Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/370

 34$ HISTORY OK ART IN PIKI.NICIA AND ITS DEPKNDENCIKS. occurs it is filled in with small stones, vhile the original work is entirely carried out in large blocks, like those we saw at Banias, Kryx, and Motya. The rampart of the upper town incloses a hexagon of about 2,000 yards in total circumference. It is built of huge stones carefully dressed and set without mortar (Fig". 247). All the blocks in a single course are of the same height but of a different length ; the majority measure about sixty inches by forty, but some of those at the angles are as much as twelve feet long by nearly seven high. At some points the wall is still from fourteen to eighteen feet high. The angles are strengthened by square towers. The only building of which any important remains are still visible was, perhaps, a temple. It is built of huge stones, and the large rough slabs with which a sort of covered way is roofed remind us of the Panaghia Phaneromeni of Larnaca. We are led to see a temple in this building by the discovery in its immediate neighbourhood of a cone cut from a very hard stone which is not to be found in the country. In this we can hardly refuse to recognize a symbol of the same kind as that found at Gozo, in the Giganteia (Fig. 223). These ruins lie between the Acropolis and a small artificial harbour, partly formed by a wall about seventy yards long. This harbour had two entrances, and by its means the Phoenician ships could be brought close up to the warehouses. While awaiting their turns they could anchor in the river. All this helps us to form a good idea of what a Phoenician settlement amoni^ barbarous tribes was like. Life and move- O ment had their centre about the harbour ; a little higher up were the sanctuaries to which the sailors came to offer their vows to Melkart and Astarte. Finally, although they took care to be on good terms with the natives, it was necessary that their dwellings should be guarded from sudden attack. Wherever safety was not insured by the nature of the site, as it was at Motya and Gades, the factory was safe-guarded by one of those ramparts of solid masonry against which the efforts of a band of savages could do nothing. No doubt the Acropolis was provided with reservoirs of fresh water and silos filled with grain. Nothing proves the energy of the Phoenician race more clearly than all these arrangements for enabling a few hundreds of