Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward : $b in MDCCCXXI. and MDCCCXXII., comprehending an account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica; and of the ancient cities composing the pentapolisBeechey, Frederick William
History
Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward : $b in MDCCCXXI. and MDCCCXXII., comprehending an account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica; and of the ancient cities composing the pentapolis
Beechey, Frederick William
Sidra, Gulf of (Libya); Tripoli (Libya) -- Antiquities; Tripoli (Libya) -- Discovery and exploration
There is another building which stands in a conspicuous position
on the same range of hills where the Doctor’s tower is situated,
and to which it is difficult to assign any use, unless we suppose it
to have been a sepulchral or other monument, built as a conspicuous
object merely. It occupies a square of about twenty feet, and could
have been little more at any time than a mass of solid stone and
cement, the space which is left in the centre being not more than
four or five feet square, and without any apparent communication
with the exterior. The height of the whole building appears to
have been about thirty feet, but little more than the basement
upon which it has been raised now remains; and this estimation
is made from a computation of the quantity of fallen materials,
and from the probable proportion of the height with the breadth
given. The basement itself is six feet in height, and composed
of well-shaped stones, some of which are five feet long, and from
twelve to sixteen inches in height and thickness: above this no more
than three feet of the superstructure now remain in any part; but
the base of a pilaster, which still appears in one of the angles,
proves that the exterior at least has been constructed with some
attention to architectural ornament. The outer part only of this
structure is _built_, the whole of the interior, with the exception
of the space mentioned in the centre, having been filled up with
unshaped stones deeply bedded in cement, the proportion of which
is much greater than that of the rubble thrown into it.
Were it not that the base of the remaining pilaster appears to be
a Saracenic imitation of the Greek, we should be disposed to allow
a greater antiquity to the building in question than it seems to
us from this circumstance to possess: for the stones employed in
it are of good size, very regularly placed, and well finished,
and the cement which has been used is excellent. Attached to this
tower, for such it may be called, although it never could have been
employed for military purposes, are the remains of a subterranean
storehouse for grain, the roof of which is raised about a foot from
the ground above it and composed of cement: between this and the
tower there is a sort of well, which appears to be the entrance to
the storehouse, but which was too much encumbered with rubbish to
allow of our descending into it. Some traces of walls attached to
the roof of the storehouse may be seen in the ground-plan annexed,
but we could not determine whether either these, or the souterrain
itself, were originally attached to the building.
No architectural remains could be perceived among the fallen ruins
of the tower by which we might have been enabled to fix the time
of its erection with more precision; and the base of the pilaster
which we have mentioned at the angle of the building, is the only
evidence of this nature which we could obtain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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