Strabo’s lake is stated to have enclosed several islands and to have possessed an υφορμος or naval station, at the point of communication with the Gulf[1]. Several insulated spots are certainly still observable in various parts of the existing marsh; but there are no remains of building which can be attributed to the station mentioned, except those which occur in the neighbourhood of Mesurata. At the distance of about nine miles from that place, are the remains of a kind of causeway of singular construction, extending inland to a length of three hundred and thirty paces from the sea; and forming, with a rising ground on the opposite side of it, what may be called a στομα or communication with the Gulf. The ruins appear to be those of a landing-place; and consist of a long causeway, or terrace, of about ten feet in breadth[2], which widens itself at regular intervals into squares, from which descend flights of steps on either side of the causeway. One end of it is washed by the sea, which has undermined it considerably, and the whole structure is now little more than a heap of ruins. If this building have not been a landing-place or quay, we must confess that we know not what use to assign to it; and, admitting it to have been one, it immediately becomes evident that it must have been connected with some station for shipping. The general character of the land along this part of the coast, which rises higher than the level of the lake or morass, would prevent any communication between the marsh and the sea except in this place and the one which we are about to mention. In this place, particularly, such connexion seems formerly to have existed; for here a passage still remains, through the higher land forming the separation, by means of which the waters of the lake might have emptied themselves into the sea, and on one side of this channel is the structure in question which we have supposed to be a landing place. The small vessels of the ancients might have entered this passage, and have found sufficient shelter behind the high land[3] which formed it; on the inner side of which they might also have been hauled up when the current through the channel was too strong for them to remain afloat[4].