114 EXPEDITIONS BEFORE ALEXANDER. [CHAP.
uplands of Anatolia. Its height above the sea is very great, reach-
ing 6,000 feet in the plains which intervene between Erzeroum
and Ararat in the northern part of the district, and consequently
the climate during many months of the year is very severe. It is
bounded and intersected by vast ranges of moun-
tain^0™" ta*llSjtlie most imP°rtant °f which are the Taurus
towards the south, dividing it from Mesopotamia,
and the Anti-Taurus towards the west; besides these, it attains a
great altitude in the volcanic summits of Bingheul-dagh—-the
'mountain of a thousand lakes/ Le. fountains—in the centre of
the country, of Sipan above the lake of Van, and of Ararat in the
east, which rises to a height of more than 17,000 feet. From its
northern side the Araxes (Aras), which rises in the
Bingheul-dagh, finds its way to the Caspian, and
the Acampsis to the Euxine, while in the opposite direction the
Euphrates and the Tigris carry their waters to the Persian Gulf.
, Both the last-named rivers rise from two sources in
Sources of
the Euphrates distant parts of the country, and flow for a con-
igns. giderable distance in separate streams. The western
branch of the Euphrates, which retains the ancient name in that
of Frat, starts from the plains near Erzeroum, and divides Greater
from Lesser Armenia; the Eastern, or Murad-su, flows from the
neighbourhood of Ararat, and after passing between the Bingheul-
dagh and Sipan, and skirting the northern foot of the Taurus
range, joins its brother stream before descending to the lowlands
of Mesopotamia. It is in this range, and therefore in the south of
Armenia, that the sources of both branches of the Tigris lie, though
they are distant as much as a hundred miles one from another.
The easternmost of these, which is the more important for our
present purpose, is situated in the midst of those lofty summits of
Taurus which bore the name of Niphates, near where the town of
Bitlis now stands; the river which it forms descends steeply to-
wards the lower country, where it is joined by the western stream.
Lake of van. ^o *e eastward of Bitlis, but on the high plateau,
lies the Lake of Van, an expanse of brackish water
larger than the Lake of Geneva, deeply sunk among the mountains,
and without an outlet
We may now return to the Ten Thousand, whose march, it