Without at the sea-shore, near the old town of _Tripoli_ (which together with many more, as _Antiochia_, _Laodicea_, &c. in the year of our Lord 1183, was so destroyed by an earthquake, that nothing but a few marks remain) there were more spring-gardens, which some of the Merchants still remember. But these were a few years agone by the violence of the seas so destroyed and so covered with sand, that now you see nothing there but a sandy ground, like unto the desarts of _Arabia_. Yet at _Tripoli_ they have no want of water, for several rivers flow down from the mountains, and run partly through the town, and partly through the gardens, so that they want no water neither in the gardens nor in their houses. The new town in itself is of no strength, for it is so meanly walled in, that in several places in the night you may get in and out: But within there is a citadel situated upon an ascent near the water, where a garrison of a few Janisaries is kept. They have low houses ill built and flat at the top, as they are generally in the East, for they cover their houses with a flat roof or a floor, so that you may walk about as far as the houses go; and the neighbours walk over the tops of their houses to visit one another, and sometimes in the summer they sleep on the tops of them: And so it may very well be, that the four men (of which we read in St _Mark_, chap. ii. and St _Luke_, chap. v.) that carried the paralytic man, and could not come to _CHRIST_ because of the crowd of people, did carry him on the tops of the houses, and so let him down through the roof into the room where our _SAVIOUR_ was. They have not great doors, gates, or comings-in from the street as we have in our country, except some few Merchants houses, because they use neither waggons nor carts, wherefore they have only a little low door, sometimes not above three foot high, so that you cannot go into them without stooping. In a great many houses the comings-in are so dark and deep that one would think he were going into a cave or cellar, but when you are come through this entry into them, you see, in some, great court-yards wherein are cisterns to wash themselves in, in others large halls paved, and therein some ascents that go up two or three steps, paved delicately with marble, which they keep very clean, and adorned with rich tapestry, whereupon they sit, and this is covered with a large arch left open at one side, that the _Turks_ may, chiefly in the summer, sit underneath them very airy. Their doors and houses are generally shut with wooden bolts, which are hollow within, and they unlock them with wooden keys about a span long, and about the thickness of a thumb, into this key they have driven, five, six, seven, eight or nine short nails, or strong Wires in such an order and distance that they just fit others that are within the lock, and so pull them forwards, or shut them backwards as they please.