DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0114
CHAPTER IX.
OF SOME ANTIQUITIES, WHICH, FROM THEIR RUINED STATE, ARE MORE
INCONSIDERABLE.
Besides the ruins already described in this volume, several less considerable remains are to be seen in
different parts of Athens.
Of these the Gymnasium of Ptolemya occupies by much the largest space; detached fragments
of its ruined walls remain in that part of the city near the Basar, and are there intermixed with a
number of habitations, many of them the residence of Turkish families, amongst whom an extreme
regard for the honour of their women renders access difficult, and a diligent research impracticable.
This was, however, less to be regretted, since, from the fullest information we could, after the
strictest inquiry, obtain, we were assured, that not any fragment of sculpture or architectural orna-
ment was to be found there. I have therefore contented myself with marking its situation in the
Map of Athens in this volume, and therein expressing the form of its outward walls.
There is likewise a building near the Tower of the Winds, that attracted our notice: it is of
undoubted antiquity, and not void of elegance; but, as it was inhabited by a Turkish lady, a widow,
respected for her exemplary life, her austere manners, and extensive bounty, we did not press with
unbecoming solicitation for admission into her house; for had she complied, it would have been
esteemed a high breach of Turkish decorum ; this, together with her most religious detestation of all
"who were not true believers, effectually excluded us, and disappointed our curiosity. We however
Measured and made drawings of the external face next to the street, but have not been able to form
so much as a guess at its original name or destination ; but the fragment of an inscription on its frieze
proves it to have been a public edifice, and its form shews that it was not a temple. It faces the east,
and lies due south of the Temple of the Winds b.
a The remains of a pediment on an exterior wall are still to be
observed at these ruins, and the peculiarity of some of the ma-
sonry, being built in alternately high and low courses of marble, (a
species of the Pseudisodomon, mentioned by Vitruvius,) attracts
observation. See Vol. I. PL XXII. Fig. 12. and also Vol. III.
P- 65, note ". OD0
b This ruin having remained immured by the above-mentioned
building, which continued occupied by Turks until the early
Part of the present war, the same obstruction was presented as
in the time of Stuart and Revett, to the full examination of its
architectural details. The arches of which this antiquity con-
sists being apparently a portion of a continued series not ori-
ginally built against on either side, and the proximity to them
of the Ilorologium of Cyrrhestes, induced the supposition that
they belonged to an aqueduct which conveyed water to the Clep-
sydra ; and the position of the spring near the Grotto of Pan,
the water of which was recently conducted by pipes nearly in
the same direction to the great Mosque, added probability to
such a conjecture, and gave rise to the following remarks of Mr.
iJkins. "Stuart, indeed, found the remains of the aqueduct
which supplied the Clepsydra, although he was not aware of the
VOL. III.
purposes for which they were originally intended. This is the
more extraordinary, inasmuch as he describes the ruins to face the
south-east, and to lie due south with regard to the Clepsydra;
consequently in a line which, if prolonged, would pass through
the circular projection containing the reservoir." Regarding.
however, the particular position and direction of this building,
Mr. J. I. Scoles, an architect (in the correctness of whose observa-
tions we have perfect confidence) who was at Athens in 1824,
after several of the modern buildings in this locality had been
destroyed, acquaints us, that the line of these arches bears 35°
west of south, and is not directed, as previously asserted, to the
circular projection or castellum on the south side of the Horolo-
gium, but that its prolongation would fall precisely on the wsw.
angle of that octangular edifice, and he also found that the north-
ward pier of this ruin is 36 feet only distant to the southward of
the wnw. angle of the same octagon. It would therefore ap-
pear, if this building were really an aqueduct to the Clepsydra
that it must have been deflected within that distance, previously
to arriving at the cylindric projection.
It is to be regretted that Stuart did not preserve a copy of
the inscription he speaks of in the frieze of this building as it
F F
OF SOME ANTIQUITIES, WHICH, FROM THEIR RUINED STATE, ARE MORE
INCONSIDERABLE.
Besides the ruins already described in this volume, several less considerable remains are to be seen in
different parts of Athens.
Of these the Gymnasium of Ptolemya occupies by much the largest space; detached fragments
of its ruined walls remain in that part of the city near the Basar, and are there intermixed with a
number of habitations, many of them the residence of Turkish families, amongst whom an extreme
regard for the honour of their women renders access difficult, and a diligent research impracticable.
This was, however, less to be regretted, since, from the fullest information we could, after the
strictest inquiry, obtain, we were assured, that not any fragment of sculpture or architectural orna-
ment was to be found there. I have therefore contented myself with marking its situation in the
Map of Athens in this volume, and therein expressing the form of its outward walls.
There is likewise a building near the Tower of the Winds, that attracted our notice: it is of
undoubted antiquity, and not void of elegance; but, as it was inhabited by a Turkish lady, a widow,
respected for her exemplary life, her austere manners, and extensive bounty, we did not press with
unbecoming solicitation for admission into her house; for had she complied, it would have been
esteemed a high breach of Turkish decorum ; this, together with her most religious detestation of all
"who were not true believers, effectually excluded us, and disappointed our curiosity. We however
Measured and made drawings of the external face next to the street, but have not been able to form
so much as a guess at its original name or destination ; but the fragment of an inscription on its frieze
proves it to have been a public edifice, and its form shews that it was not a temple. It faces the east,
and lies due south of the Temple of the Winds b.
a The remains of a pediment on an exterior wall are still to be
observed at these ruins, and the peculiarity of some of the ma-
sonry, being built in alternately high and low courses of marble, (a
species of the Pseudisodomon, mentioned by Vitruvius,) attracts
observation. See Vol. I. PL XXII. Fig. 12. and also Vol. III.
P- 65, note ". OD0
b This ruin having remained immured by the above-mentioned
building, which continued occupied by Turks until the early
Part of the present war, the same obstruction was presented as
in the time of Stuart and Revett, to the full examination of its
architectural details. The arches of which this antiquity con-
sists being apparently a portion of a continued series not ori-
ginally built against on either side, and the proximity to them
of the Ilorologium of Cyrrhestes, induced the supposition that
they belonged to an aqueduct which conveyed water to the Clep-
sydra ; and the position of the spring near the Grotto of Pan,
the water of which was recently conducted by pipes nearly in
the same direction to the great Mosque, added probability to
such a conjecture, and gave rise to the following remarks of Mr.
iJkins. "Stuart, indeed, found the remains of the aqueduct
which supplied the Clepsydra, although he was not aware of the
VOL. III.
purposes for which they were originally intended. This is the
more extraordinary, inasmuch as he describes the ruins to face the
south-east, and to lie due south with regard to the Clepsydra;
consequently in a line which, if prolonged, would pass through
the circular projection containing the reservoir." Regarding.
however, the particular position and direction of this building,
Mr. J. I. Scoles, an architect (in the correctness of whose observa-
tions we have perfect confidence) who was at Athens in 1824,
after several of the modern buildings in this locality had been
destroyed, acquaints us, that the line of these arches bears 35°
west of south, and is not directed, as previously asserted, to the
circular projection or castellum on the south side of the Horolo-
gium, but that its prolongation would fall precisely on the wsw.
angle of that octangular edifice, and he also found that the north-
ward pier of this ruin is 36 feet only distant to the southward of
the wnw. angle of the same octagon. It would therefore ap-
pear, if this building were really an aqueduct to the Clepsydra
that it must have been deflected within that distance, previously
to arriving at the cylindric projection.
It is to be regretted that Stuart did not preserve a copy of
the inscription he speaks of in the frieze of this building as it
F F