352 BENGAZI.

to the stranger’s taste; never dreaming that a pound of dough, besides butter and onions, could in any way tend to diminish a man’s appetite.

Six miles beyond Birsis (in a north-easterly direction) are remains of a much more imposing nature than any which we had hitherto beheld. They are those of an ancient city, completely inclosed within walls of uncommon strength and thickness, which are connected at intervals by quadrangular towers, and entered by two strongly-built gateways, placed opposite to each other on the east and west sides of the city. The town of Teuchira (for it is that to which we allude) is situated close to the sea, which, in this part of the plain, is distant about four miles from the foot of the mountains.

A part of the town, as well as of the walls, is built upon a rising ground, and the rest is on a level with the plain ; one portion of it (to the westward) has been built round a quarry, and what appears to have been the citadel is also constructed on the edge of another quarry to the eastward, which considerably strengthens its position.

Without the walls on both sides of the town (we mean on the east and west sides) are also very extensive quarries, in which the tombs of the early inhabitants of the place have at various periods been constructed In these, as well as on the inner part of the city walls, are a great many Greek inscriptions ; such of which as our * The practice of excavating tombs in the neighbourhood of ancient cities, in the quarries from which the stone was procured for building them, is very general in this part of Africa, and was probably first adopted from its convenience ; little more being necessary than to shape the excavated spaces to the size and form required after the stone had been extracted for architectural purposes.