temple of Astarte or Venus.[5111] An excellent harbour, formed by Cape
Drepanum (now Trapani), lay at its base. There were springs of water
within the walls which yielded an unfailing supply. The walls were of
great strength, and a considerable portion of them is still standing,
and attests the skill of the Phoenician architects. The blocks in the
lower courses are mostly of a large size, some of them six feet long,
or more, and bear in many cases the well-known Phoenician
mason-marks.[5112] They are laid without cement, like those of Aradus
and Sidon, and recall the style of the Aradian builders, but are at once
less massive and arranged with more skill. The breadth of the wall is
about seven feet. At intervals it is flanked by square towers projecting
from it, which are of even greater strength than the curtain between
them, and which were carried up to a greater height. The doorways in
the wall are numerous, and are of a very archaic character, being either
covered in by a single long stone lintel or else terminating in a false
arch.[5113] The commercial advantages of Eryx were twofold, consisting
in the produce of the sea as well as in that of the shore. The shore
is well suited for the cultivation of the vine,[5114] while the
neighbouring sea yields tunny-fish, sponges, and coral.[5115]

Panormus (now Palermo) occupies a site almost unequalled by any other
Mediterranean city, a site which has conferred upon it the title of
"the happy," and has rendered it for above a thousand years the most
important place in the island. "There is no town in Europe which enjoys
a more delicious climate, none so charming to look on from a distance,
none more delightfully situated in a nest of verdure and flowers. Its
superb mountains, with their bare flanks pierced along their base with
grottoes, enclose a marvellous garden, the famous 'Shell of Gold,' in
the midst of which are seen the numerous towers and domes, the fan-like
foliage of the palms, the spreading branches of the pines, and Mount