542 MERGE TO GYRENE.

which they are inscrihed, have been coated with a thick and very hard cement, which still remains perfect in a great many places. We may add that these cisterns, which are three in number, one at right angles with the two others, are partly built, and partly excavated in the rock, as Signor Della Celia very truly observes. The roofs are arched with stone and beautifully turned ; indeed, the whole construction of these vaulted chambers, in which large and very regularly-shaped stones have been employed, is excellent in the highest degree. Externally, the roofs are built up on the sides, and form at the top long platforms, or terraces, each of more than a hundred and fifty feet in length, along which we have often walked with pleasure admiring the beauty of their structure.

The south-eastern part of the city appears to be that which was most thickly inhabited, and the number of small buildings crowded closely together are, in their present state, likely to exercise the patience of those who may endeavour to make out their ]fians. We gave up the task as a hopeless undertaking after a few days’ attentive examination of these remains ; and it seems probable, that if we had even succeeded in giving all the details which can now be procured of them, little interesting matter would have resulted from the collection. Those in the centre of the town (in the neighbourhood of the theatres) are of much more importance ; and the remains in the space between the theatres and the aqueduct have very considerable interest. We do not think, however, that satisfactory plans could be given of either without a great deal of excavation, and we should certainly hesitate in giving names to any which we have not