fragments
of painted tiles and pottery. It requires a lively imagination to form
from the present remains conceptions of any thing grand and magnifi
cent ; and except the antiquity of the appellation, the extent of the
ruins, and a certain regularity in the general plan, there is little to
distinguish them from the dilapidated cities of modern ages. A village
called Ardeshir is situated close to the principal ruin and many more
are spread about within the extent designed by the walls. It is not
necessary after this to say that we did not find the thirty-six columns
of black marble which Chardin was told existed there.
The site of these ruins does not agree with Strabo's account of the
position of Artaxata.* He says that this city built by Hannibal for
Artaxias, King of Armenia, and afterwards attacked by Lucullusf,
was situated upon a peninsula formed by the Araxes, the walls of the
town being washed by the stream, or the stream flowing around it, and
serving it for a wall, for the passage is obscure and apparently defec
tive. These ruins are distant about 10 miles from the Araxes, and al
though the courses of rivers are known to change, yet such is the na
ture of the country here, that it is not likely that the Araxes ever de
viated much from its present course. A more probable position for
the ancient Artaxata is found in a remarkable bend of the river, form
ing a peninsula, the neck of which is only 60 yards broad, situated
about midway between the junction of the Arpachai river $ and the
Araxes, and the fort of Abbas abad. Here, according to Captain Mon-
H bs AgTO-tura.) Trgog tm tts S jco , a"uvajx<o'^sv>j xaXciuc, xal /SacnAs/ov ovcru Trj$
xeT7«» 8e en) x e PP ovr l< rt *io vlo S "7™™! ro ts 7 X os xvk X cv trgogsforjpevov tov irdlct/iov irljv t 3 irtyS' rov
Itrfytov Toi$gu> x«» %agax» xexXgjo-jaevov.-—Lib. xi. p. 529.
f Plutarch, Vit. Luculli.
This Arpachai must not be confounded with the river of that name, the ancient
Harpasus, that falls into the Araxes near Hajee Bairamlu.