The Artificial Curiosities Are Very Numerous, And Claim The Attention
Of All Who May Visit This Country.
They ought properly to be divided
into two classes; in the first of which may be placed the
subterraneous cavern and passage near Tangiers; the ruins of the
amphitheatres, triumphal arches, temples, &c. erected by the
Carthaginians, Romans, and Arabs, at Fez and the several other towns
of Barbary.
The country is besides all over scattered with the remains
of ditches and ramparts, evidently designed for the defence of camps,
forts, and castles, no other vestiges of which, however, can be
found. Besides these, I have observed a number of round towers, which
appear to have belonged, some to houses of religion, and others to the
palaces or residences of former rulers in this country.
In the second class, we may place the efforts of the architectural and
mechanical genius of the present inhabitants, exemplified in the
wonderful aqueducts at Morocco, which commence in Mount Atlas (by the
natives called _Gibbel-el-Hadith_), and convey water in the greatest
abundance to all the houses of the city and its environs. Nor is the
wheel at Fez, which I mentioned in a former letter, less worthy of
remark; and several mausoleums in their burial-places have been
constructed in a very costly style, the stucco of the walls being
remarkably smooth and beautiful, and as hard as marble; but these
tombs are exceptions to the general rule; for, as I have before
observed, the greater part are but rude buildings.
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