those who might only have examined it closely; and it is probable
that the view of it which Signor Della Celia obtained, and which
suggested to him the analogy between it and the tower of Euphrantas,
was from the road in the plain below. I t is certainly somewhat
singular that, in a place where several ancient forts may be observed,
the Doctor should have pitched upon an Arab building as the boundary
of the Cyrenaic and Carthaginian territory; but had he even been
willing to adopt one of the forts as the tower, it would have been difficult
to select any one from the number which had more claim than
the rest to that distinction; and there does not, in fact, appear to
be any building at Zaffran sufficiently conspicuous to be considered
as the structure in question.
I t seems to us that the tower of Euphrantas should be looked for
in some commanding situation, which either occasioned its being built,
or selected as a boundary for the kingdoms we have mentioned; and
there seems to be no more reason for placing it at Zaffran than at
Med met Sultitn, where there are also many forts; except that the
term r u m (following upon, or succeeding to,) which Strabo uses
to point out its position, would induce us to place it as soon after Aspis
as circumstances would seem to allow. At all events, we do not hesitate
in rejecting the “ torre sormontata da una cupola” as the tower
of Euphrantas; mid we should much rather, if it be necessary to place
this structure at Zaffran, select for its representative one of the fortresses
already mentioned, than any building like that which is suggested
by Signor Della Celia, were it even of ancient construction.
. There is another building which stands in a conspicuous position
on the same range of hills where the Doctor’s tower is situated, and
to which it is difficult to assign any use, unless we suppose it to have
been a sepulchral or other monument, built as a conspicuous object
merely. I t occupies a square of about twenty feet, and could have
been little more at anytime than a mass of solid stone and cement,
the space which is left in the centre being not more than four or five
feet square, and without any apparent communication with the exterior.
The height of the whole building appears to have been about
thirty feet, but little more than the basement upon which it has
been raised now remains; and this estimation is made from a computation
of the quantity of fallen materials, and from the probable proportion
of the height with the breadth given. The basement itself
is six feet in height, and composed of well-shaped stones, some of
which are five feet long, and from twelve to sixteen inches in height
and thickness : above this no more than three feet of the superstructure
now remain in any p a rt; but the base of a pilaster, which still
appears in one of the angles, proves that the exterior at least has
been constructed with some attention to architectural ornament. The
outer part only of this structure is built, the whole of the interior,
with the exception of the space mentioned in the centre, having been
filled up with unshaped stones deeply bedded in cement, the proportion
of which is much greater than that of the rubble thrown into it.
Were it not that the base of the remaining pilaster appears to be
a Saracenic imitation of the Greek, we should be disposed to allow a
greater antiquity to the building in question than it seems to us
from this circumstance to possess : for the stones employed in it are
of good size, very regularly placed, and well finished, and the cement
which has been used is excellent. Attached to this tower, for such