360 
RUINS OF RHEY. 
these three square towers commanded the three great entrances 
to the city. The northern, holding the communication with 
Azerbijan and Mazanderan; the southern, that towards Khorasan; 
and the south-western, pointing to Hamadan, the ancient 
Ecbatana: therefore, by this last gate, it is probable that Tobit’s 
celestial messenger entered, on his embassy to Gabel. At the 
foot of the great promontory which crowns the apex of the for¬ 
tifications, and projecting within their area, is another range of 
equally strong walls, embracing a considerable space, and forming 
a lower citadel; within which, in all likelihood, were the royal 
palace, and other buildings of state. Another wall, exterior to 
the city-rampart, connects the height on which the first great 
citadel stands, with another rocky projection of the mountain, 
where every tenable spot has been strongly guarded by outworks; 
linking themselves, across the gorge of a deep ravine, to the 
side of a third citadel or fortress, finely built of stone, and on the 
summit of an immense rock, which commands the open country 
to the south. 
In traversing the interior of the city walls, just without those 
of the second or lower citadel, we observed a very lofty tower 
of brick, of admirable masonry, but of a singular shape ; being 
round, and divided into twenty-four parts ; each part forming 
the two sides of a triangle four feet and six inches in depth, the 
whole surface presenting a continued zig-zag. The top is 
encircled with a Cuphick inscription, nicely executed in the brick; 
and the entrance, which points to the south-east, exhibits a 
high Saracenic arch, with a square portal, richly, and curiously 
ornamented. I should calculate the height of the whole struc¬ 
ture, to be about sixty feet within; it is now quite open at 
the top. About a few hundred yards from the south-eastern 
