tombs which are everywhere scattered over its neighbourhood.
They are all of stone, either constructed on the surface, or excavated
in the rocky soil of the district; and as most of them have been
defaced, or laid in ruins, (for there is not one of them which has not
been opened,) the wreck of material with which the soil is encumbered
may be more easily imagined than described. The road, when
we had descended into the plain of Cyrene, continued to wind through
the tombs and sarcophagi, and along the edges of the quarries in
which the subterranean tombs have been excavated, for more than a
mile and a half; we observed that it was occasionally cut through
the rocky soil, and that marks of chariot wheels were still very
evident in many parts’ of its stony surface.
These approaches to the town, for there are several of them, as
will be seen by the plan, have the appearance of ruined and deserted
Streets ; the tombs ranged on each side of them supplying thè places
of houses. The solemnity, we can scarcely say the gloom, of this
effect is, however, enlivened by the variety of style which characterises
the architecture, as well as by the difference in the plans
and sizes of the tombs, and in the degrees of labour and finish
bestowed upon them. The earlier tombs may be distinguished
by their simplicity and good taste, the later by a more ornamented
and a more vitiated style. A similar .difference of style
may be observed in the busts and statues, which are scattered about
among the tombs; some of which have the Greek and some thè
Homan cast of countenance and costume, portrayed in the several
manners peculiar to each nation, according to the age of the performance.
We were at first induced to stop at every object of importance
which presented itself in our passage through these regions of the
dead; but we soon found that such delays, however agreeable, would
make it night before we reached the city itself if we continued to
indulge in them as our inclination prompted; and we bade our conductor
(the chaous from Bengazi) lead on to that part of it which he
himself considered to' be most worthy of particular attention. The
taste of the African displayed itself on this occasion precisely in the
manner which we had expected it would do ; and after passing for
some little distance along the edge of a ravine where we perceived the
remains of an aqueduct, he descended by a gerttle slope into a level
spot of ground, overspread with remains of building, till we found
ourselves at the foot of a perpendicular cliff and heard the grateful
sound of running water. Nothing further was necessary to rouse
the drooping energies of our horses, fatigued with the day’s journey,
and parched with thirst from the heat of the weather; they sprang
'forward instinctively, without the stimulus of whip or spur, and
plunging up to their knees in the cool clear stream drank deep of
the fountain of Cyrene.
We are by no means indifferent to the beauties of antiquity,—
nay we often imagine ourselves to be among their most ardent
admirers; but we confess, to our shame, that, on this occasion, we
followed the example of the poor, beasts who carried us, and, springing
from our saddles, took a copious draught of the fountain before
we turned to pay our homage to the shrine from which it flowed*.
* The fountain of Cyrene was a consecrated stream, and the face of the rock from
which it flows was originally adorned with a portico like that of a temple.