Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

There is one example of a painted tomb at Teuchira, in very bad taste, and this was the only one we could perceive that was so; it is probable, however, that most of them have been originally painted, and that what we see at present are the mere skeletons of the originals[7].

Of the buildings contained within the walls of the city, the most interesting of those whose plans were distinguishable, appeared to us to be the two Christian churches which will be found, with all the details we could procure of them, in the plate, page 367. In both these it will be seen, that the part devoted to the altar was on the eastern side of the building; but the extreme length of one of them is much greater than usual, and it is not unlikely that the portion at its western extremity, although comprised in the same line of wall, was part of another building.

Near one of these (that to the eastward of the town) we found part of an entablature in the worst taste of the lower empire, which we conjectured to be the remains alluded to by Signor Della Cella, as probably having formed a part of the temple of Bacchus: it is true that they are mentioned by the Doctor as capitals and not as parts of the epistylia; but as the fragment is small, it is possible that such a mistake may have been made; and if this be not what is alluded to in the passage below, we confess that nothing else could be found among the ruins which would at all correspond with the description[8].

The streets of Teuchira appear to have been built in squares, and to have crossed each other at right angles. One large street seems to have passed completely across the town, from the eastern to the western gateway; and towards the centre of this we found some columns and the arch of a gateway which probably stood across the street. In various parts of the city, to the north-east and south-west of it in particular, there are imposing remains of fallen columns and entablatures, which have no doubt belonged to buildings of more than ordinary importance; but without excavation it would not be possible to give any satisfactory account of them, and we have not ventured, in our plan of the town, to hazard any attempt at restoring them. There are also some interesting remains of buildings at the north-eastern angle of the city, where part of a quarry has been enclosed within the walls for the better defence of the place, to which indeed it effectually contributes; a strong fort has been built at this angle, in an elevated and commanding position, which appears to have been the citadel, or strong-hold of the town. Without the walls, to the westward of the town, there are also some interesting remains, the plans of which we attempted to complete without success: we found there a group in alto-relief, apparently of Roman workmanship, of which we have given an outline at page 367. There were probably, in earlier times, many statues in the city of Teuchira; but none of them at present remain, not, at least, that we could discover; and they have, perhaps, not survived the barbarism of the Vandals, or the fanaticism and ignorance of those who have succeeded them.

We now pass to the remains of Ptolemeta; and shall begin by observing, that no traces of the wall, which originally enclosed it would present themselves to the notice of a casual observer in taking a general view of the town. On examination, however, in the neighbourhood of the gateway, with which it seems probable that walls have been connected, we discovered traces of them running straight down to the quarry, in which we have already mentioned the amphitheatre was built and excavated. Here we found that the wall had passed through the quarry; and that a portion of the rock had been left on each side of it, in the line of the wall’s direction, connecting the part which ran down from the gateway with that which we discovered on the opposite side of the quarry, extending itself from thence to the sea. The remains of the wall between the quarry and the sea are very conspicuous and decided; they run down quite to the water’s edge, and are here about eight feet in thickness, and, in some parts, as much as twelve and thirteen feet in height[9]. Without these (to the westward), almost buried in sand, are the remains of the Naustathmos (or naval station), built for the protection of vessels: they begin from the wall, following the line of the beach towards the mouth of the western ravine, and were themselves protected from the sea by a breakwater of about fourteen feet in thickness. The walls of the υφορμοι (uphormoi)[10] are seven feet in thickness, and the spaces which they inclose, where the vessels were stationed, as much as thirty and forty feet across, in those parts which the sand had not altogether covered. To the westward of the ravine, other traces of wall are visible, extending themselves from that (in a line with the beach) along a road which leads towards the quarries, in which are the insulated tombs already alluded to, represented in plate (p. 355). Further traces of walls are observable running round this harbour towards the point marked A in the plan; and it seems to have been altogether divided from the inland country, as we find to have been usual with the ancients, more particularly in time of war[11]. We had no opportunities of ascertaining whether any other remains of a cothon are to be seen between the points A and B, where the χηλαι (keelai, or cornua), the claws, or horns (as they were called) of the harbour, would be looked for if any such had formerly existed. Remains of a wall running round the small port within the town (on the eastern side of point B), and which we may call the eastern harbour, are still visible; and a strong fort yet remains on either side of it, at the eastern and western extremity of the wall, which appears to have been often the case[12].

