minor route west from Harput which is north of the main one. Based on local accounts of Roman coins being washed out from the spring rains, Huntington assigned this site to the Roman period. It may have also remained in use during the early middle ages. The ancient settlement of Mazara, whose site is now occupied by the modern city of Elazığ, was a road station on the road linking Melitene to the upper Euphrates basin. After the classical period, it no longer appears in historical records, indicating that it declined to insignificance or was abandoned altogether. A large settlement at the mouth of the Zerteriç valley appears to have been built at some point during classical antiquity. It does not seem to have featured in Sayf al-Dawla's campaigns and may have dwindled to a village or been abandoned altogether by the 10th century. The town of Kalkas mentioned by Ibn Hawqal, which corresponds to the ancient Cholcis, was at the NE end of Hazar Gölü. When Sayf al-Dawla invaded through here in 956, the account makes no mention of him dealing with any Byzantine stronghold, so Kalkas does not appear to have been used as a military base during this period. References See also List of regions of old Armenia Early medieval Armenian regions