EROM THE HELLESPONT TO RHODES. 
IB I 
From our distant view of the place, bein<j about two lefties 
from tlie entrance to its southern and larger port, the hill 
thereon its ruins stood seemed to rise from the sea in form of 
a theatre. Strabo notices this form as characterizing the land 
of Homer’s Poems, and the existence of Troy. It is the more valuable, because I be¬ 
lieve few modern travellers have visited these ruins ; and certainly no one of them 
better qualified for the undertaking. 
“ 14th June, 1795.-We set out in a boat from Cos, and in a few hours reached 
liouciroun, the ancient Halicarnassus, a distance of eighteen computed Turkish miles. 
This small town stands on a shallow bay, at the eastern extremity of the large and 
deep port of the ancient city. Off this bay lie.s the island mentioned in Strabo by the 
name of Arconnesos, (Apxovvw.os,. .(lib* xiv. p 656.) The houses are irregularly 
scattered on the shore, arid interspersed with gardens, burying grounds, and cultiva¬ 
ted fields. We lodged at a large khan near the bazar, which is marked in the rieline- 
ation'given in Choiseul’s Voyage Pitt ores que { PI. 96. p. 152.) Several Turkish vessels 
were at. anchor in the port ; and the disorderly conduct of the crews at night made the 
bouses of the Greeks uncomfortable, and, indeed, unsafe places ofresidence. Pistol- 
balls were at night'So often fired at their windows, that they were obliged to barricade 
those of their sleeping rooms; and the outward windows of the^khan had been carefully 
walled up, for the same reason; We,, soon after our arrival,.crossed some gardens be 
bind the town,'to view the remains.of an ancient edifice which is on the northeast 
side of it. We found six column's of the fluted Doric, supporting their architrave, 
mutilated frieze, and cornice The marble,of which they are made is of a dark gray 
colour, with a few white veins : nor is the masonry of the same workmanship with the 
remains we had elsewhere found of the finer ages of Greece. The forms of the stones 
and junctures of the building are more slovenly and inaccurate, and the architecture 
is not of the same elegant proportions with the earlier Doric buildings at Athens, and 
in.Magna Graecia. The inlercolumniatioBs are much greater, and the entablature 
heavier, and with less relief and projection. The lower parts.of the columns are bu¬ 
ried in earth ; and near them are two or three plain sarcophagi, of ordinary work, and 
without inscriptions. Broken stumps, of columns, in a line with those which are, stand¬ 
ing, and many ruined fragments of marble, are scattered over the field. From the 
length of the colonnade, and the disappearance of all the corresponding column? of 
the peristyle, if this be supposed to have been a temple, I"void'd.hesitate'to adopt the 
conjecture. It appeared to me the remains of a stoa.or pc tieo, and probably ranged 
along one side of the ancient Agora of the town. It agrees in many respect-, with the 
situation assigned to the Agora by Vitruvius; as it would be on the right of a person 
looking from the modern.fortress,.’where, stood the ancient .castle and palace of Mau- 
solus, at the eastern horn of thegreater port ; while the smaller port formed by the 
island of Arconnesus would he on the left, in which order Vitruvius seems to place 
them. A quantity of marble is dug up near these ruins, the remains of other magnifi¬ 
cent buildings. The wails are visible from hence through a great part of their extent, 
which appears to have been about six-English miles from the western horn of the pGrt, 
along high grounds to a considerable eminence northwest of this ruin, and thence to 
the easternpromontory on which the modern castle is built. On the eminence, which 
I .noticed, are traces of ancient walls, indicating the situation of the fortress called 
-the Arx Media by Vitru vius, wherein stood the Temple of Mars ; but of that, or in- 
•deed of the fortress itself, there are but indistinct remains, so thatwe con'd not ascer¬ 
tain the position of the temple. At the foot of this hill remains the ancient theatre, 
fronting the south : it is scooped in the hill, and many rows of marble seats are left in 
their places. The arcades of communication, and the proscenium, at e in ruins. Ma¬ 
ny large caverns are cut in t he hili behind the theatre, probably places of sepulture, 
from their appearance; but their contents have been long ago carried away. The mo¬ 
dern castle stands on a tongue of land at the eastern extremity of the port, which it 
commanded ; and from the ancient materials used in its construction., appears to have 
been formerly a fortress commanding.,'the port; and here, as I suppose, was one of the 
citadels mentioned by Strabo, who says expressly, that when Alexander took the 
town, there were two, (5nV) <5’ riv ixftVTi, lib- xiv. p. 657.) At the western extremi¬ 
ty of the bay, the situation of the aga’s house and harem prevented our researches 
Here was the fountain Salmaeis, the temples of Venus and Mercury, and the 
axpa xoAoujibn EaA/xajtis mentioned by Arrian (lib. i. p. 25. de Exped. Alexand ) the 
second Acropolis of Strabo, in which the Persians, took refuge, as well as in that cm 
the island, when the town had been carried by the attack of Alexander on the land 
side. Arrian also notices the third Acropolis, the Arx hiedia of Vitruvius, on the 
eminence behind the theatre, ctxjav rnv rr^os MeAacrtray uaAicfTa Tfrpap/ifcnv, 
the fortress that leaked toward Mylassa r near the wall where the Macedonians made 