The Pharos, or light-house, if any such existed, was probably erected on the high ground on point B, in the neighbourhood of the fort at its eastern extremity, and columns and other fragments of building, at the back of the western port, point out the places of those structures usually erected by the ancients near their harbours, for the accommodation of the merchants and sailors: here also are the remains of a bridge which was formerly thrown across the ravine, running down to the wall of this port.

We have already said that traces of the city-wall are observable between the quarry which contains the amphitheatre and the gateway; and a portion of it may also be remarked extending from the latter to the mountains at the back of the town; where they are connected with other parts of it running along the foot of the range to the inner bank of the eastern ravine. There again decided remains of the wall may be traced running parallel with the same ravine; and which, passing near the bridge represented in plate (p. 362,) continue towards the sea as far as the remains of the second bridge which we have already mentioned. Beyond this we could perceive no more traces of the wall; although it seems more than probable that it extended on this side to the beach, (as we find it to have done on the opposite side to the westward,) and that it passed along parallel with the sea, till it joined the portions connecting the two forts of the eastern harbour, which we have already observed to be remaining. We could not discover any traces of a gateway in the eastern wall of the city; but it is probable that there was formerly one on this side also, leading to the upper bridge, where some very strong works are still extant, in the form of a curve, as will appear by a reference to the plan.

It is difficult to say how these works were connected with the remains of the wall between them and the mountains; and had our time allowed it, we should have excavated about them for the purpose of discovering the connection.

We may reckon that the walls of Ptolemeta, when entire, inclosed a quadrangle of eighteen thousand English feet in circuit; and the line of wall which may be traced from the existing remains covers a space of at least thirteen thousand. A line drawn through the centre of the city, from north to south, would be about four thousand eight hundred feet in length; and that which should be drawn across it from east to west, about four thousand four hundred. The whole circuit of the city would thus be somewhat less than three English miles and a half[13]; its length, from north to south, something less than a mile[14], and its breadth from east to west something more than three-quarters[15].

Such of the plans of the buildings at Ptolemeta as could in their present state be satisfactorily made out, will be found in plate (page 385;) but although the forms of the theatres and amphitheatre prevent their being mistaken for other buildings, it would not be possible without excavation to make out their details with any accuracy. We have given our idea of the larger of the two theatres, from the appearance and the measurements of the existing remains of it[16], but the smaller one was too much ruined, and too much encumbered, to allow of our hazarding a similar attempt, and we have confined ourselves to its general dimensions, as given in the plan of the town. We may reckon the diameter of the orchestra of the larger theatre at about one hundred and forty-five English feet, and that of the part appropriated to the cunei, at about fifty of the same. The whole diameter of the theatre would thus be two hundred and forty-five feet. It will be observed that the area of the orchestra is very considerably larger than that occupied by the same part of the building in Greek and Roman theatres in general, and that the passages leading into it are wider in proportion to the cunei than usual. It will also be seen, from the absence of any prœcinctions, that there were no interior communications in this theatre, by which the spectators dispersed themselves over the body of the house: the only approach to the seats having been by means of passages communicating directly with the orchestra from without, which appear to have been nearly on a level with the orchestra itself; the roofs of them, only, sloping somewhat in the direction of the seats themselves. As these (the seats) were comparatively few, and the spaces between the passages inconsiderable, there was no necessity for staircases, and we accordingly find no appearance of any communications of this nature. As it seems, however, that the lowest range of seats was raised a few feet above the level of the passage and of the orchestra, a short flight of steps would have been necessary, to render the access to them easy; and we thought we observed traces, in two or three of the divisions, of there having been one originally in each. The arched roofs of all the passages have fallen in, and every part of the theatre has suffered materially from the effects of rainy winters, rather than of time.