Life in Asiatic Turkey : A journal of travel in Cilicia (Pedias and Trachœa),…
Life in Asiatic Turkey by E. J. Davis is a travel journal written in the late 19th century. It follows a clergyman-traveller across Cilicia, Isauria, Lycaonia, Cappadocia, and the Syrian coast, mixing on-the-ground route notes with archaeology, geography, and lively sketches of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and Arabs. Expect close descriptions of ports, plains, and mountain passes; careful attention to ruins and inscriptions; and frank reflections on Ottoman provincial administration, trade, disease, and
the practicalities of travel. The opening of the book sets out Davis’s aim to record a little-known region—Northern Syria and Karamania—explaining why travellers avoid it (danger, disease, and lack of roads) yet arguing its beauty and historical interest merit attention; he sympathizes with the Turkish peasantry while condemning corrupt governance. The narrative then embarks by steamer from Alexandria, touching at Port Said, Jaffa, Acre, Sidon, Beyrout, Tripoli, and Alexandretta, where he notes fertile coasts, orange groves, fine mosques, and unwholesome marshlands, along with traders’ complaints about misrule and rapid turnover of governors. At Alexandretta he records consular monuments (including a murdered missionary) and the town’s strategic value despite lethal malaria. Reaching Mersina, he sketches its rapid growth as an export “scala,” mixed population, unhealthy summer climate, and nearby watch-mounds, then contrasts this with the cool mountain resorts used to escape fever; he relays local Greeks’ stories of official corruption (even famine wheat being sold off), yet highlights their schools and hospital. He visits the ruins of Pompeiopolis—its artificial harbour, long colonnade with varied Corinthian capitals and inscriptions, and vanished theatre—warning of fever at night, and rides the province’s lone road to Tarsus, where he describes a vast necropolis, notable antiquities (and how finds are mishandled), severe filth and sickness, industrious bazaars, thriving Christian schools and congregations, luxuriant but neglected gardens, the famous “Dunuk Tash” monument, the Cydnus falls and shifting river, and the traditional “St. Paul’s Well,” before the excerpt breaks as he sets out for Asaab-el-Kef. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Davis, E. J. (Edwin John), 1827?-1901 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 01000385 |
| Title | Life in Asiatic Turkey : A journal of travel in Cilicia (Pedias and Trachœa), Isauria, and parts of Lycaonia and Cappadocia |
| Original Publication | London: Edward Stanford, 1879. |
| Credits | WebRover, Tim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia |
| Subject | Turkey -- Description and travel |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77918 |
| Release Date | Feb 12, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 557 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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