JOURNEY FROM 
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some uninteresting ruins, which from the situation were probably 
those of Mespe. Thence we Crossed the Messellata hills, and near 
the centre of one of the ramifications observed three slight eminences, 
which I am inclined to think must have been the Tumuli of the 
Graces of ancient geographers, though, but for the coincidence of the 
number, I should scarcely have remarked them. They are about 
340 feet in height, and nearly five miles from the coast, thus differing 
in distance from the ancient account of 200 stadia ; but as the Ciny- 
phus actually rises here, the early manuscripts may have suffered 
from bad copyists. 
The Cinyphus is now called the Wadie Khahan, or weak river, in 
allusion to its sluggish course in summer, though it is still, to a little 
distance inland, a considerable stream, for this part of the world. Its 
shrubby banks render the lower part of it extremely picturesque, 
while both they and the sedgy marshes it has formed towards Tabia 
point abound with game of all descriptions. Near the high road 
from Sahal to Zeliten, the river contracts at once : here stood an 
* 
ancient bridge, of Avhich vestiges remain ; and adjacent is a tolerable 
subterraneous aqueduct, running in the direction of Leptis, with a 
ventilating aperture, at intervals of about forty yards. 
