CAFFA, or KAFFA, probably the Theodosia of the ancients,' is a seaport town of the Crimea, situated on a high mountain, which descends with a half circular slope towards the roadstead. From the beautiful bay of Caffa, the town appears to cover the southern side of it, and to rise like a vast theatre, with its numerous mosques and minarets, over all the hills which encircle that part of the bay. On the southern side of the bay stood the Genoese citadel: The walls, which are tolerably well preserved, are flanked with towers, and marked with several half effaced incriptions. The traces of the streets, within the inclosures, arc still visible, and numerous subterraneous chambers, and spacious magazines, amid a promiscuous heap of ruins, assert the former splendour of this desert ed city. The opposite, or northern side of the city, which was the residence of the Tartars, is the only part which is now inhabited. Between these two parts of the city, but rather towards the west, and elevated on the hills above them, stood that part of the town which was inhabited by the Armenians, and which is now a scene of ruins. Near the walls of the old Armenian fortress, and on the high ground above the Tartar city, are the ruins of a circular building, which Dr Clarke supposes to have been an ancient bath. On taking down a part of the stucco which loosely adhered to the wall, that celebrated traveller discovered a beautiful covering of coloured plaster, exactly similar to that which is found in Pompcia and Herculaneum. A few days before Dr Clarke's ar rival, (July, 1800), a stone was discovered in the centre of the old pavement of this building. It was rudely sculptured in two parts, upon a kind of Cippus. In the upper part were two crowned heads, and the lower part contained a staircase leading to the mouth of a stone se pulchre. " I endeavoured," says Dr Clarke, " to pre vail on the guides to follow the clue thus offered, and to search for the staircase so represented, below the spot on which the stone itself was found. This they refused to do." The other buildings, which are deserving of notice, and which are in the Tartar city, are some magnificent public baths and mosques in a ruinous condition, a few minarets, several shops, the Turkish coffee-house, an unfinished palace of the late Khan, and a large stone building at the entrance of the city, which was formerly a mint. Near this building there are some ruins, which Dr Clarke thinks may have belonged to the ancient Theo dosia. The earliest inscription which he could find was not before the end of the 14th century. One of these, in the Armenian language, sculptured in relief, on a slab of white marble, was brought home by Dr Clarke, and is now in the vestibule of the university library of Cam bridge. Sec Clarke's Greek Marbles, p. 3. No. viii. The following account of the devastations committed by the Russians, upon the public buildings of this city, is so peculiarly interesting and characteristic, that we are tempted to present it to our readers in Dr Clarke's own words : " The melancholy devastation committed by the Russians, while it draws tears down the cheeks of the Tartars, and extorts many a sigh from the Anatolian Turks who resort to Caffa for commercial purposes, cannot fail to excite the indignation of every enlightened people. At Caffa, during the time we remained, the
soldiers were allowed to overthrow the beautiful mosques, or to convert them into magazines, to pull down the minarets, tear up the public fountains, and to destroy all the public aqueducts, for the sake of a small quantity of lead which they were thereby enabled to ob• tain. While these works of destruction were going on, the officers were amusing themselves in beholding the mischief. Tall and stately minarets, whose lofty spires added much grace and dignity to the town, were daily levelled with the ground ; which were of no other value to their destroyers than to supply a few soldiers with bul lets,f or their officers with a dram. I was in a Turkish' coffee-house at Caffa, when the principal minaret, one of the ancient and characteristic monuments of the country, to which the Russians had been some days employed in fixing blocks and ropes, came down with such violence that its fall shook every house in the place. The Turks, seated on divans, were all smoking, and when that is the case, an earthquake will scarcely rouse them ; neverthe less, at this flagrant act of impiety and dishonour, they rose, breathing out deep and bitter curses against the enemies of their prophet. Even the Greeks, who were present, testified their anger by similar imprecations. One of them turning to me, and shrugging his should ors, said, with a countenance of contempt and indigna tion, ! SCYTIIIANS ! which I found afterwards to be a common term of reproach ; for, though the Greeks profess the same religion as the Russians, they detest the latter as cordially as do the Turks or Tartars. The most lamentable part of the injury thus sustained, has been in the destruction of the conduits and public foun tains, which conveN cd, together with the purest water, from distant mountains, a source of health and comfort to the people. They first carry off the leaden pipes in or der to make bullets ; then they take down all the marble slabs and large stones for building materials, which they employ in the construction ofbarracks ; lastly, they blow up the channels which convey water, because they say the water porters cannot earn a livelihood when there aro public fountains. Some of these fountains were of great antiquity, and decorated with marble reservoirs, as well as with bas-reliefs and inscriptions. In all Mahometan countries, it is considered an act of piety to preserve and to adorn the public aqueducts. Works of that nature once appeared in almost every street or Caffa ; some were public washing places ; others poured out streams of water as clear as crystal for allay ing the thirst of the inhabitants, and for ablutions prior to their going to the mosques. They were nearly all de molished when we arrived.