As Turkey in Asia is becoming a point of interest in connection with the affairs of the eastern world, I call attention to the following statement respecting it, found in Goodrich’s History of all Nations. Vol. I. page 350.
"This extensive territory embraces that portion of the world most renowned in history. Within its limits are included the scenes of the creation and fall of man; of the deluge, as far as given in the Bible; of the rise and progress of the Jewish nation; and of the crucifixion of our Saviour. Here were Assyria and Babylonia—the first great empires of antiquity. Here were Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, and Sardis, and Troy, and Palmyra; here still are Jerusalem and Damascus, Antioch and Smyrna. Here are Arrarat and Lebanon, the Jordan and the Euphrates, the Dead sea and the sea of Galilee.
Here are scenes which have witnessed the presence of Semiramis and Cyrus, of Abraham and Melchisedec, of David and Solomon, of Paul and Peter, and James and John. Here, too, Cambyses, Darisus, Alexander, Seleucus, Pompey, Omar, Saladin, and Tamerlane, have marched at the head of their armies, and performed exploits which still echo in the pages of history. Yet famous as these regions are in the early annals of mankind, there is hardly any portion of the globe more unblest in its present condition than this."