Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/369

Rh planted with olives and studded with houses, which form a cluster round a metoche, or farm, the property of a church.$142$

Proceeding in a south-eastern direction towards the sea, we came to a plateau rising out of the plain, very similar to that of Damos. On the south, a wall of Hellenic masonry runs continuously along the rocky edge of this plateau for several hundred yards. Within the precinct of this wall is a ruined church dedicated to St. Michael (Taxiarches), and built entirely of Hellenic blocks; and further on another church. Agios Georgios, where Ross copied a sepulchral inscription of the time of the Antonines.$143$ The whole of this part is called Encremea. In the plain south of the Hellenic wall have been found tombs. Immediately below the southern edge of the platform is the bed of a small stream, crossing which we came to a plain planted with olives. Beyond this plain, to the south, are small natural mounds. The tombs are said to be in a sandy level between these mounds and an old church, called Panagia Calliotissa. In a field close to this church I found several Hellenic blocks and a large mortar or basin made of ordinary stone. These remains had been recently dug up. On the shore of the harbour of Vathy, Ross found ruins of built tombs, most of them vaulted.

To the N.W. of Encremea is Castello, where I was told there were Hellenic walls, supposed to be those of a Greek acropolis. I had not time to visit this place. From the number of ancient remains in the valley of Yathy, it is evident that a town must have stood here, probably on the plateau where I