In 1693 Catanea was entirely destroyed by an earthquake, so that hardly one stone remained upon another. It began on the 9th January, and on the 11th the earth opened in several places. Almost in a moment 11,000 persons, who had fled to the cathedral for shelter, perished by its fall; the canon, with the ministers at the altar, and about one hundred persons, being all that escaped. The undulations of this shock were felt, it is said, in Germany, France, and even in England. Fifty-four towns of some magnitude were, more or less, sufferers by this earthquake, and the total loss of human life, it is supposed, amounted to nearly one hundred thousand. "The present town," says Malte Brun, "is well built. Its fine edifices are so many proofs, not of its prosperity, but of its misfortunes; for, in Catanea, houses never become old; they give way either to lava or volcanic shocks. It is to the earthquakes of 1693 and 1783 that it owes its magnificence; almost wholly destroyed, it was rebuilt with greater regularity. Most of its edifices, however, have been injured by the shocks in 1819." A great many antiquities are contained in the Biscari Museum, which was founded by a wealthy noble of the same name, who spent his fortune in exploring or digging for antiquities in the territory of Catanea. The ancient theatre and amphitheatre, the old walls, baths, and temples, were buried under several layers of lava and alluvial deposits, that were removed by the same individual; lastly, the town is indebted to him for several ancient statues. "There are many remains of antiquity," says Mr. Brydone, "but most of them are in a very ruinous state. One of the most remarkable is an elephant of lava, with an obelisk of Egyptian granite on his back. There are also considerable remains of a great theatre, besides that belonging to the prince of Biscaris, a large bath, almost entire; the ruins of a great aqueduct eighteen miles long; the ruins of several temples, one of Ceres; another of Vulcan. The church, called Bocca di Fuoco, was likewise a temple. But the most entire of all is a small rotunda, which, as well as the rotunda at Rome, and some others to be met with in Italy, demonstrates that form to be the most durable of any." There is also a well at the foot of the old walls, where the lava, after running along the parapet, and and then falling forwards, produced a very complete and lofty arch over the spring. Through the care, and at the expense of prince Biscaris, many other monuments of ancient splendour and magnificence have been recovered by digging down to the ancient town, which, on account of the numerous torrents of lava that have flowed out of Mount Etna for the last thousand years, is now to be sought for in dark caverns many feet below the present surface of the earth.