106 
MSKETT. 
ruins, the most dismal monuments of the dead. In fact, little 
else than the mouldering vestiges that this once was a city, are 
to be seen for several wersts around. On the eastern side of 
the river, directly opposite to the town, rises a pointed and 
rocky hill, covered at the top with very extensive ruins ; — part 
seem the remains of a church, and the rest, from the nature of 
the broken walls and towers, a place of military strength. This 
pyramidal hill, with its mural crown, must have had a very 
majestic aspect, in the days of its power; at present, it is noble 
even in ruins. The fortress on its height appears to have been 
in regular communication with the town : we may distinctly 
mark the track, in the remains of walled posts, which run down 
the slope to the very margin of the river, terminating just at the 
spot where it is in general fordable. The western bank is rather 
high, and gave a good station for a square tower which guarded 
the pass to the water. At a little distance, to the north, is seen 
a bold, projecting rock, perpendicular towards the river, which 
washes its foot. Its summit is spread with masses of ruin, 
fallen and erect; but every where evincing the grandeur of the 
fabric which had once comtnanded from its brow. When that 
fabric stood in its original, unimpaired form, it must have been 
a castle of much greater magnitude than any of the others ; 
and, by its position, commanded not only its own immediate 
road, but the whole valley towards the Caucasus, and every 
approach from the mountains bordering, in that direction, on the 
Aragua. The situation is the best for a military post in that 
part of the country; and, from the peculiar method in which 
parts of the remaining structure are put together, I am led to 
suppose, that if it were first founded by Asiatic princes, it was 
enlarged and strengthened by their Roman conquerors. The 
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