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this construction was perhaps an ancient petrifaction; 
its blackish colour, and a tendency to decomposition, 
made me lean to the idea: but it is impossible to mis- 
take; they are stones, and stones of such enormous di- 
mensions, that it is astonishing to conceive the efforts 
which must have been used to transport them thither, 
and to put them in their places.* It is reported that 
these ruins, as also the Mosaic pavement, mentioned in 
a preceding chapter, belonged to a palace of Aphrodi- 
tis. I admire the authors of such a work; and in con- 
templating the remains of this wonderful edifice, attri- 
buted to a woman, it called to my recollection Cathe- 
rine II. ordering the base of the statue of her husband 
to be brought from a distance. 
Near these colossal ruins, there are others which ap- 
pear to have belonged to the middle' age, upon which 
may be seen inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and some paint- 
ings in fresco, of very good colouring. The wife of 
the farmer at Cuclia was very handsome, though too 
lusty. Her two servants were equally handsome; but 
all three have round Greek faces. 
I was assured at Paphos, and at Ktima, as well as in 
all the district, that the women were handsome. 
The 28th, we were detained by a hurricane until 
noon, when we set out for Limasol, by the same road 
we came. We slept at Latinishir, where our good 
Turkish mountaineers waited for us with a good sup- 
* These walls are of cyclopean construction. There are a 
great number of them in various towns of Italy. See the eclair- 
cisscment required by the class of the fine arts of the institute of 
France, upon the construction of several military monuments of 
antiquity. Paris, year 1 2, in 4to. — Aote of the Editor. 
