FROM THE HELLESPONT TO RHODES. 
133 
Triopian promontory, and the land to the eastward of it, once 
an island, with the Asiatic continent. The English consul at 
Rhodes afterward informed us, that a fine colossal statue of 
marble was still standing in the centre of the orchestra belong¬ 
ing to the theatre, the head of which the Turks had broken off; 
but that he well remembered the statue id its perfect state. 
This is evidently the same alluded to by Mr. Merritt. Mr* 
Walpole, in a subsequent visit to Cnidus, brought away the 
torso of a male statue: this he has since added to the collec¬ 
tion of Greek marbles in the vestibule of the university li¬ 
brary, at Cambridge. No specimen of Cnidian sculpture can 
be regarded with indifference. The famous Venus of Praxi¬ 
teles was among the number of the ornaments once decorating 
this celebrated city, and its effigy is still extant upon the 
medals of the place. Sostratus of Cnidus, son of Dexiphanes, 
built upon the " isl'e/.of -Pharos- the celebrated Light-Tower, 
considered one of the seven wonders of the world, whence all 
of -white marble, lies in the orchestra. It appeared of good work originally, but is so 
mutilated and corroded by the air as to be of little or no consequence. Near this are 
the foundations and ruins of a magnificent Corinthian temple, also of white marble ; 
and several beautiful fragments of the frieze, cornice, and capitals, lie scattered 
about the few bases of the peristyle, remaining in their original situation. It is so 
ruined., that it would be, I believe, impossible to ascertain the original form and pro¬ 
portions of the building. We left the isthmus that divides'the two harbours on our 
left; and on the eastern shore of the north harbour came to a still larger Corinthian 
temple, also in ruins, and still more overgrown with bushes. The frieze and cornice 
of this temple, which lie among the ruins, are of the highest and most beautiful work¬ 
manship. A little to the north of this stood a smaller temple, of gray-veined marble, 
whereof almost every vestige is obliterated. We now turned again eastward toward 
the 4cropolis. Several arches of rough masonry, and a breastwork, support a large 
square area, probably the ancient Agora, in which are the remains of a long colonnade, 
of white marble, and of the Doric order, the ruins of an ancient stoa. Here also is the 
foundation of another small temple. On the north of this area a broad street ran from 
the port toward the Acropolis, terminating near the port in an arched gateway of plain 
and solid masonry. Above this are the foundations of houses, on platforms rising to¬ 
ward the outward walls; traces of a cross street near the theatre; and the Acropolis, 
of which nothing is left but a few ruined walls of strong brown stone, the same used 
for the substructions of the platforms into which the hill is cut. A few marbles, 
grooved to convey water from the hill of the Acropolis, are scattered on part of this 
ground; and we could trace the covered conduits of marble wherein it had been con¬ 
veyed. We now descended again to the isthmus that separates the two harbours. In 
Strabo’s timeit was an artificial mole, over a narrow channel of the sea; and the west¬ 
ern part of the town stood on an island united by this isthmus to the continent. An 
arch still remains in the side of it, probably a part of this mole; but the ruins which 
have fallen, with-the sand that has accumulated on each side of it, have formed a neck 
of land here, about sixty or. seventy yards across. The port’on the north, as Strabo 
tells us, was shut by flood gates; and two towers are still to be traced, at the entrance 
to which the gates were fixed. It contained, he says, twenty triremes. The southern 
port is much larger, and protected from the open sea by a mole of laree rough-hewn 
stones, which still remains. Beyond the ports, to the west, the town rosd on a hill; 
the form of this Strabo compares to that of a theatre, bounded from the mole on the 
south by steep precipices of rock, and on the north by wails descending from the ridge 
to the gates of the northern harbour,- in a semicircular sweep. On this side of the town 
we found the old foundations of the houses, but no temples nor traces of ornamental 
buildings, and no marble, The'Circuit of the walls is perhaps three miles, including 
the two ports within them. A reference to the annexed plan will give a clearer view 
of the situation than I am able to arlord by description only.” 
Morrill's MS. Journal. 
