The village of Zelīten contains from three to five hundred souls (as Shekh Benzahir, who presides there, informed us); and we were indebted to him, besides, for the honour of a visit, and a present (no less valuable) of some excellent Fezzan dates, which are thought to be superior to those of the country. The _district_ of Zelīten, he further informed us, which extends from Wad’ el Kháhan to Selin, contains no less than fifteen villages and ten thousand inhabitants. The houses are built with mud and rough stones, the mud, on most occasions, preponderating, as it generally does in Arab buildings; the roofs are formed of mats and the branches of the palm-tree, on which is laid a quantity of earth. The villages of Igsaiba, Fehtir, Irgīg, and Snūd, all smaller than Zelīten, but built after the same fashion, may be said to be appendages to that place. Each of these villages, as well as Zelīten itself, is surrounded by plantations of date-trees and olives, and presents a tolerable show of cultivation. The produce is more than the inhabitants consume, and the overplus, together with straw mats and earthern jars, manufactured in the place, are disposed of to Bedouin traders, or carried to other markets for sale. There are two springs of very good water near Zelīten, which supply a small pond; and in this place the ladies of the place are accustomed to wash and cleanse their wool, their clothes, and, occasionally, themselves, before they fill their jars for home consumption. The port called Mersa Zelīten is an insignificant cove, that would scarcely afford shelter to a boat. It is formed by a few rocks above water; may be about one hundred yards across, and appears to have no more than five or six feet water in it. Here also are two springs of good water, which would afford a constant supply, if the Arabs would take the trouble of excavating a cistern, and of protecting it from the surf. To the N.E. of the Mersa, at the distance of from half a mile to three-quarters of a mile off shore, the sea broke over sunken rocks: the cliffs are of sand-stone, and about thirty feet in height. The many ruins which exist in the vicinity of Zelīten, and the frequent appearance of building-stones, and shafts of marble columns, protruding through the mud walls of the village, contribute decidedly to point it out as an ancient site, and it was probably the Cisternæ or Cinsternæ Oppidum of Ptolemy; which is the first town mentioned by this geographer after the Τριηρων ακρον—the Cephalas Promontorium of Strabo—in the tract of country between that point and the Cinyphus.