Account of a Cinerari/ Vase. 73 



This practice the Turks had lately forbidden, not out of re- 

 gard to those whose remains were thus disturbed, but in order 

 to prevent the quarrels which constantly arose amongst the 

 Christians about the division of the treasures thus discovered. 



The interference of the Turks would alone have proved a 

 great obstacle to my exploring below the surface of the earth, 

 but neither did the object of my journey admit of employing 

 time in this way, at least not unless it had been to trace the 

 plan, or discover some of the architectural details not apparent 

 above ground, of a temple or some other edifice. 



It was thus, in the search of objects connected with my pro- 

 fessional pursuits, that one afternoon (Sunday, January 16,) I 

 walked out with my companion. Captain Jones, to explore the 

 remains of antiquity which still existed in the vicinity of Athens, 

 our attention till then having been chiefly engrossed by the many 

 objects of interest within the walls. 



After having examined some masses of masonry, and re- 

 mains of sepulchral monuments, and having found little to re • 

 ward the search, except the architectural fragments which are 

 so frequently found built in the walls of the churches and 

 metochi*, we came to a place of sepulture, the first on the right 

 of the principal road from the city to the Piraeus, which road 

 issues from Athens at the north-western gate, and is soon joined 

 by several branch roads from the other gates. These places of 

 sepulture continually occur by the sides of the great roads, and 

 are formed in situations where the rock rises generally from 

 three to five feet above the surface of the ground. In this rock 

 the graves are excavated, in the form of parallelograms, large 

 enough to contain the body, generally with a groove or rebate 

 round the top, to'receive the massive stones that covered them. 



While walking upon this cemetery, conversing with my com- 

 panion upon the extraordinary people whose remains had once 

 occupied them, and amusing ourselves with conjectures on the 



* The metoclii are frequent all over Greece ; they consist of farm build- 

 ings, a church and resideuce for the priest or caloyer, and for the despota, 

 or {governor of the estahlishmeut under the convent, to which, with the sur- 

 rounding land, it belongs. These and all otlier churches are erected on the 

 sites of ancient icniplC'*, many of whouBe fragments are inserted in their walls. 



