Foreign topography; or, an encyclopedick account, alphabetically arranged, of the ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe; forming a sequel to the Encyclopedia of antiquities / By the Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke.
- Thomas Dudley Fosbroke
- Date:
- 1828
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Foreign topography; or, an encyclopedick account, alphabetically arranged, of the ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe; forming a sequel to the Encyclopedia of antiquities / By the Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![5^2‘2 UDENA.^WADY EL MECAH. *'''® ‘^'•y “'■« in “ more perfect slate than anv in n,.K. I hey lie about twenty miles from Tunis, but are not mentioned by SiL or^oUiers' The cisterns for water are more perfect than at Carthage. Their roofs are arched' I here are the remains of a noble amphitlieatre, oval, two principal entrances at each end, eight others on each side uniform, from each a staircase to the fralleries From the arena to the lowest gallery is above thirty feet of perpendicular sdld 4n IZ smooth, anear are several large marble columns, standing in rows, at equal^dis- ances; and an immense pile, thought to have been the Acropolis or citadel. Within the building was a bath, semicircular, ami almost perfect. The whole is beautifnllv inlaid with Mosaick work, in which are drawn several female fiaures, swimmiim in various attitudes, as perfectly as in any painting, 'i’he execution, being in various, coloured marble has jjrevented any deterioration of tint. Above the human fiaures are aquatick fovvis, coloured from nature. The work, from the high finish, sca'rceTv appears to be Mosaick. Near the baths are ruins of temples, or publick buildings^ )ne ofthe most perfect has two colonnades within, and a gallery surrounding the whole Th^r^f y*;’bout forty yards long, at each end an entrance. Fhc roof at least the present one, covers only the colonnades; probably was hvps- thra . I he rnasonry is highly finished, and not of the massy stricture usual in an. cient ruins. The columns and buildings have no carved ornaments. All is quite plain.—Adjacent IS a very strong building of huge stones arched over, apparently a pri- son Fourdarge entrances, similar to the arches of a bridge, open into an immense hall, seemingly upon the ground floor. A staircase on each side leatls to subterraneous cells, which go round the whole. These cells are about fifteen feet hiidi. the doorwavs between them very small. They are at least forty feet perpendicular depth from the surface of the earth to the bottom of them. In a valley is the largest ranU of arches in the Carthaginian aqueduct. Among the ruins are numerous deep wells Archceol 3wV, p. iji, Upfar of Ptolemy, or Gitlui (now Elcallah, Africa). Fragments, 2i. Utica (in Booshatter, Africa). Walls, large aqueduct, columns, &c. Shaw, 70. Wady EL Mecah. At the entrance of a valley stands a rock, on the left of which IS a small Egyptian temple [engraved in Belzoni, pi. 20]. The jilan in the jiortico [pi. 33. n. 3.J which is built projecting from the rock, has four columns, two in front and two in the centre. It is adorned with Egyptain figures in infagHo relevato, and some retain their colour pretty well. They are as large as life, and not of the worst execution. In the Selws, which is cut out of the rock, are four pilasters. At the end of It are three smaller chambers ; and there are two others, one on each side, in the corners of the lateral walls, in w hich are to be seen figures and hiero«lvphs in a pretty good style. On one of the columns is a Greek inscription. The two front columns aie joined to the sides of the portico by a wall nearly two thirds of their height. Near the temjile are the remains of an inclosure, which, no doubt, was a situation totally different from any other that we meet with on the road, as far as Berenice. It consists of a wall, the form and extent of which may be seen in pi. 33, n. It was built by the Greeks, is 12 feet high, and contained several houses within it for the accommodation of travellers. In the centre was a well, which is now filled up with s.ind. All round the well there is a platform or gallery raised six feet high, on which a guard of soldiers might walk all round. In the upper part of the wall are holes for disciiarging arrows, similar to those which we see formed in our ancient buildin<rs for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22012035_0440.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
