rock was not absolutely perpendicular. These walls were of enormous
thickness, and in casemates or recesses in their thickness were
the stables for the elephants, horses, and cattle of the garrison.

Round the upper edge of the rock extended another massive wall,
above which in picturesque outline rose the temple and other public
edifices. At the foot of this natural citadel stretched the lower
town, with its crowded population, its dense mass of houses, its
temples and forum. The style of architecture was peculiar to the
city. The Carthaginians abhorred straight lines, and all their
buildings presented curves. The rooms were for the most part circular,
semicircular, or oval, and all exterior as well as interior angles
were rounded off. The material used in their construction was
an artificial stone composed of pieces of rock cemented together
with fine sand and lime, and as hard as natural conglomerate. The
houses were surmounted by domes or cupolas. Their towers were
always round, and throughout the city scarce an angle offended
the eye of the populace.

Extending into the bay lay the isthmus, known as the Tana, some
three miles in length, communicating with the mainland by a tongue
of land a hundred yards wide.

This was the maritime quarter of Carthage; here were the extensive
docks in which the vessels which bore the commerce of the city to
and from the uttermost parts of the known world loaded and unloaded.
Here were the state dockyards where the great ships of war, which
had so long made Carthage the mistress of the sea, were constructed
and fitted out. The whole line of the coast was deeply indented
with bays, where rode at anchor the ships of the mercantile navy.