Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/212

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170
TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES

are two circular shafts, which probably lead to subterraneous tombs.

After passing the windmills, the traces of the ancient road become less distinct till they are lost on descending a slope crossed by a modern aqueduct. Its direction is N.W. to S.E.

After following out this road, we examined some tombs on the S.E. side of the Acropohs.

Here are some large subterranean chambers lined with stucco, and entered by a vertical shaft.

From an examination of this side of the Acropohs, 1 should infer that the strata of rock of which it is composed were originally scarped to a much greater depth than at present appears, the scarp having been filled up by the deposit of soil from above. In these scarps have been cut the entrances to tombs.

In one place south of the stadium is part of a monolithic tomb, on the face of which is a buckler cut in relief.

Crossing the Turkish cemetery in a direction south of the tower of St. Mary I came to a Turkish garden, where are six blocks of blue marble,all of whichappear to be pedestals of statues. One of them was inscribed with a dedication by the people of Rhodes to Lucius Decrius and his wife Agrippina. In a courtyard a little to the W. of these marbles is a block of blue marble, now a water-trough, measuring 4 feet by 2 feet 9 inches by 2 feet 4 inches, on which are the remains of a dedication in fine letters, recording the names of victors in the Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games, and in the games called Halieia, celebrated at Rhodes in honour of the Sun-god.