Kayseri
a town in Asia Minor, is situated in a plain to
the north of the Erjish-Dagh (the ancient
Argaeus) in about 38° 41' N. lat., 353 25' E.
long., and has a population variously estimated
at 25,000, 40,000, and 50,000, consisting of
Turks, Greeks, and Armenians. The plain is laid
out in corn-fields, and screened on the east and
west by low hills covered with gardens and
vineyards, and the whole neighborhood abounds
with volcanic deposits. The town is surrounded by
an old walled moat, and further defended by an
old citadel partly in ruins. The houses, which
are from 8000 to 10,000 in number, are built of
stone and lime, bat many of them have a cracked
and dilapidated appearance caused by the frequent
earthquakes. The streets are narrow and dirty,
the squares and market-places also abound with,
filth ; and the naturally healthy climate is
poisoned by the absence of all sanitary
arrangements. The bazaars are extensive and well
supplied with European manufactured goods,
woolens, silks, hardware, iron, &c. The
Armenian merchants display their wares in a large
place called the Vizier Khan; these consist of
hardware, snuff-boxes, glass beads, Red Sea
shells for ornamentation, paper, cards, padlocks,
&c. Of native articles exposed for sale the
chief are yellow berries, which are grown in the
plains of Kayseri , wool, gall-nuts, goat hair,
tragacanth, cotton, skins, furs, sultana raisins
and other fruits, madder and other dyestuffs.
Among the principal structures in the town are
the mosques, the convent of Siddi-Battal, and
some mausoleums. The Armenians have a bishop and
two churches in Kayseri. The Greeks also have a
church. The manufactured products of the town are
chiefly yellow marocco leather, cotton stuns, and
cotton-yarn.
Kayseri in site and sound is identical with the
ancient Caesareia, the capital of Cappadocia,
which was originally called Mazaco. The plain in
which it stands is watered by the Mêlas, now
called the Kara-Su, which was dammed up by king
Ariarathes to form a lake a little above its
entrance into the Halys (not Euphrates as
erroneously stated by Strabo). Mazaca was called
also Eusebeia, and numerous coins with this
epigraph have been found on the site. It was
taken by Tigranes, and its inhabitants carried
off to his new capital Tigranocerta. When
Cappadocia was made a Roman province in the reign
of the emperor Tiberias, Mazaca was named
Caesareia. It became a place of great importance
in the later times of the empire. When taken by
Sapor in the reign of Valerian (about A.d. 259)
it had a population of 400,000. In the reign of
Justinian the walls were repaired. There are many
ruins and heaps of rubbish of ancient structures
about the town. Caesareia gave title to a
Christian bishop from an early period of the
Church; it is the birth-place of St, Basil the
Great, who became bishop of Caesareia, A.d. 37O.
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The men behind the rugs were
Turkish Armenans from Sivas and Kayseri.
It was once assumed that these rugs were
woven in the the Koum Kapisis (Gate of
Sand) ...
Nov 9, 2008 ... Hagop
Kevorkian was from the prosperous
Armenian community of Kayseri in
the Ottoman Empire. Kevorkian was an
erudite and sophisticated man ...
Nov 20, 2008 ... A
Christian Greek from near Kayseri
who joined the Janissary Corps and
converted to Islam. He started as a
carpenter and rose to Chief of ...
A double niche prayer rug
from the Kazak Fachralo or Bordjalou Kayseri
area. ... This strikes me as a
very odd rug. Kazak Fachralo or Bordjalou
Kayseri ...
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