The entrance, which is on the eastern side, leads to a short passage. In the large stone which forms the threshold of the door is still visible the hole in which the lower hinge turned. At a distance varying from 16 ft. to 53 ft. lower are, on all the three sides by which the summit is accessible, Cyclopean walls, varying from 133 ft. to 266 ft. in length, and 5 ft. thick, which are still now on an average 10 ft. high, and appear to have once been much higher. From between the stones of all these walls I have been able to collect a large number of fragments of hand-made light green vases with black ornaments, which I consider as old as the walls of Tiryns and Mycenæ, because in the former place I found them _in situ_ on and near the virgin soil, in the latter _in situ_ only on the natural rock in the recesses of the gate-passage, and in the tombs. I conclude from this that the Cyclopean fortifications on Mount Eubœa (Hagios Elias) must be contemporaneous with the walls of both cities, and may perhaps claim even a still higher antiquity. [Sidenote: SANCTUARY OF THE SUN-GOD.] The question now naturally arises, for what purpose all these fortifications have been built. The mountain being so high and steep, and the summit so exceedingly small and encumbered by protruding rocks, it can never have served as a fortress. Therefore the only explanation I venture to give of the origin of these Cyclopean walls is that there must have existed on the summit a small temple of great sanctity and immense importance, and by a curious coincidence we may even find in the present cultus on the summit the name of the deity who was worshipped there in antiquity. In times of great drought the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are in the habit of going thither on a pilgrimage in large crowds, the priests leading, to invoke the prophet Elias to give rain. And it appears likely that the very site of the present open shrine of the prophet Elias was in ancient times occupied by a sanctuary of the Sun-god, who had a celebrated cultus there, and who has given way to the prophet Elias, with hardly any change in the orthography or pronunciation of the name, the Sun-god having been originally called ᾽Ηέλιος, pronounced Eëlios. This is a wonderful coincidence, because, as the name of the prophet is purely Hebrew (הײלא or יהולא, meaning "Jehovah is God") it can have no affinity with the Homeric name of the Sun-god, ᾽Ηέλιος' which is probably derived from the primitive name of the moon's husband (perhaps Σείριος) and is at all events purely Greek.