When Homer[260] makes Hector descend from the Pergamus and rush through the city in order to arrive at the Scæan Gate, this can only have arisen from the fact that, after the destruction of Troy, the gate, as well as the street which led down from it to the Plain, were covered with a layer of débris 10 feet thick, so that the names only were known from tradition, and their actual site was unknown.
In order not to weary the reader with a detailed description of the Scæan Gate, I give an exact plan of it, where all the details may be seen. ([Plan III]., p. 306.) This gate, as well as the large ancient building, stands upon the wall or buttress already mentioned as leaning on the north side of the Tower. At this place the buttress appears to be about 79 feet thick, and to be made of the débris which was broken off the primary soil when the Tower was erected. The site of this building, upon an artificial elevation directly above the gate, together with its solid structure, leave no doubt that it was the grandest building in Troy; nay, that it must have been the Palace of Priam.[261] I am having an accurate plan made, so far as I can, of the portion that has been laid bare; I cannot, however, bring to light the whole of it, for in order to do this I should have to pull down both my stone and my wooden house, beneath which it extends; and even if I did pull down my own houses, I should still be unable to make a complete plan of the house till I had removed the building which stands upon it, and this I cannot at once make up my mind to do.
Anyone may convince himself that the elevation, upon which stands the Palace of King Priam above the Scæan Gate, is in reality an artificial one, by examining my last year’s great cutting, which pierces through a portion of this elevation. The walls of that cutting, from the shaft as far as the gate, show that the mound consists of the native earth which has been thrown up, mixed with fragments of rare pottery and shells.