DOI article:
Waldstein, Charles: [Excavations and discoveries at Eretria, 1891-1895]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8681#0120
108
A TOPOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF ERETRIA.
form, the joints being also carefully fitted. In addition, the outer
surface is carefully dressed with regular horizontal rows of vertical
straight lines about an inch long, the lines of the alternate rows, reck-
oning from the bottom, being perpendicularly over one another. This
work is undoubtedly, as has been shown by Dr. Dorpfeld, an imita-
tion in stone of the surface of the sun-dried brick. A path extends
across the wall just north of the southernmost of these two towers.
The shortness of the distance between them, some twenty metres less
than usual, together with the unusual shape and their superior archi-
tectural beauty, can best be explained on the ground that there was
here another entrance through the eastern wall of the city. The ex-
isting remains above ground are insufficient to establish this fact.
For nearly its entire length, a causeway must originally have been
constructed on which to lay the foundations of this eastern wall. At
the time our survey was made, it was impossible to work anywhere in
this section except on a strip of land a few feet wide on either side of
the line of wall. Even when we revisited the site, early in May, though
the ground was elsewhere dry and the grain was almost ready for the
harvest, there was still a marshy pond surrounded by a bog inside the
wall; and the great marsh to the east of the line covered an area nearly
as large as that occupied by the ancient city itself. It was undoubtedly
this great swamp which gave the city its bad name in antiquity, and
ultimately caused its depopulation. The late King Otho cherished
plans for restoring the city to more than its old-time splendor by build-
ing a great naval station here. The new Eretria was duly surveyed,
maps were drawn, plans made, colonists were settled. In the office of
the village Demarch can still be seen on paper what magnificent boule-
vards, docks, public squares, fountains, and gardens were to have been
called into being. But the dream of the king and the reality of to-day
stand in sad contrast. The only parts of this magnificent scheme which
took some material shape were three buildings that were intended for
the Naval School, and the streets of the village, which impress one as
being altogether too broad for the few poor houses scattered along them.
The same unhealthful influences emanate from these marshes as of yore.
They compelled the king to give up his scheme ; and they render it un-
safe for any one to remain at Eretria after the warm -weather of spring
has once fairly set in.
The direction of this east wall is such as, at first glance, to warrant
the belief that it must have extended directly to the seashore at the
A TOPOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF ERETRIA.
form, the joints being also carefully fitted. In addition, the outer
surface is carefully dressed with regular horizontal rows of vertical
straight lines about an inch long, the lines of the alternate rows, reck-
oning from the bottom, being perpendicularly over one another. This
work is undoubtedly, as has been shown by Dr. Dorpfeld, an imita-
tion in stone of the surface of the sun-dried brick. A path extends
across the wall just north of the southernmost of these two towers.
The shortness of the distance between them, some twenty metres less
than usual, together with the unusual shape and their superior archi-
tectural beauty, can best be explained on the ground that there was
here another entrance through the eastern wall of the city. The ex-
isting remains above ground are insufficient to establish this fact.
For nearly its entire length, a causeway must originally have been
constructed on which to lay the foundations of this eastern wall. At
the time our survey was made, it was impossible to work anywhere in
this section except on a strip of land a few feet wide on either side of
the line of wall. Even when we revisited the site, early in May, though
the ground was elsewhere dry and the grain was almost ready for the
harvest, there was still a marshy pond surrounded by a bog inside the
wall; and the great marsh to the east of the line covered an area nearly
as large as that occupied by the ancient city itself. It was undoubtedly
this great swamp which gave the city its bad name in antiquity, and
ultimately caused its depopulation. The late King Otho cherished
plans for restoring the city to more than its old-time splendor by build-
ing a great naval station here. The new Eretria was duly surveyed,
maps were drawn, plans made, colonists were settled. In the office of
the village Demarch can still be seen on paper what magnificent boule-
vards, docks, public squares, fountains, and gardens were to have been
called into being. But the dream of the king and the reality of to-day
stand in sad contrast. The only parts of this magnificent scheme which
took some material shape were three buildings that were intended for
the Naval School, and the streets of the village, which impress one as
being altogether too broad for the few poor houses scattered along them.
The same unhealthful influences emanate from these marshes as of yore.
They compelled the king to give up his scheme ; and they render it un-
safe for any one to remain at Eretria after the warm -weather of spring
has once fairly set in.
The direction of this east wall is such as, at first glance, to warrant
the belief that it must have extended directly to the seashore at the