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

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

It is probable that the separation of a part of the cliff from the rest, in consequence of the foundation having given way, was the cause of the destruction of the portico of Dionysius, (the name which is mentioned in the inscription;) no other indications of which now remain except the marks we have alluded to in the surface of the rock. The front of the fountain is however much encumbered with soil, washed down by the winter rains from above; and parts of the portico may yet be found beneath it should this place be excavated at any future period: the chambers within are also much encumbered with the same material, washed in through the entrance where the tablet was discovered, and it is by no means improbable that interesting remains might be found underneath the soil which is collected there.

There is a good deal of building in front of the mountain (without the limits which we may suppose to have been occupied by the portico of Dionysius,) of which it seems difficult to establish the nature; if it be not in some way connected with the reception of the water, and its distribution over the town of Cyrene. It appears to us that the stream was originally confined, and raised by lateral compression to a height sufficient to allow of its being conducted into different parts of the town, the level of which is considerably above that of the fountain itself; but in what precise manner this object was accomplished we will not here venture to suggest. The remains of an aqueduct are still visible on the brow of the hill, from which the cliff descends perpendicularly to the fountain, leading from thence to the brink of a ravine on the opposite side, down which also flows another stream of excellent water. From the traces of building which we perceived about this ravine we should imagine that the aqueduct had been formerly thrown across it, and the water distributed over the cultivated grounds which lie without the walls of the city; at present the stream which flows down it, as well as that of the fountain already described, finds its way over the country below into the sea, and is no otherwise serviceable than as it affords an occasional draught to the Bedouins who frequent the neighbourhood during the summer, and to the cattle who drink with their masters. The excavated chambers of the fountain of Apollo[2] are occupied at this season by flocks of sheep and goats, and the whole of the level space in front of the mountain is thickly covered at such times with these animals, as well as with numerous herds of cattle, attracted thither by the water which now strays over its surface. When we first arrived at Cyrene these intruders had not made their appearance; and we rambled about, to our great comfort and satisfaction, without meeting a single living creature besides those of our own party in the day time, and a few jackalls and hyænas in the morning and evening, which always ran off on our approach.

After satisfying our thirst, and, in some degree, our curiosity, at the fountain, we descended a few feet to some remains which we perceived on a level piece of ground below it; and found that they were those of a peripteral temple which, from the fragment of an inscription that we discovered among its ruins, mentioning the name of the Goddess, appears to have been dedicated to Diana.

Little more than the ground-plan of this temple is now remaining, and most of the columns are buried beneath the soil; we were able, however, to ascertain that the portico was hexastyle, and the columns about four feet and a half in diameter: those on the south side are so completely buried that no traces of them whatever are visible; but from those which are still in their places on the opposite side we were led to suppose that the number of columns was no more than ten, instead of eleven, which is the usual proportion in peripteral temples according to the rules laid down by Vitruvius[3]. As the number of lateral intercolumniations would not, with this disposition, be double the number of those in the front, the whole length of the temple in question could not be equal to twice its breadth, which we accordingly find to be the case: and it is probable, therefore, that the ædes, or body of the temple, was built before the other parts of it, and that the columns and porticoes were added at a subsequent period, and the number of pillars regulated by the dimensions of what was already constructed. At the same time the width of the intercolumniations does not appear to have been greater than seven feet, which is scarcely more (as compared with the size of the shaft) than the shortest space allowed between columns in Greek and Roman architecture[4]. There are no columns, at either end, between the antæ in this temple; and the walls of the ædes must have been continued from the angle till they reached the jambs of the doorways. If the statue of the deity looked towards the west (as recommended by Vitruvius, chap. v.)[5] it must have been placed in the pronaos, and not in the cella, to have been seen through the doorway from without; for the wall which divides the cella from the pronaos continued too far across the interior to have allowed of any door in the centre of it, opening from one of these to the other, (as will appear by the plan;) and it would be absurd to look for a communication between them in any other part of the wall. Under this disposition, had the statue been in the cella, and its face turned towards the west, it must have looked against the wall in question; and could not have been seen at all from the western front of the temple[6]. From the portions of Doric entablature which we perceived among the ruins of this temple, we may conjecture that it was of that order; but we could no where discover any parts of the capitals belonging to the columns, and the bases, if ever there were any, are buried under the soil which has accumulated about the building. It will be seen by the plate (page 430) that there is a building attached to this temple on the northward which has no connection with its original plan; and there are other remains of building beyond these, and to the westward of them, which will require excavation to determine their plans. We have already mentioned the fragment from which we have ventured to conjecture that the temple was dedicated to Diana; and we may add that a mutilated female figure (of which we have given a drawing, page 427) was also found close to its northern wall. The statue, it will be seen, is in a sitting position; and a part of the chair only was visible when we first discovered it among the heavy fragments of building with which it was encumbered, as well as with the soil which had accumulated about it. We succeeded, however, after some trouble in clearing it, and were rather disappointed at finding so little of it remaining. The girdle which encircles the waist of this figure has been executed with great care and precision; it is represented as closely tied, and the ends of it, which hang down in front, are finished with little tassels strongly relieved from the surface of the drapery; this object, in fact, seems to have been one of primary importance with the sculptor, and may have been intended (if we suppose it to have been the statue of Diana) to point out symbolically the peculiar characteristic of the goddess, her attachment to (or rather her profession of) perpetual celibacy[7].

