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Goodisson, William
A historical and topographical essay upon the islands of Corfu, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Zante: with remarks upon the character manners and customs of the Ionian Greeks : descriptions of the scenery and remains of antiquity discovered therein, and reflections upon the Cyclopian ruins, illustrated by maps and sketches — London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1822

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.65890#0132
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This harbour was connected with the city
by a strong cyclopean wall, which ran along
the base of the mountain, and through the plain
in rear of the present town, shutting up the
only defile in the mountains by which the city
could have been surprised. It was strength-
ened at intervals by projecting square towers*,
and at about the middle it was united to a second
similar wall, running from it at right angles to the
gate at the back of the town of Santa Maura. These
ruins are concealed in the olive wood behind
the town of Santa Maura. Two thousand five
hundred paces of the first are to be traced, running
in a direct line between the old mole and Leucate,
and about one thousand paces of the second. The
towers project towards the channel: they are
about eight paces square upon the outside. The
butt of the old mole is also still in existence, but,
what is rather singular, the best informed of the
natives are ignorant of it’s existence The very
ancient stile of the standing walls, the dispersion
of the large masses of stone which composed the
remainder, probably caused by the breaching by
the Roman engines, the existence of the bridge
made to pass the canal, at the point where the head
of the isthmus originally was, and where the ruins
of Leucate are now found, exactly as described by
Livy and Strabo, are facts, which demonstrate the
* A Sketch of one of the towers is given in Plate II.
f Its site is laid down in the map, as also the lines of the two
cyclopean walls.
 
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