ONE of the first objects in the neighbourhood of Athens is the Piræus, and we may still discover traces of the ancient road, and of the ruts made by the wheels in the solid rock; and some remains of the long walls. A convent and the custom-house now form the whole town; yet the port is a very good harbour. According to Captain M. it is capable of containing fifteen or twenty large ships, of the size of an English frigate, and a great number of smaller ones; and in addition to this, the road on the outside is so well sheltered by the island of Salamis, and the holding ground is so good, that it may be esteemed almost equal to a harbour. We walked along the shore by the ruins of a Doric temple. The rocks are cut, as they are about Athens, for the reception of buildings, and there are moreover considerable quarries. The Syracusans confined their Athenian prisoners in their quarries; and the Athenians placed here the captives taken at Syracuse; but the stone of the Piræus is not so firm as that of Syracuse, and the hills are of less extent; the prisoners were consequently able to work their way out. It is rather a friable limestone, containing shells. We crossed over from the port to what is called the Tomb of Themistocles, but there are many difficulties in the way of our belief. A level surface, now frequently covered by the sea, was cut in the rocks, and on it was raised a lofty Ionic column; this has been overthrown, but the pieces of the shaft remain, and even a fragment of the capital, by which we are enabled to determine the order; and close to the place on which it stood, some oblong sepulchres are cut in the rock. In these, as in many of the tombs about Athens, there is a sort of double grave; a deep groove separating the immediate receptacle of the body from the rest of the rock, and there appears to have been a cover to this receptacle, besides the larger one to the tomb or grave. From this point we are able to trace the wall of the city by a continued heap of stones along the whole of the winding coast, as far as Munychia. This port consists of a somewhat elliptical basin, with a narrow and shallow entrance. There are remains of a theatre, and of a temple in its vicinity; and on the hill above are more considerable traces of another theatre; besides tombs without number, some of which are very curious. We were told of three temples, but we noticed only the foundations of two, and missed also the vestiges of the citadel of the Piræus, and some Cyclopean walls. The port of Phalerus was completed by artificial means, into an almost circular form; parts of the piers remain, but the whole is extremely shallow. To the east of the Piræus and of the bay of Phalerus, is the small promontory of Cape Colias. It is composed of a soft and recent limestone; even more so than that of the quarries above mentioned, containing organic remains.