as the inscriptions (should they have turned out to be legible)
would most probably have given us names and dates which
might have been essentially useful to us, and could scarcely
have failed of being interesting. There are at Carcora two
coves which would serve for boats; they may be known by some
high sand-hills lying between them, and by two ruins situated
upon the hills inland nearly abreast of them *. With the exception
of these coves, there is nothing whatever of any interest on the
coast between Carcora and Bengazi. Inland, however, there are
many ruins of ancient forts, and considerable remains of building,
which become more numerous and interesting as they approach
Bengazi. At Ghimenes, which is a day’s journey to the northward
of Carcora, there are several interesting remains of ancient forts;
some of which are altogether on a different plan from those which
have been already described. They are built of large unequal-sized
stones, put together without any cement, and made to fit one into
another in the manner which has been called Cyclopian. Their
form is a square, with the angles rounded off, and some of them are
filled up with earth, well-beaten down, to within six or eight feet
of the to p ; the upper part of the wall being left as a parapet to the
terrace, which is formed by the earth heaped within it.
In the centre of the terrace we sometimes found the foundations
of building, as if chambers had been erected upon i t ; the roofs of
fj the foot oC t,ie saiid-hilla at Carcora there are some springs of fresh water
remarkably sweet and good, within a few feet of an extensive salt-marsh, and on the
same level with .t. The circumstance is worthy of remark, although there are other
instances of similar occurrences.
which, in that case, must have been higher than the outer walls
which formed the parapet; and a space seems always to have been
left between these central buildings and the parapet, in which the
garrison placed themselves when employed in defending the fort.
An opening like a window was observed in the parapet of one of the
Cyclopian castles at Ghimenes, which might have been used for
drawing up those who entered the fort, as there was no other mode
of entrance whatever. In fact there could scarcely have been any
communication between the upper and lower parts of these erections;
for the whole space between the walls was filled up with earth in
the manner already related, to within a few feet of the top. We
noticed near most of them a small rising ground, with one or two
wells in it, having remains of building about i t ; they were generally
within fifty yards of the fort, by which they were commanded.
The castles have most of them been surrounded with a
trench, on the outer side of which there is generally a low wall
Strongly built with large stones. Some of the trenches which have
been excavated in the solid rock of the soil are of considerable depth
and width; and in one instance, occurring between Ghimenes and
Bengazi, we observed chambers excavated in the sides of the trench,
as we find to be the case in that which surrounds the second pyramid,
and which is equally formed in the rocky soil on which the
building stands, although of. course on a much larger scale. The
trench of the fort here alluded to is about five-and-twenty feet in
width, and its depth about fifteen; the fort itself is an hundred and
twenty-five feet in length, and ninety in width, of a quadrangular
form, and in the centre of each of its sides is a quadrangular projec