It was between the remains of the temple of Diana and the fountain that we discovered the beautiful bas-relief of white marble which we have already mentioned above; and near it we found the torso of a male figure the size of life (also of white marble) executed in the best style of Grecian sculpture.

A little beyond this temple the level tract of ground stretching out from the base of the cliff from which the fountain issues is terminated by a strongly-built wall, the top of which is even with the surface; it has been built for the purpose of keeping up the soil, which would otherwise, from the abrupt descent of the ground, be washed down by the winter rains and the buildings upon it exposed to be undermined. This wall, which is a very conspicuous object from below, must have formed in its perfect state an admirable defence, as it would have effectually precluded the possibility of any approach to the place from the country beneath. Since the waters of the fountain have been left to their natural course the stream pours itself over the top of the wall in a pretty, romantic-looking cascade; the effect of which is heightened by the trees growing up against the barrier, amongst whose branches the water dashes in its passage to the plains below. A few paces beyond the first wall the ground again descends abruptly and is kept up by a similar structure; after which it continues to do so more rapidly, each descent being quickly succeeded by another, till they finish altogether at the foot of the mountain.

The position of Cyrene is, in fact, on the edge of a range of hills of about eight hundred feet in height, descending in galleries, one below another, till they are terminated by the level ground which forms the summit of a second range beneath it. At the foot of the upper range, on which the city was built, is a fine sweep of table-land most beautifully varied with wood, among which are scattered tracts of barley and corn, and meadows which are covered for a great part of the year with verdure. Ravines, whose sides are thickly covered with trees, intersect the country in various directions, and form the channels of the mountain-streams in their passage from the upper range to the sea. The varied tract of table-land of which we are speaking extends itself east and west as far as the eye can reach; and to the northward (after stretching about five miles in that direction) it descends abruptly to the sea. The lower chain, which runs all along the coast of the Cyrenaica, is here, as it is at Ptolemeta and other places, thickly covered with wood, and intersected, like the upper range, with wild and romantic ravines; which assume grander features as they approach the sea. The height of the lower chain may be estimated at a thousand feet, and Cyrene, as situated on the summit of the upper one, is elevated about eighteen hundred feet from the level of the sea, of which it commands an extensive view over the top of the range below it[8]. For a day or two after our first arrival at Cyrene a thick haze had settled over the coast, and we were not aware that the sea was seen so plainly from the town as we afterwards found it to have been. When the mist cleared away the view was truly magnificent; and may be said to be one of those which remain impressed upon the mind, undiminished in interest by a comparison with others, and as strongly depicted there after a lapse of many years as if it were still before the eyes. We shall never forget the first effect of this scene (on approaching the edge of the height on which Cyrene is situated) when the fine sweep of land which lies stretched at the foot of the range burst suddenly upon us in all its varied forms and tints; and imagination painted the depth of the descent from the summit of the distant hills beneath us to the coast, terminated by the long uninterrupted line of blue, which was distinguished rising high in the misty horizon. If we knew in what the powers of description consisted we should be tempted to employ them on this occasion; and would endeavour to convey to the minds of our readers the same impressions of the beautiful position of Cyrene which the view of it suggested to ourselves. But one glance of the eye is, we fear, worth more, in calling up the feelings which are produced by fine scenery, than all that description is capable of effecting; and the impressions which time will never efface from our own minds would never (it is probable) be stamped, by words of ours, on the minds of those in whom we could wish to excite them. Under this conviction we will turn from the view before us, and proceed to describe a very remarkable peculiarity in the northern face of the heights of Cyrene. We have already stated that the side of the mountain descends abruptly, in this direction, to the plain below; not by a single, unbroken descent, but in ledges, or galleries, one above another, which terminate only in the plain itself. The Cyreneans have judiciously taken advantage of this formation, and shaped the ridges alluded to into practicable roads leading along the side of the mountain, which have originally communicated in some instances one with another by means of narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. The roads are to this day very plainly indented