or CHIO, a celebrated island of the Archipelago (see CHIO). It is 32 miles long and 15 broad, is a mountainous but very pleasant country. The principal mountain, called anciently Pelinnaus, presents to view a long lofty range of bare rock, reflecting the sun; but the recesses at its feet are diligently cultivated, and reward the husbandman by their rich produce. The slopes are clothed with vines. The groves of lemon, orange, and citron-trees, regularly planted, at once perfume the air with the odour of their blossoms, and delight the eye with their golden fruit. Myrtles and jasmines are interspersed, with olive and palm-trees, and cypresses. Amid these the tall minarets rise, and white houses glitter, dazzling the beholder. The inhabitants export a large quantity of pleasant wine to the neighbouring islands, but their principal trade is in silks. They have also a small commerce in wool, cheese, figs, and mastic. The women are better bred than in other parts of the Levant; and though the dress is odd, yet it is very neat. The partridges are tame, being sent every day into the fields to get their living, and in the evening are called back with a whistle. The town called Scio is large, pleasant, and the best built of any in the Levant, the houses being beautiful and commodious, some of which are terraced, and others covered with tiles. The streets are paved with flint-stones; and the Venetians, while they had it in their possession, made a great many alterations for the better. The castle is an old citadel built by the Genoese, in which the Turks have a garrison of 1400 men. The harbour of Scio is the rendezvous of all shipping that goes to or comes from Constantinople, and will hold a fleet of four-score vessels. They reckon there are 10,000 Turks, 10,000 Greeks, and 10,000 Latins, on this island. The Turks took it from the Venetians in 1695. Scio is a bishop's see, and is seated on the sea-side, 47 miles west of Smyrna, and 210 south-west of Constantinople.

There are but few remains of antiquity in this place. "The most curious of them (says Dr Chandler) is that which has been named without reason the School of Homer." It is on the coast at some distance from the city northward, and appears to have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is the image of the goddess, the head and arm wanting. She is represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim or seat, and about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude, indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity. From the slope higher up is a fine view of the rich vale of Scio, and of the channel, with its shining islands, beyond which are the mountains on the mainland of Asia."