DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0375
RUINS OF PHRIXA. 341
and feet in endeavouring to avoid the edge of the precipice. Two
of our luggage horses, who were prevented by the projection of the
luggage from keeping sufficiently to the right, rolled down the pre-
cipice to the left, and must have been dashed to pieces if their fall
had not been mitigated by the beds and sacks with which they were
loaded, and stopped by the trees in the descent.
It took us near an hour (not including stoppages) in ascending
from the foot of the hill to the village of Palaio Phanari. We
were entertained in the pyrgos of a Turk, brother-in-law of Mus-
tapha agha of Lalla, who gave us a kind and hospitable reception.
Palaio Phanari is inhabited by Greeks, and composed of thatched
cottages, like Miraka. The summit of the pointed hill, which rises
a short distance to the west of the village, is crowned with the re-
mains of a fortress, or acropolis, probably that of Phrixa, consisting
of large square blocks, which composed the walls. Herodotus'
attributes the foundation of this place to the Minyans. According
to Stephanus,2, Pherecydes places it in Arcadia. It was thirty stadia
from Olympia. The view from hence is as extensive as interesting,
and it is probable that Palaio Phanari was anciently the station of
a telegraphic beacon, as its modern name seems to indicate.
Towards the west we catch a faint glimpse of the Ionian sea,
whose blue horizon just emerges above the green and undulating
summits of the Eleian hills, between which, and Palaio Phanari, the
Alpheios is seen winding in many maeanders through the level and
verdant meads of Olympia, to its confluence with the sea. Katakolo
Kastro is perceived as a spot upon the coast. Miraka, and its pro-
jecting hills, that almost divide the Olympic plain from that near
Palaio Phanari, appeared almost beneath our feet. The town of
Lalla3 is conspicuously situated on some fiat hills towards the north,
on the opposite side of the river. To the east is another extensive
1 B. 4. c. 148. about 1149 years B. C. * De Urbib. v. <j5f«ca, p. 744.
> This town contains about a thousand houses; the inhabitants all Turks. It is a recent
place, and its population is rapidly increasing.
and feet in endeavouring to avoid the edge of the precipice. Two
of our luggage horses, who were prevented by the projection of the
luggage from keeping sufficiently to the right, rolled down the pre-
cipice to the left, and must have been dashed to pieces if their fall
had not been mitigated by the beds and sacks with which they were
loaded, and stopped by the trees in the descent.
It took us near an hour (not including stoppages) in ascending
from the foot of the hill to the village of Palaio Phanari. We
were entertained in the pyrgos of a Turk, brother-in-law of Mus-
tapha agha of Lalla, who gave us a kind and hospitable reception.
Palaio Phanari is inhabited by Greeks, and composed of thatched
cottages, like Miraka. The summit of the pointed hill, which rises
a short distance to the west of the village, is crowned with the re-
mains of a fortress, or acropolis, probably that of Phrixa, consisting
of large square blocks, which composed the walls. Herodotus'
attributes the foundation of this place to the Minyans. According
to Stephanus,2, Pherecydes places it in Arcadia. It was thirty stadia
from Olympia. The view from hence is as extensive as interesting,
and it is probable that Palaio Phanari was anciently the station of
a telegraphic beacon, as its modern name seems to indicate.
Towards the west we catch a faint glimpse of the Ionian sea,
whose blue horizon just emerges above the green and undulating
summits of the Eleian hills, between which, and Palaio Phanari, the
Alpheios is seen winding in many maeanders through the level and
verdant meads of Olympia, to its confluence with the sea. Katakolo
Kastro is perceived as a spot upon the coast. Miraka, and its pro-
jecting hills, that almost divide the Olympic plain from that near
Palaio Phanari, appeared almost beneath our feet. The town of
Lalla3 is conspicuously situated on some fiat hills towards the north,
on the opposite side of the river. To the east is another extensive
1 B. 4. c. 148. about 1149 years B. C. * De Urbib. v. <j5f«ca, p. 744.
> This town contains about a thousand houses; the inhabitants all Turks. It is a recent
place, and its population is rapidly increasing.