TO RHODES. 201 
a cave, formed, with great art, partly in the soHd chap. 
rock, and partly with stone and stucco, in the ' ^-^ 
village or appearance of habitation uow at Cnidus. I lay in the open 
boat all night, and the Turkish sailors in a cave on shore. The 
following are the remains of antiquity I observed there. 
" On the left-hand side of the harbour, as you enter from Cos, upon 
a platform, are the lower parts of the shafts of eleven fluted columns, 
standing, and of very small dimensions : around the platform is a 
ruined wall : a sort of quay was formed round this port, as may be 
inferred from the stone-wori<. Beyond the fluted columns are vaults 
of very modern work, and vestiges of buildings : these may be ascribed 
to the time when the Knights of St. John were at Rhodes, and had 
stations on the coast of Asia, in this part. Passing on eastward, you 
come to the Theatre, facing the south-west, with thirty-six rows 
of seats of marble ; part of the proscenium ; two vaults, opposite 
each other ; and in the area of the theatre the mutilated statue of a 
■woman, iu drapery : the head of this, a« one of the Turkish boatmen 
informed me, had been taken to a neighbouring village, to be hollowed 
for a mortar. On the level summit of the hill over the theatre, and 
commanding a view of the sea, are very large remains of a temple : 
the side of the hill is faced with stone : the ground is covered with 
fragments of white marble columns with Ionic capitals. I measured 
one of the columns ; this was, in diameter, three feet and a half. The 
Cnidians had, according to Pausanias, many temples of Venus ; and 
we may conjecture this to have been the site of one. Below the hill 
is a large area ; and under it a larger still. An isthmus separates the 
small port, wherein I anchored, from a larger harbour. Followinj^ 
this neck of land, in a westerly direction, you reach the other part of 
the town, opposite to that where the theatre and public buildings were 
situate. A bridge, says Pausanias, once formed the communication 
from one side to the other. There are extensive foundations lying to 
the east of the theatre and temple ; but I was not able to find any 
inscription or money of the antient city. The earthenware of Cnidus 
is praised by Atheuteus (lib. i.) ; and the calami or reeds, which grew 
here, were the best, says Pliny, after those of Egypt. The use of 
reeds for writing prevails now, as formerly, all over the East ; and 
they are prepared as in antient times. ' With a knife,' says Salmasius, 
* the reed was slit into two points ; hence, in an epigram, we find, 
xci'Ka.fJt.ot tiairotat liciyXuTrrct xi^dtffft, calami in duos apices scissi.' Ad 
Sulinum." fViiljWln'.s MS. Journal. 
