Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/26

4 success as I advanced on my way towards that land of promise.

We arrived at Malta after a very prosperous voyage, and were most kindly welcomed by my old friends Captains Graves and Spratt, who took a warm interest in my projects, and gave me much valuable information respecting that Levantine world in which I was about to establish myself, and to which I was as yet an utter stranger.

As we had to wait several days at Malta for a steamer to Patras, I took the opportunity of visiting the curious ruins at Krendi, which are generally considered to be of Phoenician origin. These ruins are situated on the south coast of Malta, opposite to a small island called Filfile. They consist of two groups of enclosures formed by masses of stones ranged upright like a paling, over which others are placed horizontally. Some of these stones are from 15 to 20 feet high. The whole have been quarried out of the tertiary calcareous rock on which the enclosures are built. The principal group consists of three large elliptical enclosures, set obliquely to which are three smaller enclosures, also elliptical; this is situated on higher ground than the other group, which is nearer the sea.

Within the outer enclosures are inner walls, in which there is an approximation to regular masonry. The lower part of these inner walls is composed of uprights about six feet in height, above which large blocks are built into regular horizontal courses. In the principal temple are two doorways, through which the central enclosure is approached from the