measuring 325 yards. The foundation consists of piles driven into the
sand, and placed very close together; but the superstructure is a stone
wall thirty-five feet thick, and still rising to a height of ten feet
above the surface of the water.[5105]

It is probable that there were many other early Phoenician settlements
on the North African seaboard; but those already described were
certainly the most important. The fertile coast tract between Hippo
Regius and the straits is likely to have been occupied at various
points from an early period. But none of these small trading settlements
attained to any celebrity; and thus it is unnecessary to go into
particulars respecting them.

In Sicily the permanent Phoenician settlements were chiefly towards the
west and the north-west. They included Motya, Eryx, Panormus (Palermo),
and Soloeis. That the Phoenicians founded Motya, Panormus, and Soloeis
is distinctly stated by Thucydides;[5106] while Eryx is proved to have
been Phoenician by its remains. Motya, situated on a littoral island
less than half a mile from the western shore, in Lat. 38º nearly,
has the remains of a wall built of large stones, uncemented, in the
Phoenician manner,[5107] and carried, like the western wall of Aradus,
so close to the coast as to be washed by the waves. It is said by
Diodorus to have been at one time a most flourishing town.[5108] The
coins have Phoenician legends.[5109]

Eryx lay about seven miles to the north-east of Motya, in a very strong
position. Mount Eryx (now Mount Giuliano), on which it was mainly built,
rises to the height of two thousand feet above the plain,[5110] and,
being encircled by a strong wall, was rendered almost impregnable. The
summit was levelled and turned into a platform, on which was raised the