ancients was conspicuously manifested in its selection as a principal
town.
The city of Leptis Magna appears to have been comprehended
within little more than a square half mile of ground. I t was situated
close to the sea, on the banks of a ravine now called Wady
Lebda, which might probably in the rainy season have assumed the
appearance of a river. When we passed through the place it was,
however, nothing more than a small stream, although too deep
in some parts to be easily forded; and it is probably dry, or
nearly so, in the summer. The inadequacy of this supply to the
consumption of the city may be inferred from the remains of an
aqueduct communicating with the Ginyphus, still existing, in unconnected
portions, in the space between the town and that river. At
the back of the town are several large mounds of earth, thrown up
in the form of banks; which are supposed to have been raised for
the purpose of turning off the water which might occasionally have
threatened it from the hills, and which the slope of the ground from
the hills to the sea may possibly have rendered very necessary *.
The quantity of alluvial soil brought down the Wady above mentioned
by the winter torrents, have, together with the accumulation
of sand from the beach, nearly effaced all traces of the port and
cothon of Leptis Magna, which does not indeed appear to have been
at any time very capacious. The actual remains of the city are still
* This is the opinion of Captain Smyth, who examined the remains of Leptis Magna
with attention (in the year 1817) ; who has obligingly favoured us with the plans and
account of it which are given at the end of the chapter.
sufficient to be somewhat imposing; but they are for the most part
so deeply buried under the sand which ten centuries of'neglect have
allowed to accumulate about them, that plans of them could not be
obtained without very extensive excavations. The style I of the
buildings is universally Roman; and they are more remarkable for
the regularity and solidity of their construction, than for any great
appearance of good taste employed in their embellishment.
A great part of the city has been constructed with brick ; and the
material which has been used in the instances here alluded to
maintains remarkably well the high character which Roman brick
has so deservedly acquired. The remains of the stadium are perhaps
the most interesting, in speaking of the buildings which have been
constructed with stone; they have been partially excavated by Captain
Smyth, (to whose account we refer the reader) together with
some other buildings; but the task of clearing them entirely would
be too Herculean for limited means, and the same may be observed
with respect to other parts of Leptis Magna in general.
For our own part, however much we might have been inclined to
remain some time at Lebida, the necessity of our immediate advance
precluded the possibility of doing so ; for the approach of the rainy
season made it absolutely necessary that we should cross the low
grounds of the Syrtis without delay: and it must be remembered
that the coast-line of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica was the principal
object of the Expedition.
Leptis Magna was built at an early period by the Phoenicians, and
was ranked, after Carthage and Utica, as the first of their maritime