[13]The water is also too deep to admit of one, and becomes so on a sudden within a few feet of the beach.
[14]A further description of the Harbour and Cothon will be found, with other details of Ptolemeta, at the end of the chapter.
[15]See the plan of these in the plate prefixed to page 367. The columns are given in the vignette at the beginning of this chapter.
[16]The inscriptions will be found in the plate prefixed to Chapter 14.
[17]After sowing the corn, the Arabs leave it to enjoy the advantages of the winter rains, and never return to it till it comes to maturity and is ready to be cut and carried away.
CHAPTER XIII.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CITIES OF TEUCHIRA AND PTOLEMETA.
Actual Condition of the City of Teuchira — Perfect State and great Strength of its Walls — Suggested Period of their Erection — Mode in which they are constructed — Gates of the City — Narrow Passage communicating with them — Probable Advance of the Sea at Teuchira — Line described by the Walls — Estimated Circuit of them according to Signor Della Cella — Greek Inscriptions cut in various parts of them — Suggestions of Signor Della Cella respecting them — Actual Nature of the Inscriptions — Excavated Tombs in the Quarries of Teuchira — Egyptian Names of Months generally adopted by the Inhabitants of the City — General Nature of the Plans of the Tombs — Some of the Bodies appear to have been burnt, and others to have been buried entire — No Difference appears to have obtained at Teuchira between the Modes of Burial adopted by its Greek and Roman Inhabitants — Encumbered State of what are probably the earliest Tombs — Solitary instance of a Painted Tomb at Teuchira — Remains of Christian Churches, and other Buildings within the Walls — Disposition of the Streets — Remains without the Walls — No Statues, or Remains of them, discovered by our Party at Teuchira — Remarks on the Wall of Ptolemeta — Remains of a Naustothmos, or Naval Station, observed there — Other Remains of Building on the Beach near the Station — Further traces of the City-Wall — Dimensions of Ptolemeta — Remains of Theatres found there — Description of the larger one — Ruins described by Bruce as part of an Ionic Temple — Other Remains in the Neighbourhood of these — Remarks on the Style of some of the Buildings of Ptolemeta, as contrasted with those of Egypt and Nubia — Probable Date of its existing Remains.
It will be seen, by a reference to the plan of the city of Teuchira, that there is little now remaining within the limits of its walls to call for any particular details. The destruction of the town has, in fact, been so complete, that it is scarcely more than a heap of confused ruins; and the various fragments of building which are scattered over its surface encumber the ground-plans so effectually, that more labour and time would be necessary for their removal than the buildings would probably merit. It is evident that Teuchira has been intentionally destroyed; and that the solidity of its walls has alone prevented them from being confounded in the general wreck. The perfect state in which these still continue to remain will, however, compensate for the losses we have sustained within their limits; and we may consider them as affording one of the best examples extant of the military walls of the ancients. Procopius has informed us that the city of Teuchira was very strongly fortified by the Emperor Justinian; and the restoration of the original wall which inclosed it (which we may suppose to have been laid in ruins by the Vandals) was probably the chief point to which the historian alluded. We are not aware of any data by which the precise period of the first erection of these walls may be ascertained; but their solidity would induce us to refer them to an epoch anterior to the time of the Ptolemies; while the regularity with which they have, at the same time, been constructed would prevent us from assigning to them a very early date[1]. It is well known that the most ancient walls which remain to us are as remarkable for the irregularity as they are for the solidity of their structure; and the term Cyclopean, which has been generally applied to them, has almost become synonymous with irregular.