BENGAZI. 
317 
its walls underwent a thorough repair in the reign of that Emperor, 
it will be thought somewhat singular, that both the town and its 
walls should have disappeared so completely as they have done. 
W e have already mentioned the disappearance of the city, and it may 
here be observed, that scarcely a vestige of its walls now remains 
above the surface of the plain, and that it would not be possible to 
decide its precise limits, without a great deal of previous excavation. 
It is probable, however, that Berenice did not extend beyond the 
actual limits of Bengazi ; for the salt-water lake to the southward of 
the town would prevent its going farther in that direction, and the 
ground to the eastward is in most parts so low as to be frequently 
overflowed by the sea, which oozes through the sand heaped upon 
the beach in that direction. 
From the circumstance of the water in Bengazi being brackish, it 
is probable that the ancient town was furnished with an aqueduct 
from some springs of sweet water, about half a mile distant from it 
to the eastward ; and the existence of remains of ancient reservoirs, 
or cisterns, with troughs, constructed of stone, leading into them, still 
observable on the beach where the coins and gems are collected, 
would seem, in some degree, to favour this supposition*. 
On first discovering the quarries from which the city of Berenice, 
and probably that of Hesperis also, have been constructed, we flat- 
tered ourselves that we should have found them full of excavated 
tombs, which are usually formed in similar situations, when the 
* These would however serve equally for the reception of rain water, which falls in 
abundance at Bengazi during the winter. 
