ee sides of which fell off in steep precipices; the fourth side
was surmounted by the lofty hill on which the modern city stands. These
steep precipices were the natural walls of the city, and were made more
available for defence by excavation on the inside, so as to leave a solid
wall of rock rising round the city. On the verge of this platform, which
gradually sinks from east to west, and on the side next the sea, which is
about a mile distant, are seen the remains of no fewer than six temples.
They stood in a general line, but at irregular intervals, and must have
formed one of the most magnificent spectacles that the art of man has ever
presented to the eye. The remains of three other temples exist, but they
lie at a distance from this grand range. On the eastern and highest part
of the platform, where the natural wall of which I have spoken makes an
angle, stood the Temple of Juno Lucina; next came the Temple of Concord;
next the Temple of Hercules, near which was the Temple of Jupiter, called
of the Giants; next came the Temple of Venus, and lastly that of Castor
and Pollux. The approach to the ruins of these temples from the modern
city is over the site of the ancient, now shaded by olive, almond, and
carruba trees. The Temple of Juno is a picturesque ruin; all the columns
on the northern side are standing, also several at the ends, and part of
the entablature; the rest of the building, corroded by time or entirely
prostrate, lies under an exuberant growth of flowers and shrubs.

Descending from this temple, we pass through a sort of wild garden, with
here and there an olive-tree or dark carruba; on the left are the ruins of
the ancient rock-wall, huge fragments of which in places have fallen down
the precipice; other parts are perforated as with windows or loop-holes,
or with deep cell-like excavations: these are the tombs of the ancient
Agrigentines, now tenantless and void. Those window-like apertures were
evidently made so by the action of the elements or the violence of man;
and it is related that in consequence of the Agrigentines having made
their tombs in the walls, they were so much weakened that the
Carthaginians by means of their engines were enabled to batter them down
and obtain an entrance. We now come to the Temple of Concord, one of the
most beautiful specimens of Grecian Doric in existence. It is roofless,
but otherwise almost perfect. It has twenty-four columns; it is, like the
temple of Juno, rai