Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/203

Rh story Ross saw, in 1843, the machine by which in the time of the Knights the great chain was stretched across the harbour.

The tower is united with the rest of the fortifications by a stone bridge leading to a platform built on the mole, and armed with guns on either side, so as to command a view of both harbours.

This platform, which is 21 feet broad and 36 feet high, joins the main wall of the fortress at its north-eastern angle. At this point a small door leads from the shore of the main harbour into a battery which commands the mole of St. Nicholas, and thence through another door over a drawbridge, which leads out of the fortress to the Mandraki harbour. Inside the battery is a small gate in the main wall, now built up, which seems to be the Porta del Castello mentioned in the old chronicles. Here four lines of fortifications intersect, running nearly according to the cardinal points of the compass. These are, to the south the wall defending the shore of the great harbour; to the east the platform leading to the Naillac tower; to the north the mole of St. Nicholas, and to the west the northern wall of the fortress.

The mole of St. Nicholas, which forms the eastern side of Port Mandraki, extends about 1,000 feet into the sea. It is in great measure the original Greek mole, the lower courses built of enormous squared blocks regularly fitted together. At the extremity stands the castle of St. Nicholas, built by the Grand Master Raimond Zacosta. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, contributed largely to