Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/103

 behind which the remains of some large stone walls are observable, carried a considerable way across the adjacent peninsula. These appear to have formed part of an immense reservoir, which, at a very early period, was constructed for the supply of the shipping in Back Bay.

About half a mile further, a causeway built on seven arches connects to the continent, the 'peninsula' of Aden, as it is called, though it might with more propriety be termed an island, as at high tide a considerable body of salt water rushes through the arches, uniting two inlets of the sea.

Directly north from this causeway runs an ancient aqueduct, now out of repair, constructed of solid stone work about five feet wide, of an uniform breadth, and rising about two feet above the present level of the ground, the ruins of which may be clearly traced for about eight miles into the country, a circumstance that may serve to give some idea of the importance of Aden during the period of its flourishing condition. There is reason to believe, from a passage in a curious tract written in Latin by Resendius, bearing date 1530, and entitled "Epitome Rerum gestarum in Indiâ a Lusitanis:" that this aqueduct, as well as the towers on the summits of the mountains, were constructed subsequently to this period, for he there remarks, "that the hills were only accessible to the birds," and, "that the water was daily brought in on camels, which on some days amounted to fifteen or sixteen hundred, and even to two thousand," and, that "if they came in the day time the water was taken into the city, but if in the evening was deposited in a large cistern near the water-house," the ruins of which have been before noticed. It was, in all probability, to obviate the necessity of this practice and to render the town independent of the Arabs, that the Turks were induced, when fortifying the heights, to construct the aqueduct: the first mention of it that I can find is given by a French officer who visited the place in 1709, and it was then in use.

At the end of the plain over which the aqueduct is conducted stands a tomb and a caravan-serai dedicated to Sheik Othman. Here our party, which had been greatly augmented by a number of Bedowee soldiers