stration: 414.jpg THE PRINCIPAL ROCK SCULPTURES IN THE GORGE OF THE
GOMEL]

Near Bavian In Assyria.

Considerable progress, however, has recently been made in identifying
and copying these texts, and we may here give a short account of what
has been done and of the information furnished by the inscriptions that
have been examined.

Recently considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the
ancient empire of Van and of its relation to the later kings of Assyria
by the labours of Prof Lehmann and Dr. Belck on the inscriptions which
the kings of that period caused to be engraved upon the rocks among the
mountains of Armenia.

[Illustration: 415.jpg THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN.]

The flat roofs of the houses of the city of Van may be seen to the left
of the photograph nestling below the rock.

The centre and capital of this empire was the ancient city which stood
on the site of the modern town of Van at the southwest corner of the
lake which bears the same name. The city was built at the foot of a
natural rock which rises precipitously from the plain, and must have
formed an impregnable stronghold against the attack of the foe.

In this citadel at the present day remain the ancient galleries and
staircases and chambers which were cut in the living rock by the kings
who made it their fortress, and their inscriptions, engraved upon the
face of the rock on specially prepared and polished surfaces, enable us
to reconstruct in some degree the history of that ancient empire. From
time to time there have been found and copied other similar texts, which
are cut on the mountainsides or on the massive stones which formed part
of the construction of their buildings and fortifications. A complete
collection of these texts, together with translations, will shortly be
published by Prof. Lehmann. Meanwhile, this scholar has discussed and
summarized the results to be obtained from much of his material, and
we are thus already enabled to sketch the principal achievements of the
rulers of this mountain race, who were constantly at war with the later
kings of Assyria, and for two centuries at least disputed her claim to
supremacy in this portion of Western Asia.

The country occupied by this ancient people of Van was the great
table-land which now forms Armenia. The people themselves cannot
be connected with the Armenians, for their language presents no
characteristics of those of the Indo-European family, and it is