CATARRHACTES
CATARRHACTES (
Καταρράκτης), a river of Pamphylia, which entered the sea east of Attalia. Mela (1.14) describes it as being so called because it has a great fall or cataract.
He places the town of Perga between the Cestrus and the Catarrhactes. The Stadiasmus describes it by the term
οἱ Καταρράκται, or the Falls. Strabo (p. 667) also speaks of this river as falling over a high rock [ATTALIA].
This river, on approaching the coast, divides into several branches, which, falling over the cliffs that border this part of the coast, have formed a calcareous deposit. Through this calcareous crust the water finds its way to the sea, and the river has now no determinate outlet, “unless,” adds Leake, “it be after heavy rains, when, as I saw it, in passing along the coast, it precipitates itself copiously over the cliffs near the most projecting point of the coast, a little to the west of Laara.” (Leake,
Asia Minor, &c., p. 191.)
According to the Stadiasmus the outlet of the river was at a place called Masura, probably the Magydus of Ptolemy (
5.5); or the Mygdale of the Stadiasmus may be Magydus.
This river, now the
Duden Su, is said to run under ground in one part of its course, which appears to be of considerable length.
It is represented. in Leake's map, with the names of the travellers who have seen parts of its course, one of whom is P. Lucas.
This river, indeed, is supposed to issue from the lake of
Egerdir, NE. of
Isbarta, and after disappearing, to show itself again in the lower country.
But this requires better evidence.
The ancient writers say nothing of its source and the upper part of it.
[
G.L]
