Taurus
(from the Aramaean
Tur, “a high mountain”). Now Taurus,
Ala-Dagh, and other special names. A great mountain-chain of Asia. In its widest extent, the
name was applied, by the later geographers, to the whole of the great chain which runs through
Asia from west to east; but in its usual signification it denotes the mountain-chain in the
south of Asia Minor, which begins at the Sacrum or Chelidonium Promontory at the southeast
angle of Lycia, surrounds the Gulf of Pamphylia, passing through the middle of Pisidia; then
along the southern frontier of Lycaonia and Cappadocia, which it divides from Cilicia and
Commagené; thence, after being broken through by the Euphrates, it proceeds almost
due east through the south of Armenia, forming the water-shed between the sources of the
Tigris on the south and the streams which feed the upper Euphrates and the Araxes on the
north; thus it continues as far as the southern margin of the lake Arsissa, where it ceases to
bear the name of Taurus, and is continued in the chain which, under the names of Niphates,
Zagros, etc., forms the northeast margin of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. Of this main
range the branches Antitaurus and Amanus are important chains.
