MERGE TO GYRENE. 
437 
of the roads, where they descended from one range to another, were 
ornamented with sarcophagi and monumental tombs, and the whole 
sloping space between the galleries was completely filled up with 
similar structures. These, as well as the excavated tombs, exhibit 
very superior taste and execution ; and the clusters of dark green 
furze and slender shrubs with which they are now partly overgrown, 
give an additional effect, by their contrast of forms and colour, to 
the multitude of white buildings which spring up from the midst of 
them. We have endeavoured in the drawing here annexed, to give 
some idea of this remarkable scene ; but although we have copied it 
with fidelity, and with all the care which our time allowed, the effect 
of our view falls very far short of that which is produced by the scene 
itself*. 
On leaving the fountain and the temple of Diana we descended 
the side of the hill and took our course along the galleries we have 
mentioned, passing with some difficulty from one to another, through 
the thick furze with which the ground is overspread, and entering 
the most conspicuous of the excavated tombs which we passed in our 
route along the roads. 
They usually consisted of a single chamber; at the end of which, 
opposite the doorway, was an elegant, highly finished facade, almost 
always of the Doric order, cut in the smooth surface of the rock itself 
with great regularity and beauty of execution. It generally repre- 
■* We may add, that the circumstance of being obliged to reduce our dravving (which 
is a large one) to the size of a quarto plate, has, at the same time, operated to its dis- 
advantage, as might naturally indeed have been expected. 
