Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/207

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IN THE LEVANT.
165

rocky base, winds along the shore. If we ascend the N.E. face of St. Stephen's hill from the Neo Maras and follow the edge of the cliff to the S.W., there will be seen at intervals a bed cut in the rock on which doubtless stood the outer wall of the Acropolis. The continuity of this line of cutting is constantly interrupted by breaks in the edge of the cliff, large portions of which have been detached by earthquakes at different times, and may be seen lying- above and below the road to Trianta. Several of these fallen masses are hewn as if they had formed portions of tombs or of the bed of the wall above.

The line of the rock, after continuing for some distance to the S.W., terminates in broken ground just before the curve of the bay commences; at this point the bed of the foundations cut in the rock makes an angle, turning to the east. Pursuing this new line across several fields, I came to polygonal blocks set in the modern wall of a field, after which the line was marked by a vertical cutting in the rock still pointing east. On a portion of this vertical cutting a course of oblong blocks still remained, the largest of which measured 10 feet 3 inches by 3 feet 4 inches. From the size of these blocks and from the fact that the angle from which this line commences is the point where the ascent to the hill from the sea becomes more accessible on account of the termination of the cliff here, I infer that the courses of masonry are the foundations of a wall defending the Acropolis on this side.

The base of the vertical cutting contains sepulchral chambers cut in the rock. From this cutting