NIPHA´TES
NIPHA´TES (
ὁ Νιφάτης, Strab. xi. pp. 522, 523, 527, 529;
Ptol. 5.13.4,
6.1.1; Mela, 1.15.2;
Plin. Nat. 5.27;
Amm. Marc. 23.6.13; Virg.
Geog. 3.30; Horat.
Carm. 2.9. 20: the later Roman poets, by a curious mistake, made Niphates a river; comp.
Lucan 3.245;
Sil. Ital. 13.775;
Juv. 6.409), the “snowy range” of Armenia, called by the native writers
Nebad or
Nbadagan (St. Martin,
Mém. sur l'Armenie, vol. i. p. 49). Taurus, stretching E. of Commagene (
Aïn Táb) separates Sophene (
Kharput Dawassi), which is contained between Taurus and Anti-Taurus (
Strab. xi. p.521), from Osroene (
Urfah), and then divides itself into three portions.
The most northerly, and highest, are the Niphates (
Así Kúr) in Acilisene.
[p. 2.440] The structure of this elevated chain, consisting of the lofty groups of
Sir Serah, the peaked glacier of
Mut Khán, the
Alí Tágh,
Sapán,
Nimrúd, and
Darkish,
Tághs, which are probably the highest range of Taurus, rising above the line of perpetual snow (10,000 feet ?), remains yet undetermined. Limestone and gypsum prevail, with basalt and other volcanic rocks. Deep valleys separate the parallel ridges, and also break their continuity by occasional passes from the N. to the S. sides. (Ainsworth,
Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldaea, p. 18; Chesney,
Exped. Euphrat. vol i. p. 69; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 911.)
[
E. B. J.]