with the marks of chariot wheels deeply sunk in their smooth stony surface; and appear to have been the favourite drives of the inhabitants who enjoyed from them the delightful view which we have despaired of being able to place before our readers. The rock, in most instances, rises perpendicularly from one side of these aërial galleries, and is excavated into innumerable tombs, which have been formed with great labour and taste, and the greater number of them have been adorned with architectural façades built against the smooth side of the rock itself, contributing materially to increase the interest, and to add to the beauty of the drives. When the rock would serve for the porticoes in front of the tombs, without any addition of building, it was left in the forms required; and if only a part of it would serve, the remainder was added by the architect. This mode of proceeding added greatly to the strength of the work, and was probably attended, at the same time, with a saving of labour. The outer sides of the roads, where they descended from one range to another, were ornamented with sarcophagi and monumental tombs, and the whole sloping space between the galleries was completely filled up with similar structures. These, as well as the excavated tombs, exhibit very superior taste and execution; and the clusters of dark green furze and slender shrubs with which they are now partly overgrown, give an additional effect, by their contrast of forms and colour, to the multitude of white buildings which spring up from the midst of them. We have endeavoured in the drawing here annexed, to give some idea of this remarkable scene; but although we have copied it with fidelity, and with all the care which our time allowed, the effect of our view falls very far short of that which is produced by the scene itself[9].

On leaving the fountain and the temple of Diana we descended the side of the hill and took our course along the galleries we have mentioned, passing with some difficulty from one to another, through the thick furze with which the ground is overspread, and entering the most conspicuous of the excavated tombs which we passed in our route along the roads.

They usually consisted of a single chamber; at the end of which, opposite the doorway, was an elegant, highly finished façade, almost always of the Doric order, cut in the smooth surface of the rock itself with great regularity and beauty of execution. It generally represented a portico, and the number of columns by which it was supposed to be supported varied according to the length of the tomb. The spaces between the columns themselves also varied; the porticoes being sometimes monotriglyph, and sometimes ditriglyph, according to the fancy of the architect. Between the columns were the cellæ (if we may call them so) for the reception of the ashes or the bodies of the deceased, cut far into the rock, at right angles with the façade; and the height of these was necessarily regulated by that of the columns from the level of the chamber[10]. As the spaces between the columns were wider, or otherwise, the width of the cellæ varied accordingly, there never being more than one of these recesses between any two of the columns. The cellæ had often separate façades on a smaller scale than the principal one, but always of the same order; and they were occasionally made to represent doorways: the entrance to them appears to have been originally closed with a tablet of stone on which there was probably some inscription recording the names of the persons within. In some instances part of such a tablet was left standing, but we never found one entire in any of the tombs, and very rarely saw fragments of them at all. As most of the chambers are, however, much encumbered with soil washed in by the rains through the doorway of the tomb, it is probable that some of these might be found entire on excavating either the chambers themselves, or the ground immediately about the entrance to them[11]. The cellæ were sometimes sunk to a considerable depth below the levels of the chambers, and contained ranges of bodies or cineral urns placed one above another, each division being separated from that above and beneath it by a slab of stone, resting on a projecting moulding which was raised on two sides of the cella. There are also divisions, in many instances, in the length of the cellæ, some of them containing three and four places for bodies on the same level, but these are always ranged (to use a naval phrase) head and stern of each other; and we never saw an instance in which any two of them were parallel. In fact, the width of the cella, which, we have already stated, was regulated by the space between the columns, would have rendered such an arrangement impossible, since it was of the same breadth in all parts, whatever might be its extent in length and depth. For a more complete idea of these elegant mansions of the dead we refer our readers to the plates containing the ground-plans and elevations of such of them as we had time to secure on paper. It will be seen that the proportions of the several members of the entablature varied considerably in the few instances given; and indeed, we may say that there are scarcely two façades where the measurements exactly correspond[12].

