DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0023
CITY ON WESTERN HILLS.
g
of course without side walls. As the3e lie near the great commercial
route leading to the ports, M. Burnouf conjectures that they may have
been warehouses.
Our limits will not allow us to enter into any detailed account of
these houses, but we will select for description one or two of the best,
which will give some idea of their nature. One of the most remark-
able, to which M. Burnouf gives the name of the House of the Four
Tombs, lies at the back of the Pnyx, near the ravine and road which
divide it from the Museium Hill. The entrance was at the southern
angle, where several steps led to the door and apparently a first en-
closure or court, on the left of which are two tombs. Around the
enclosure were chambers, resembling those which surround a Pompeian
atrium. In a second enclosure on the right are four sepulchres. This
also is surrounded by rooms, which probably formed part of the house.
Another remarkable house, the last to the south-west on the same hill,
is a Imirably placed. Being almost on a level with the top of the hill,
it commanded on one side a view of the sea and harbours, whilst on the
other it surveyed the Acropolis and its buildings and the distant
mountains of Attica. In the interior of this house, also, is a small
apartment or sacrarium, with a tomb.
Of these rock constructions, the largest and most complete is that
commonly, but absurdly, known as the Prison of Socrates, lying on the
north-east side of the Museium Hill, and facing the Acropolis. It is
excavated out of the rock, which is here cut vertically to an average
depth of about twenty-six feet, and a length of nearly fifty; thus
forming a facade, in which are three doors, the middle one being the
largest. It opens into a sort of lobby, having a large conical niche
in the back wall, which probably is only the commencement of an ex-
cavation. There is a passage from this lobby to the room on the left,
entrance to which is gained also by the third or most eastern door.
This room is almost cubic, being about sixteen feet long, broad, and
high. The floor is fashioned in the manner of an impluvium ; a small
gutter runs through the middle of it, and has its exit at the door.
The apartment at the other extremity, to which the right hand or
g
of course without side walls. As the3e lie near the great commercial
route leading to the ports, M. Burnouf conjectures that they may have
been warehouses.
Our limits will not allow us to enter into any detailed account of
these houses, but we will select for description one or two of the best,
which will give some idea of their nature. One of the most remark-
able, to which M. Burnouf gives the name of the House of the Four
Tombs, lies at the back of the Pnyx, near the ravine and road which
divide it from the Museium Hill. The entrance was at the southern
angle, where several steps led to the door and apparently a first en-
closure or court, on the left of which are two tombs. Around the
enclosure were chambers, resembling those which surround a Pompeian
atrium. In a second enclosure on the right are four sepulchres. This
also is surrounded by rooms, which probably formed part of the house.
Another remarkable house, the last to the south-west on the same hill,
is a Imirably placed. Being almost on a level with the top of the hill,
it commanded on one side a view of the sea and harbours, whilst on the
other it surveyed the Acropolis and its buildings and the distant
mountains of Attica. In the interior of this house, also, is a small
apartment or sacrarium, with a tomb.
Of these rock constructions, the largest and most complete is that
commonly, but absurdly, known as the Prison of Socrates, lying on the
north-east side of the Museium Hill, and facing the Acropolis. It is
excavated out of the rock, which is here cut vertically to an average
depth of about twenty-six feet, and a length of nearly fifty; thus
forming a facade, in which are three doors, the middle one being the
largest. It opens into a sort of lobby, having a large conical niche
in the back wall, which probably is only the commencement of an ex-
cavation. There is a passage from this lobby to the room on the left,
entrance to which is gained also by the third or most eastern door.
This room is almost cubic, being about sixteen feet long, broad, and
high. The floor is fashioned in the manner of an impluvium ; a small
gutter runs through the middle of it, and has its exit at the door.
The apartment at the other extremity, to which the right hand or