THE VRCH/EOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT
with, huge beams of granite to support the superincumbent
weight. The steps on one side were
made of the same strong cement, and the wall to
the left was decorated with the same design of
stones, placed edgeways for six rows, that we had
found at the angle of the approach. The little plateau
itself was adorned with huge monoliths and
T H E P LA T FO RM W IT H M O N O L ITH S , E T C ., ON T H E FO R T R E S S
decorated pillars of soapstone, the patterns on which
were chiefly of a geometric character, and one of
which was eleven and a half feet in height. Here
too we unearthed many stones of natural but curious
forms, to which I shall have again occasion to refer
in Chapter VI.
The large semicircular space below this platform
was a dense jungle when we started to work upon
it, consisting of nettles of extraordinary pricking
powers + and other obnoxious plants, which our
natives' cleared away with marvellous dexterity. In
the centre of this building stood an altar covered
with a thick coating of cement, and several large
blocks of cement were lying about. In a wall in this
enclosure was another of those curious holes pierced
through its thickness, and there was plenty of evidence
to show that this had once been a most prominent
point in the ancient structure, forming, as it
does, by far the largest available level space on the
fortress, and must probably have been used as an
agora, where from the platform an assembled crowd
could have been addressed, and for religious celebrations
on a large scale. The view from it is extensive
and magnificent over the Livouri and Bessa ranges,
and situated, as it is, far above the level of the
marshy ground below, it would be healthy and
habitable during all seasons of the year.
The labyrinthine nature of the buildings now before
us baffles description. In one place is a narrow
sloping gully, four feet across, ascending between two
boulders, and protected, for no conceivable reason, by
six alternate buttresses and a wall at the upper end,
forming a zigzag passage narrowed in one place to
ten inches. Walls of huge size shut off separate chambers.
In all directions everything is tortuous ; every
inch of ground is protected with buttresses and
traverses. Here too, as in the large circular building
below, all the entrances are rounded off, and I
imagine that here we have quite the oldest portion of