There were, however, very few instances in which the established laws of proportion, so far as propriety and apparent security are concerned, were in any way materially violated, (at least, we may say, not in our opinion;) and the eye is seldom offended by an appearance either of weakness or clumsiness in the columns, or of heaviness or insignificance in their entablatures. There is at the same time a good deal of variety in the disposition of the interiors, and the workmanship is usually very good, and occasionally, indeed very frequently, admirable. In several of the excavated tombs we discovered remains of painting, representing historical, allegorical, and pastoral subjects, executed in the manner of those of Herculaneum and Pompeii, some of which were by no means inferior, when perfect, to the best compositions which have come down to us of those cities. In one of the chambers, which we shall hereafter describe, we found a suite of what appear to be allegorical subjects, executed with great freedom of pencil and still exhibiting uncommon richness of colour. The composition and design of these groups display at the same time great knowledge of the art, and do credit to the classic taste and good feeling of the painter. It appears extremely probable that all the excavated tombs were originally adorned with paintings in body colour representing either compositions of figures or of animals, or at any rate devices and patterns. We ascertained very clearly that the different members of the architecture have also in many instances been coloured; and these examples may be adduced in further confirmation of what has been inferred from the recent discoveries at Athens—that the Greeks (like the Egyptians) were in the habit of painting their buildings; thus destroying the simplicity and sullying the modest hue of their Parian and Pentelic marbles! We do not allude to the representation of figures or compositions, which might rather, perhaps, be considered ornamental than otherwise; but to the actual disfigurement of the several members of the architecture by covering them with strong and gaudy colours; a practice as revolting to good taste and propriety as that of dressing the Apollo (if we may suppose such profanation) in a gold-laced coat and waistcoat; or the Venus of Praxiteles in stiff stays and petticoats. We are sorry to observe that the practice we allude to does not appear to be the result of any occasional caprice or fancy, but of a generally established system; for the colours of the several parts do not seem to have materially varied in any two instances with which we are acquainted. The same colours are used for the same members of the architecture in so many of the tombs at Cyrene, that we can scarcely doubt that one particular colour was appropriated by general consent or practice to each of the several parts of the buildings. The triglyphs, for instance, with their capitals, were invariably painted blue in all the examples we know of where their colours are still remaining; and the regulæ and mutules, together with their guttæ, were always of the same colour, as was also the fillet which we have described as intervening between the capitals of the triglyphs and the cymatium below the corona. The soffit of the corona was also painted blue, in the parts which were occupied by the mutules; and the space between the latter, together with the scotia, were at the same time painted red: the sides of the mutules, and the upper part of the moulding which we have mentioned as running along the tops of the metopes, together with the tænia, or fillet, below the triglyphs, were equally of a red colour. Patterns were at the same time very frequently painted, chiefly in blue and red, on the cymatia of the entablature and of the plinths of the capitals; and this was equally the case when the patterns were cut as well as when they were put in in outline. The central annulet was usually painted blue and the upper and lower ones red; and when there were only two they were both painted red, which was sometimes the only colour employed when there were three. We could not ascertain what particular colour was used for the abacus and echinus, for we seldom found any traces of colour remaining either upon them or upon the shafts of the columns. In one or two instances, however, the abacus seems to have been red, and in one which we have given in plate (p. 452), it appears to have been something of a lilac colour. The colours of the metopes and architraves must also be left in uncertainty; and, indeed, it may perhaps be inferred from our never finding any positive colour remaining upon them, that the larger parts of the entablature were left plain, and that the smaller, or ornamental, parts only were painted. We are ourselves inclined to think that this was the case, as well with regard to the entablature as to the columns; for we should otherwise have found the parts in question occasionally painted, which we do not recollect to have decidedly seen.