the most pleasant Part of the Town; from hence, and from the Sides of the Hill, you have a full View of the Bay of _Ceras_, the _Bosporus_, the _Propontis_, the seven Hills of _Constantinople_, the Countrey of _Bithynia_, and the Mountain _Olympus_, always cover’d with Snow. And besides these, there are many other additional Buildings, which adorn the Hills, and Vales adjoining to this Town. It has the same Number of Hills and Vales as _Constantinople_ it self; so that the Inhabitants, whenever they please, can make the Town one third larger than it is at present; and if the Grandeur of the _Byzantian Empire_ continues a hundred Years longer, _Galata_, it is not improbable, may seem to rival _Constantinople_ it self. They who write that _Byzas_, the Founder of _Byzantium_, built the Temple of _Amphiaraus_ in _Sycæ_, are somewhat in the wrong, tho’ not grosly mistaken. For _Dionysius_ a _Byzantian_ tells us, that behind _Sycæ_ stood the Temple of _Amphiaraus_, which was built by those who transplanted a Colony to _Constantinople_, under the Command of _Byzas_. Both the _Grecians_, and the _Megarians_, honour’d _Amphiaraus_ as a God. But altho’ the Temple of _Amphiaraus_ did not stand in the Place which _Dionysius_ calls _Sycæ_; yet the Word _Sycæ_ signified a larger Tract of Ground, after it was made a City; so that the Temples of _Amphiaraus_, of _Diana Lucifera_, and of _Venus Placida_, all stood within the Limits of it, as I have fully made it appear in my _Treatise_ of the _Bosporus_. But there are no Remains of these Buildings at present, nor of those Edifices, which, the _Antient Description of the City_ tells you, were in the _Sycene Ward_. The oldest Man now living cannot so much as tell where those Temples antiently stood, nor ever read or heard, whether there was ever such a Place as the _Sycene Ward_. Thus far only we can guess from the Rules and Usuage of _Architecture_, that the _Theatre_, and _Forum_ of _Honorius_, stood at the Bottom of the Hill upon a Plain, where _Theatres_ are generally built, as I frequently observ’d in my Travels thro’ _Greece_. There was standing a _Forum_, in a Level Ground, (near to the Haven, where is now built a _Caravansera_, in the Ruines of a Church dedicated to St. _Michael_) when first I came to _Constantinople_. This _Forum_ was well supply’d with Water by an ancient subterraneous _Aqueduct_. In short, there is nothing to be seen at present of old _Sycæ_. Those antient Pillars we see in some Mosques at _Galata_, are said to have been imported by the _Genoese_: Some of them are of very antient Workmanship, and well finish’d. The _Cistern_ of St. _Benedict_, now despoil’d of its Roof, and three hundred Pillars, which supported it, (now turn’d into a _Cistern_ for watering the Priest’s Gardens) shews it to be a very antique and expensive Work.