Colossae (2)
Colossae
We give a few additional particulars of this place from Kitto's Pict. Bible, note to Colossians 4:
"Though a town of considerable note, it was by no means the principal one of Phrygia; for when that great province was ultimately divided into Phrygia Pacatiana and Phrygia Salutaris, it ranked but as the sixth city of the former division. The town was seated on an eminence to the south of the Meander, at a place where the river Lycus began to run under ground, as it did for five furlongs, after which it again rose and flowed into the Meander. This valuable indication of the site of Colosse, furnished by Herodotus (1:7, c. 30), establishes the truth of the received conclusion, that the ancient city is represented by the modern village of Khonas. The approach to Khonas, as well as the village itself, is beautiful, abounding in tall trees, from which vines of most luxuriant growth are suspended. In the immediate neighborhood of the village are several vestiges of an ancient city, consisting of arches, vaults, squared stones, while the ground is strewed with unbroken pottery, which so generally and so remarkably indicates the sites of ancient, towns in the East. That these ruins are all that now remain of Colossse there seems no just reason to doubt." The town now contains about four thousand inhabitants, and has a khan. The ruins, which lie three miles north of the town, are of the Roman period, but they contain no inscriptions. See Murray, Hand-book for Asia Minor, page 326.
