Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1823 edition. Excerpt: ... the descent from the height to which we had been insensibly conducted, above the main stream of the glen. We reached the bottom by a zig-zag path of tremendous declivity, sometimes obliterated by fallen rocks, and only practicable with the greatest care and precaution. It was here that we found ourselves on the banks of the celebrated Neda, flowing rapidly through one of the most singular chasms in the world, under magnificent precipices, which tower to an astonishing height on each side, and seem to oppose the passage of its waters; leaving, in fact, no space but that which time and the incessant flood have worn between the most prominent of their enormous masses. The district of the Nomian mountains did indeed differ essentially in its circumstances from almost all other tracts of pastoral occupation, generally too remote to derive benefit from that civilization which is produced by the intercourse with cities and the sight of strangers; whereas these were not only surrounded by populous cities, at small distances from each other, but contained within their own confined circuit, cities of no inconsiderable extent, and were frequented by the inhabitants of all the surrounding states, on the occasion of the Lycaean games, which took place on one of their summits. They appear also to have been, to a certain degree, exempt from the horrors of frequent war; partly protected by the sanctity of the region, and partly by the impregnable nature of their fastnesses. Phigaleia, a very considerable city, as may be seen by the circuit of its walls, extended over a rugged and elevated tract. We crossed the Neda near a waterfall, and ascending by a steep path, came immediately to the foundations of what must have been the gate of Phigaleia, after a...