DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0475
430 NEKROPOLIS OF THE PIRiEUS.
extensive and interesting, embracing the iEgaean Sea, the Saronic
Gulph, with its islands and promontories, the Peloponnesian moun-
tains, and the coast of Megaris. The nearer objects consist of the
Pireean peninsula, with the six contiguous ports.
In the opposite direction are seen the Attic plain and mountains,
with the capital and its Acropolis.
Strabo1 and Suidas2 affirm, that the Pirseus was once an island;
the word vya-og, however, was sometimes given to peninsulas; for in-
stance, UeXd'srovvvitrog.
Near the port of Zea, on the northern side of the Pirseus, are the
remains of walls and two round towers; one of which has six entire
layers of blocks of a similar construction with the pedestal of
Agrippa, and the Ptolemaion, with alternate ranges of large and
small blocks.
These towers were separated by a gate which probably constituted
the entrance to the great cemetery, or Nekropolis of the Piraeus,
which extends a considerable way towards Mount Aigaleos, in a
northern direction. At the northern extremity of the burying-
ground is a low rocky hill covered with sepulchres, which are con-
cealed by the soil and weeds; and where some broken sarcophagi
are found.
This hill is inserted, in some maps, as that called Sikelia by Pau-
sanias,3who merely says, it is a small eminence not far from Athens.
This authority however is not sufficient for supposing it to be the
same, to which there is an allusion in that author. I was assured by
a person, who has frequently visited the spot, that on the rock is
inscribed in large letters OPOS MNHMATXiN; but I could not find
it. This probably indicated the boundary of the sepulchres.
The Nekropolis is a continued rock which is nearly flat, and
covered with small bushes, and stunted grass. The sepulchres are
1 B. 1. p. 58. 4 Lex. vol. 3. p. 106. in v. Uapaievc. 3 B. 8. c. 11.
extensive and interesting, embracing the iEgaean Sea, the Saronic
Gulph, with its islands and promontories, the Peloponnesian moun-
tains, and the coast of Megaris. The nearer objects consist of the
Pireean peninsula, with the six contiguous ports.
In the opposite direction are seen the Attic plain and mountains,
with the capital and its Acropolis.
Strabo1 and Suidas2 affirm, that the Pirseus was once an island;
the word vya-og, however, was sometimes given to peninsulas; for in-
stance, UeXd'srovvvitrog.
Near the port of Zea, on the northern side of the Pirseus, are the
remains of walls and two round towers; one of which has six entire
layers of blocks of a similar construction with the pedestal of
Agrippa, and the Ptolemaion, with alternate ranges of large and
small blocks.
These towers were separated by a gate which probably constituted
the entrance to the great cemetery, or Nekropolis of the Piraeus,
which extends a considerable way towards Mount Aigaleos, in a
northern direction. At the northern extremity of the burying-
ground is a low rocky hill covered with sepulchres, which are con-
cealed by the soil and weeds; and where some broken sarcophagi
are found.
This hill is inserted, in some maps, as that called Sikelia by Pau-
sanias,3who merely says, it is a small eminence not far from Athens.
This authority however is not sufficient for supposing it to be the
same, to which there is an allusion in that author. I was assured by
a person, who has frequently visited the spot, that on the rock is
inscribed in large letters OPOS MNHMATXiN; but I could not find
it. This probably indicated the boundary of the sepulchres.
The Nekropolis is a continued rock which is nearly flat, and
covered with small bushes, and stunted grass. The sepulchres are
1 B. 1. p. 58. 4 Lex. vol. 3. p. 106. in v. Uapaievc. 3 B. 8. c. 11.