DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0123
98 ANCIENT CITY NEAR MESALOGGION.
upon which were probably pilasters, or square pillars, supporting
a portico; this must have been the Agora.
Near this is a semicircular foundation, only ten feet in diameter.
It appears that the water of the city was preserved in large cisterns,
for there is no spring in or near it. Not far from the theatre is
a large reservoir of singular construction, probably built for that
purpose, or for a granary. It is a quadrilateral chamber, cut
down perpendicularly into the rock; across the breadth of this
chamber are four parallel walls, reaching to the surface of the rock ;
the intermediate spaces appear to have been roofed by long flat
stones.
The blocks which compose this curious edifice are much smaller
than those in the walls of the city; and the few irregularities in their
forms are evidently not systematical; they are well united; but the
exterior surface is rustic, or rough.
In each of these walls are three apertures, or gate-ways, of un-
equal dimensions, of a pyramidal form, terminating at top in an
acute angle. There are gates of this form at Mycenae, Tiryns, and
at some of the Grecian cities in Italy. Savary mentions one of the
same kind at the island of Phila in the Nile.
The gate of the town which faces the north is entire; it is covered
with a flat architrave, and diminishes gradually from the base to the
summit, like all the Grecian doors and windows,1 and like some which
were of Roman construction.2 This is a form which seems to have
originated in Egypt, of which there are still numerous examples;
and the same is observable on, the Tavola Iliaca in the Capitol.
Towards the Acropolis is a chamber, cut down into the rock, and
coated with stones nearly of a regular form, on which are some re-
mains of a hard stucco. The dimensions of this chamber are twenty-
five feet by twenty-one, and the depth about six feet: seven steps lead
1 As in the Erechtheion at Athens.
2 A circular building at Tivoli, called the Sibyl's Temple.
upon which were probably pilasters, or square pillars, supporting
a portico; this must have been the Agora.
Near this is a semicircular foundation, only ten feet in diameter.
It appears that the water of the city was preserved in large cisterns,
for there is no spring in or near it. Not far from the theatre is
a large reservoir of singular construction, probably built for that
purpose, or for a granary. It is a quadrilateral chamber, cut
down perpendicularly into the rock; across the breadth of this
chamber are four parallel walls, reaching to the surface of the rock ;
the intermediate spaces appear to have been roofed by long flat
stones.
The blocks which compose this curious edifice are much smaller
than those in the walls of the city; and the few irregularities in their
forms are evidently not systematical; they are well united; but the
exterior surface is rustic, or rough.
In each of these walls are three apertures, or gate-ways, of un-
equal dimensions, of a pyramidal form, terminating at top in an
acute angle. There are gates of this form at Mycenae, Tiryns, and
at some of the Grecian cities in Italy. Savary mentions one of the
same kind at the island of Phila in the Nile.
The gate of the town which faces the north is entire; it is covered
with a flat architrave, and diminishes gradually from the base to the
summit, like all the Grecian doors and windows,1 and like some which
were of Roman construction.2 This is a form which seems to have
originated in Egypt, of which there are still numerous examples;
and the same is observable on, the Tavola Iliaca in the Capitol.
Towards the Acropolis is a chamber, cut down into the rock, and
coated with stones nearly of a regular form, on which are some re-
mains of a hard stucco. The dimensions of this chamber are twenty-
five feet by twenty-one, and the depth about six feet: seven steps lead
1 As in the Erechtheion at Athens.
2 A circular building at Tivoli, called the Sibyl's Temple.