IN THE FORTRESS-ROCK. 
709 
more recent times than the surrounding bulwarks. On this 
face of the mountain, the northern three of the excavated tombs 
present themselves; and two, likewise, are seen to the south. 
Leaving my half sleeping Jannissary, to smoke under the shelter 
of one of the mouldering walls, we bent our way to the ruins 
on our left; and after scaling the steep twenty or thirty paces 
higher up, passed through a passage hollowed into the solid rock 
to the length of six or eight yards. Its entrance bore the marks 
of some former grated defence, holes remaining in the sides, 
and above and below, where the bars must have been introduced. 
We issued to the light from this dark avenue, upon a long ledge 
of the rock, about six feet in width, and hewn out of the side of 
the cliff, up which it led like a kind of ladder. The side next 
the precipice was guarded by a low parapet, left a few feet high 
in excavating the path-way between it and the mountain side; 
and where the ascent was more than commonly steep, a short 
flight of steps rendered it more accessible. About twenty yards 
thus ascending, brought us to the first sepulchral excavation, 
which presented the rock hewn inward to the depth of seventeen 
or eighteen feet, forming a passage four feet in width and 
thirty-five in height; thence it takes a flattened semicircular 
form, shaping an arched hollow twenty-five feet in compass, and 
leaving a solid expanse of rock with free access all round it. 
The face of this cavern was approached by several low steps, 
terminating on a long platform ; and the interior again excavated 
into the form of a small vaulted chamber, with sufficient space to 
contain a large coffin or sarcophagus : that such may have been 
its deposit, appears from the appropriate dimensions of a hollowed 
place in the middle of the floor. The entrance to this is through 
a flat-topped door-way, five feet high and three wide. It also 
retains bored holes where iron protections may have formerly 
