Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/58

 42 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. terraces levelled out on the summit of a massive rock 15 m. long, but the use of which is not easy to make out. Some think that the site, commanding as it does the plain of Bournabat and the Bay of Smyrna, was used as a vedette (Fig. 10) a supposition which would account for the steps leading to the esplanades, but would shed no light on the excava- tion, 2 m. long, cut in the centre of one of these open floors. Was this a grave or a trench, in which a man could lie unperceived as he scanned the surrounding country ? Be this as it may, the fact that a fortress, numerous graves, stairways, platforms, and the like are crowded in a narrow space, leads to the conclusion that this was the site of the old city, by many centuries the senior of Greek Smyrna. Then, too, fragments of Cyclopaean walls, some running from north to south, intersected by others so as to form irregular enclosures, meet the eye along the whole side of the hill. Others, again, are barely visible above ground, and might be taken for walls built by the farmers to keep the earth in position, or pen their animals, 1 but for the distinct testimony of Texier (who made a thorough study of the site and of all the monuments) to the effect that, although in places the stones are of varying size, they are so deftly fitted together as to produce a level surface, so that one is sorely tempted to make them coeval with the Acropolis and the neighbouring tombs. This elevated spot, with outlook towards the valleys of Smyrna and the Nif Chai, was the first to be inhabited ; but the settlers do not seem to have been a seafaring or colonizing race, but to have chiefly relied on the natural pro- ductiveness of the soil and inland traffic. The Acropolis, which forms the culminating point of these various remains, occupied a secondary summit 350 m. high some 1250 m., as a bird flies, from the sea below. Half an hour's walk takes you to it, but the last part is a stiff bit of climbing. The south side is almost perpendicular, and its approach on the west is rendered difficult by quarries, whence was obtained the material for the erection of the rampart (Fig. u). The hill, of which the summit forms an elongated plateau, measured lengthwise, is barely 45 m. 1 TxiER (Description, torn. ii. pp. 255, 258) thinks that this was a long wall of enclosure, which served to connect the necropolis, together with public and private buildings, with the fortress. On the other hand, HAMILTON (Researches, p. 49) and G. HIRSCHFELD (Alt Smyrna) believe that all these walls are modern ; whilst WEBER (La Sipylos] would divide them into two sets, ancient and modern.