Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/336

286 formed an ancient stone-quarry. Here the surface of the rock is cut into steps and grooves. In one place is a monolithic base containing a square chamber 9 feet 7 inches by 7 feet 8 inches, entered by a doorway, the whole being cut out of the solid rock. Above the doorway, the rock is cut into steps, in rude imitation of a pyramidal roof. Near it is another tomb, consisting of an underground chamber cut out of the rock and roofed over by two immense blocks, one of which has been removed. The chamber is 8 feet long by 4 feet 7 inches wide. One of the blocks which cover it measures 7 feet by 2 feet 2 inches wide, and is 2 feet 5 inches thick. Adjoining this quarry on the north is a field where a number of graves have been opened. They he in clusters, and are cut out of the solid rock, which here crops up to the surface. This field is bounded on the north by a ravine, beyond which the land bears the singular name of —"the Runaway." From the quarry the district of Damos extends downwards towards Linaria, forming a sort of lingula of rock jutting out into the plain in a direction north-west by south-east: on each side is a ravine.

On this isolated tongue of land are foundations of houses, and two Hellenic cisterns, cut out of the solid rock, with steps in the sides, giving access to the water at the bottom. The ground is strewn with fragments of pottery and painted stucco. On the north side a staircase cut in the rock leads down into the ravine below.