The great quarry, whence all the stones for the Cyclopean walls, the Treasuries, and other buildings, were cut, is on the site of and around the village of Charvati, a little over a mile from this place; but the rock has in no instance been cut away deeper than the surface. I give a view of this village, in which the greater part of the ancient quarry is visible.[226] The name Charvati is no doubt derived from the Arabic word خراب (ruins), which has passed over into the Turkish language. Mrs. Schliemann and I superintend the excavations from morning till dusk, and we suffer severely from the scorching sun and incessant tempest, which blows the dust into the eyes and inflames them; but in spite of these annoyances, nothing more interesting can be imagined than the excavation of a prehistoric city of immortal glory, where nearly every object, even to the fragments of pottery, reveals a new page of history. [Illustration: No. 190_a_. PATTERN OF THE SLABS, FORMING THE DOUBLE PARALLEL CIRCLE ENCLOSING THE AGORA. A. One of the vertical inner and outer slabs, both being inclined _inwards_, towards the enclosed space of the Agora, at an angle of 75°. B. One of the cross slabs with the tenons, _b_, _b_, to drop into the notches _a_, _a_. N.B.--The slabs are not all of the dimensions here shown, but vary in size in different parts of the circle. (See p. 124.) The slabs of the double circle, which serves both as the enclosure of the Agora and for its benches, are in a slanting position from the entrance on the north side all along the east side until a few yards before the point on the south side where the double circle passes from the rock on to the wall which supports it in the lower part of the Acropolis. At this point the slabs have the maximum size, which seems to have been maintained by all the slabs which stood on the supporting wall, and which have now nearly all fallen; but their inclination can be recognised by observing those still standing on the north-west side of the circle. On the north, on both sides of the entrance, where the Agora is bordered by those tomb-like recesses in which we have recognised small reservoirs, the slabs of these recesses are of necessity all perpendicular, because, had they been slanting, they would not have sustained the pressure of the water.] FOOTNOTES: [199] The Greek drachma is worth about 8½_d._ English. [200] This most curious enclosure will be more fully described, and the important question of its use discussed, in the following Chapter. [201] See note on p. 83. [202] See 'Troy and its Remains,' p. 36, fig. 30. [203] The frieze, No. 153, is described, and its broad face shown on p. 140, No. 216; the fragment No. 154 is described on p. 121. [204] See 'Troy and its Remains,' Plates xxvii-xxxi. [205] See supplementary volume to Stuart's 'Athens.' [206] See No. 94. [207] See No. 106. [208] See No. 100. [209] See No. 101. [210] See Nos. 90-93.