The _Sycene Ward_, which is commonly called _Galata_, or _Pera_, ought more properly to be called the _Peræan Ward_. Thus it is that _Josephus_ calls _Judæa_, because it lay on the _other Side_ of the River _Jordan_: And thus it is, that _Strabo_ calls that Part of the Countrey which lies on the _other Side_ of _Euphrates_. The Reason alledg’d by the Inhabitants, why ’tis call’d _Galata_, is, as they tell you, (being impos’d upon by the Allusion of the Name) that _Milk_ was formerly sold there: And I make no Question of it, did they but know, that _Galata_ was formerly call’d _Sycæ_, they would derive its Name from the Word _Fig_; and pretend to justify their Mistake from the Authority of _Dionysius_ their Countryman, who says, that it was originally call’d _Sycæ_, from the Fairness and Abundance of that Fruit which grew there. But their Conjectures had been grounded upon a better Foundation, if they had deriv’d the Name of _Galata_ from the _Galatæ_, back’d by the Authority of _Johannes Tzetzes_ (a Citizen of _Constantinople_, and a very industrious Grammarian) in his _Var. Hist._ written above four hundred Years ago. This Author tells us, that _Brenus_ a _Gaul_, and Commander in Chief of the _Gauls_, whom the _Greeks_ call Γαλάται, _pass’d over the Sea_ from thence to a Place of _Byzantium_, and that this Place for this Reason was call’d _Pera_, which was after their Arrival call’d _Galata_. This Place is seated partly on a Hill, and partly on a Plain at the Foot of it. This Hill is enclosed on the East and West by two Valleys, each of which is about a Mile in length. The Ridge of the Hill shoots from North to South, and is in no Part of it less than two hundred Paces broad, and of equal Length with the Valleys that enclose it, and joins to the Plain upon the Continent. The South Side of this Hill, and the Plain below it, is bounded by the Bay of _Ceras_, which makes it almost a _Peninsula_ of a semicircular Figure, in the Form of a drawn Bow, with this Difference only, that the Western Point of it is larger by half; and not quite so long as the Eastern. _Galata_, as ’tis enclos’d with a Wall, is four Thousand and four Hundred Paces in Compass. It varies, in many Places, as to its Breadth. In the middle of the Town ’tis six hundred Paces broad. The Bay and the Walls stand at twenty Paces Distance. The Plain that runs between the Bay and the Hill, is a hundred and eighty, and the Hill it self four hundred Paces broad. The Eastern Side of _Galata_, at the first Entrance of it, is four hundred Paces in breadth; after which it contracts it self into the Breadth of two hundred and sixty Paces only. The Western Side of it, which stands without Old _Galata_, rises upon a moderate Ascent, which winds Southward, and adjoyns to a small Descent, which terminates Westward near the Walls of Old _Galata_. The Town therefore of _Galata_ stands upon a Treble Descent; one of which winds from North to South, another falls Easterly, and another at West.