ARME´NIAE PYLAE
ARME´NIAE PYLAE (
Ἀρμενίων Πύλαι), the Armenian gates of Eratosthenes (
Strab. ii. p.80), are identified by modern geographers with
Gergen Kal'ah-sí, at the foot of the Taurus. The Euphrates, sweeping round through Mount Taurus, a few miles above
Dĭriskó, attains at that point its most easterly curve, rolls over rapids immediately above the village so named, and then turning again below the cliff of the castle of
Gergen, passes through a very narrow gorge above 400 feet in depth.
This is the second repulse the river meets with, as the first is placed at Tomisa (
Tokhma-Sú). (Ritter,
Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 985.)
The beds in the lower valley consist of red sandstone and sandstone conglomerate supporting limestone. (Ainsworth,
London Geog. Journal, vol. x. p. 333; Chesney,
Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. pp. 70, 71, 293, 350.)
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E.B.J]