494 
MERGE TO GYRENE. 
some conversation with the people who appeared at the entrance of 
them. We made them understand that we should like to ascend 
and pay them a visit in their aerial abodes, but as they seemed to be 
unwilling to admit us, we did not press the subject any further *. The 
lower parts of the ravine are thickly covered with pine, olive, and 
carob trees, and the whole has a very wild and picturesque appear- 
ance. 
The town of Apollonia, now called Suza Hammam, from the 
number of wild pigeons that frequent it, is situated at the bottom of 
an open bay, formed between Eas El Hilal and the cape known by 
the name of Eas Sem. It stands close to the sea, upon a small 
eminence, or long narrow slip of elevated ground ; and is situated 
at the extremity of a fertile plain, which extends itself from the foot 
of a ridge of mountains, distant a mile and a half from the sea coast, 
and running in an east and westerly direction. The length of the 
city may be reckoned at nearly three thousand English feet, and its 
greatest breadth at scarcely more than five hundred. It has been com- 
pletely surrounded by a very strong wall, with quadrangular turrets 
on three of its sides, and circular ones of much larger dimensions on 
the remaining side (that to the westward). As the wall has been 
carried along the brow of the hill, more attention has been paid to 
its strength than to its symmetry, but the turrets are for the most 
tolerably equidistant, being about eighty yards apart. The two cir- 
cular turrets at the north-western angle of the wall have been built 
with even greater attention to sohdity than other parts of this well- 
* These are the caves which we have given in the drawing, p. 493. 
