Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/218

176 Through this area, which lies so low that it can only be seen from the battlements, it is supposed that a canal formerly led, connecting the great harbour with Port Mandraki.

From Strabo's description of the arsenals and dockyards at Rhodes, it may be inferred that there were interior basins, where galleys were built and refitted, and which probably were screened from observation by high walls. The level ground between Port Mandraki and the larger harbour may have served for such a basin. Between the tower of De Naillac and St. Catharine's gate, a small mole runs across the great harbour, behind which caiques are moored in shallow water. This mole may mark the ancient commencement of an inner basin.

The mole, at the extremity of which stands the tower of St. Nicholas, has been an Hellenic work. The lowest courses of the original masonry remain in several places undisturbed on the native rock, which has been cut in horizontal beds to receive them.

At the end of the mole, enormous blocks from the ancient breakwater lie scattered about.

Two of these are still in position, one above the other. As the celebrated bronze Colossus was, doubtless, a conspicuous sea-mark, if not actually used as a Pharos, my first impression on seeing these immense blocks was that they were the remains of its pedestal, and that it stood where the fort of St. Nicholas now stands. This opinion, suggested originally to my mind by the aspect of