Reale on the south towering over all with its vast mass of convents and
churches."[5116] The harbour lies open to the north; but the Phoenician
settlers, here as elsewhere, no doubt made artificial ports by means
of piers and moles, which have, however, disappeared on this
much-frequented site, where generation after generation has been
continually at work building and destroying. Panormus has left us no
antique remains beyond its coins, which are abundant, and show that the
native name of the settlement was Mahanath.[5117] Mahanath was situated
about forty miles east of Eryx, on the northern coast of the island.

Solus, or Soloeis, the Soluntum of the Romans (now Solanto), lay on the
eastern side of the promontory (Cape Zafferana) which shuts in the bay
of Palermo on the right. It stood on a slope at the foot of a lofty
hill, overlooking a small round port, and was fortified by a wall of
large squared blocks of stone,[5118] which may be still distinctly
traced. The site has yielded sarcophagi of an unmistakably Phoenician
character,[5119] and other objects of a high antiquity which recall the
Phoenician manner;[5120] but the chief remains belong to the Greco-Roman
times.

The islands in the strait which separates the North African coast from
Sicily were also colonised by the Phoenicians. These were three in
number, Cossura (now Pantellaria), Gaulos (now Gozzo), and Melita (now
Malta). Cossura, the most western of the three, lay about midway in the
channel, but nearer to the African coast, from which it is distant not
more than about thirty-five miles. It is a mass of igneous rock, which
was once a volcano, and which still abounds in hot springs and in
jets of steam.[5121] There was no natural harbour of any size, but the
importance of the position was such that the Phoenicians felt bound to
occupy the island, if only to prevent its occupation by others. The soil