ATHENS. 
North- West. 
ELEUSIS, backed by a mountainous territory: 
the extremity of the SARONIC GULPH: and in 
this direction the point of ^Egaleos is visible 
where Xerxes is supposed to have sat during the 
battle of Salamis. 
Then succeeds the Plain of Athens, covered, 
on the northern side, by extensive olive-plan- 
tations: afterwards, still nearer to the eye, 
appear the ACROPOLIS and CITY OF ATHENS, and 
all the ATHENIAN PLAIN at the foot of Hymettus. 
ATHENS, as viewed from this situation, makes a 
most beautiful appearance: a description of it 
may be written as from a model. It lies in a 
valley, having PHALERUM and THE SEA to the 
west; MOUNT PENTELICUS to the east; the 
mountainous range of PARNES, or Nozia, to the 
north; and HYMETTUS upon the south. In the 
plain of this fine valley, thus surrounded by 
vast natural ramparts, there are other very 
remarkable geological features. A series of six 
insular mountain rocks, of breccia, surmounted 
by limestone, rise in the plain in very regular 
succession, from the east towards the west; 
(that is to say, from Pentelicus towards the sea ;) 
gradually diminishing in that direction. The 
///// ofMusceus is the last of the succession; that 
