MESO´GIS
MESO´GIS or
MESSO´GIS (
Μεσωγίς,
Μεσσωγίς), the chief mountain of Lydia, belonging to the trunk of Mount Taurus, and extending on the north of the Maeander, into which it sends numerous small streams, from Celaenae to Mycale, which forms its western termination. Its slopes were known in antiquity to produce an excellent kind of wine. (Strab. xiv. pp. 629, 636, 637, 648, 650; Steph; B. s.v.
Ptol. 5.2.13, where
Μισῆτις is, no doubt, only a corrupt form of
Μεσωγίς.) Mounts Pactyes and Thorax, near its western extremity, are only branches of Mesogis, and even the large range of Mount Tmolus is, in reality, only an off-shoot of it. Its modern Turkish name is
Kestaneh Dagh, that is, chestnut mountain.
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