Volume 181322

A general collection of voyages and travels, including the most interesting records of navigators and travellers, from the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, to the travels of Lord Valentia / [William Fordyce Mavor].

  • Mavor, William Fordyce, 1758-1837.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general collection of voyages and travels, including the most interesting records of navigators and travellers, from the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, to the travels of Lord Valentia / [William Fordyce Mavor]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    deur are still discernible. The ruins now yield an abundance of graniteand marble to the worthless ci- tizens, who constantly profane them in the construc- 4:0n of their own houses with other materials. Me. dals, and other curiosities, were formerly found on greatest facility ; but, owing to the reiterated visitation of Europeans, they are now be- come extremely scarce. Without the south gate of the wall, the largest co- Tumn that was ever raised still rears its noble head, triumphant over ignorance, time, and blind supersti- tion. It is composed of three pieces of beautiful ‘granite, out of which are hewn the pedestal, the shaft, and capital. Its height is about ninety-five feet, and the mean derasdter seven feet and three quarters: consequently the solid contents of the co- tumn may be computed at six thousand cubic feet: and as it is a well-known fact, that one cubic foot of red granite weighs a hundred and eighty-five pounds, 3ts weight must be equivalent to one million one hun- dred and ten thousand pounds avoirdupois. ‘The ground upon which this pillar stands having sunk, a part of the plinth that sustains it is exposed toview, It isa granite block, of only six feet square, on which rests a pedestal of much larger dimens'ons than itself; a fact which sufficiently proves the exact _ perpendicularity of the whole erection. It seems extremely probable, froma large circular hollow that has been discovered in its upper part, by some persons who contrived to ascend thither for the satisfaction of their curiosity, that the capital origi- nally served as a base to some statue, the remains “of ' which are now, in all likelihood, apacs Uaip: lost. A native of France informed our author that he had discovered some fragments of a statue near the pillar, which seemed to have been of a prodigious size; but, finding his labour fruitless in searching for the remain, der, he had thrown them into the sea at a certain part, where they were seen by Sonnini, but so obscured