530 MERGE TO GYRENE.

rested, any approach to the arena, or other lower parts of the amphitheatre, must have been by descents, right and left to them, from the terrace (or platform) which surrounds the upper range of seats, or by the staircases leading from it to the lower ranges, of which decided vestiges are still remaining. The arena seems to have been about a hundred English feet in diameter, and the seats to have occupied a space of about eighty feet in depth ; if we reckon the level space (or platform) inclosing the amphitheatre at twenty, the whole building will have stood upon three hundred feet of ground. It conld not be ascertained whether any subterranean chambers existed communicating with the arena, as this part is incumbered with the ruins of the fallen seats, and we had neither time nor means to excavate in search of them ; we should rather conclude that there were not ; for on the north side, where no seats are remaining, (all this portion of the building having fallen down the cliff,) the substructure is very apparent, and no arrangement appears to have been made for vaults. There are remains of a Doric colonnade along the edge of the cliff, forming the north side of one of the spaces walled in to the eastward of the amphitheatre, the capitals of which are beautifully formed, exhibiting all the sharpness and taste peculiar to the early manner of executing the order. Both these inclosures appear to have been appropriated to the amphitheatre, — perhaps as public walks for the use of the audience ; but it is difficult to say how they were approached, either from the east or from the west ; and the two other sides are inaccessible, in consequence of the abrupt descent of the cliff to the northward, and the rise of the