Considering the importance of my mission, and the great purpose of exploring the whole of Northern Africa, with which I was entrusted, perhaps it had been more wise and prudent on my part, not to have exposed myself to general intercourse, until better qualified to sustain the character I had assumed; had I so done in the present instance, and abstained from visiting the curiosities of Siwah, and exposing myself in the novelty of the attempt, to examinations and suspicions, I might have avoided a danger which (as will appear in the sequel) nearly proved fatal to myself, and therewith to the object of my voyage.
Making such candid admission of not having the requisite forbearance, with objects of so just curiosity in view, I proceed to state the course of my inquiries, and the result.
I first visited the ruins of the extensive edifice before observed. I accosted some men working in the gardens near, and questioning them as to what they knew of this building, they answered, “that in former times Siwah was inhabited by infidels, most of whom lived in caves, but some inhabited these buildings.” One spokesman, pointing to a building in the centre, said, “tradition tells us, that edifice was the hall in which the divan used to assemble; at time of its construction men were stronger than I am; for those huge stones serving as a roof to the fabric, were lifted up and placed there by two men only: there is much gold buried under the walls.” When I then entered into the ruins, I was followed by all the people near, and thus prevented examining the place with any accuracy. On a second visit I was not more successful; and when, after a few days, I returned thither again, some Siwahans directly said to me, “thou undoubtedly art yet a Christian in thy heart, else why come so often to visit these works of Infidels.” In order to maintain the character I had assumed, I was thus necessitated to abandon any further project of nice examination or admeasurement, and restrict myself to general observations, such as I now submit in detail as they occurred.
Ummebeda (the name given to the site of those ruins by the natives) lies near a village called Scharkie or Agrmie, between that place and an isolated mountain, on which a copious spring of fresh water is said to rise. The buildings are in such a state of delapidation, that a plain observer, who forms an opinion only from what he sees, and does not accommodate the object in application and conjecture to preconceived notions of a particular structure which he is to look for, and trace out, could scarcely, (I think) from these rude heaps, and mouldered and disjointed walls, suggest the precise form or original purpose of the building when first raised. Its materials might suggest, that it was built in the rudest ages, and when the Troglodytæ[7] of these parts first left their caves, and in their first attempt of building, took their scheme and plan of architecture from their old mansions, heaping rock on rock, in imitation of the dwelling places which nature had before furnished.
I ascertained the general bearings of the building by my compass, and found the outward walls constructed with aspects facing the four cardinal points, the aberration being only of twelve degrees, and which might have occurred from variation of the needle. The total circumference may be several hundred yards, and is to be traced out and followed by the foundations of a wall, in most parts visible, and which, from the masses remaining, appears to have been very strong. The outward wall, in most places, has been thrown down, and the materials carried away, and the interior ground has been every where turned up, and dug, in search of treasure.
In the centre of this extensive area, are seen the remains of an edifice, which perhaps may be regarded as the principal building,[8] and to which all around may have been mere appendage, and subordinate.
The northern part of this building stands on a native calcareous rock, rising above the level of the general area, within the outer walls, about eight feet. The height of the edifice appears to be about twenty-seven feet; its width twenty-four, and its length ten or twelve paces. The walls are six feet in thickness, the exterior of which within and without is constructed of large free stones, filled up in the interstice with small stones and lime. The ceiling is formed by vast blocks of stone, wrought and fitted to stretch over and cover the entire building. The breadth of each such mass of stone is about four feet, and the depth or thickness three feet. One of these stones of the roof has fallen in, and is broken; the entire southern wall of the building hath likewise tumbled, and the materials have mostly been carried away. But the people have not been able to remove the large fragments fallen from the roof, which their ancestors were enabled to bring from the quarry, and to raise entire to the summit of the edifice. Such are the vicissitudes of art, of knowledge, and of human powers and means, as well as of human happiness and fortunes!
The stones that have fallen, lie sunk, with their surface lower than the base of the yet standing part of the building, and their bottom almost on a level with the area of the great inclosure. The appearance of these fallen stones of the southern wall, leads to a conjecture, that this extremity of the original edifice had its floor or base lower than that of the northern part. The entrances to this building are three, the principal one to the north, and the others to the east and west. The inside walls (beginning at half their height from the ground) are decorated with hieroglyphics sculptured in relief, but the figures seem not to have been sufficiently engraved in alt, or salient, to resist the ravages of time and weather; and in some places they are wholly mouldered and defaced, and especially on the ceiling.
On different parts of the wall appear marks of paint, and the colour seems to have been green. I could no where discover traces of the edifice having in any part been lined or inlaid with a finer stone or material. A few paces from the chief entrance, I observed two round stones, of about three feet diameter, each indented, as if to receive the base of some statue or other ornament. The general material of which the building is constructed, is a lime-stone, containing petrifactions of shells and small marine animals; and such stone is to be found and dug up in the vicinity.
On examining the country around these ruins, I found the soil contiguous to the foundations of the outward wall on the south to be marshy, and was informed that it contained salt springs. I asked if no considerable spring of fresh water was to be seen near; and was shewn a fine rivulet of sweet water, about half a mile from the ruins, which takes its rise in a grove of date trees, and in a most romantic and beautiful situation: it is not, however, its delightful scene that recommends it to the native of Siwah, but an opinion that it is a specific against certain diseases.