At the hamlet of Nakalakev we crossed to the left bank of the Tehour, where the ground at the foot of an eminence anciently named Mount Ounaghyra, but now more commonly called Dedamoukha, is covered with piles of venerable ruins.
One edifice only, a church of the sixth century, has survived the wreck of time; it is in part of brick and stone, in the purest style of early Byzantine architecture, like the church at Py tzounda, ' but otherwise of little interest, except for the forty small circular slabs let into the floor, at the south entrance, over the heads of the Forty martyrs, and among the numerous names inscribed in Geoi^ian on the north wall is that of St. Sylvester, Pope. There are no ornamentations, frescoes, or other inscriptions.
To the west of the ruins is a vaulted passage, through which, l^ means of a flight of steps, communication was had with the river for the supply of water, as was the case at Gori, Ouplytztzykhe, Ksanka; &c The priest informed us that after the Forty martyrs were beheaded, their bodies and heads were flung into the river from the opposite cliff; the bodies were carried away by the stream, but the heads floated to the steps, where they were recovered, and afterwards buried in the church, of which the Forty martyrs are the protectors.
To reach the fortress above the church we had to scramble uphill through dense vegetation which extends over the very walls,
' Dubois, iii. p. 56.
by Google
124 THE CRIMEA AND TRANSCAUCASFA.
some of the trees about the parapets having attained their full growth. The walls, which in some parts are 7 feet in thickness, appear to be of more modern construction and in better preservation than the church. There is a second fortress in a still htgiicr position, but v/e did not care to ascend to it in the noonday heat of a broiling sun.
Nakalakev is probably the site of the Archaeopolis of the ]>yzantines, with the description of which it greatly accords.' A fortress was built here as early as the reign of Phamawaz, king of Karthly, by his relative Koudj, crystav of Sonaneth, after whom it was named Tzykh^-Koudj."
Archseopolis subsequently became the most strongly fortified city of the Lazi, who about the year 470 defeated the Onougours or Tetraxite Goths, in a battle near the city, and in commemoration of their victory they constructed a fortress and called it Ounagoury,* A century later, when the Persians invaded these provinces, Mesmeroes returned by way of Archaeopolis and laid siege to it, after burning the Roman camp on the Phasis. Archa:opolis existed as a fortress to the eighth century,' wiien it was destroyed by Mourwan, and became in later times a residence of the Dadian.
But Nakalakev has a far deeper interest attached to it, as bein^.
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and historians,' says Dubois, 'would appear to have chosen the
Black Sea for the theatre of their hero's exploits, laying the scenes of their descriptions in the East, the cradle of civilisation and wealth. With the places mentioned in Books X. XI. and XII.
of the Odyssey have hitherto been associated the shores of Sidly and Italy, for it is there that the Cyclops, the Lsstrigons, ScylU
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* See note at the enil of this cha)itcr.
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rENURY OF THE MINGRELIANS. 125
and Charybdts have been sought. But this is an error; the poet meant Ulysses to sail over that inhospitable sea which to himself appeared to be at the uttermost end of the earth.' '
Dubois, who wrote in 1832-34, seems to have been anticipated in transferring the scenes in the Homeric poem from the Italian coast to the Black Sea, by Kapniste a Russian writer, in his ' Opinion that Ulysses sailed, not in the Mediterranean, but in the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff.''