EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 3 
Thefe Saracenic walls prefent nothing curious, except feme 
ruinous towers : and the only remain of the antient city worth 
notice is a colonnade, near the gate leading to Rafhid, of which, 
however, only a few columns remain j and what is called the 
amphitheatre on the fouth eaft, a rifing ground, whence is a 
fine view of the city and port. Of the fingular fuburb ftyled 
Necropolis, or " The City of the Dead," no remain exifts. 
It cannot be fuppofed that the antient city fliould have occu- 
pied only the fmall fpace contained within the prefent inclofure. 
The priftine wall was certainly far more extenfive than the 
prefent : yet even of this only an inconfiderable portion between 
the two ports is now filled with habitations. — What remains is 
laid out in gardens, which fupply fuch fruits and vegetables as 
are-fuited to the climate and foil, and the natives are moft ac- 
cuftomed to ufe for food ; or left wafte, and ferving as a recep- 
tacle for offal and rubbifh ; being in part rendered unfit for 
culture by the ruins which cover the furface to a confiderable 
depth. For, though it be not now poffible to determine the 
antient boundaries of the city, or to affign with precifion the 
fite of its more remarkable edifices, thefe veftiges of former 
magnificence yet remain. Heaps of rubbifii are on all fides 
vifible, whence every fhower of rain, not to mention the induftry 
of the natives in digging, difcovers pieces of precious marble, 
and fometimes antient coins, and fragments of fculpture. 
The harbour on the eaft, ftyled, I know not why, the new 
port, which in all appearance could never have been a very 
good one, from the rocky nature of the bottom, has the farther 
B 2 difadvantage 
