The ruins of the town cover a great extent of ground, but have been sadly defaced by the various races which have overrun the country. Cyrene and the district to the east, the north, and the west, is called Shahat by the Arabs; while the ancient designation, under the modified form of Ghrennah, is applied to the district to the south. The first account of the site in modern times seems to be that of Μ. Lemaire, who was French consul at Tripoli in the time of Louis XIV. Paul Lucas visited the spot in 1710, and again in 1723, and Dr Thomas Shaw in 1738; an Italian, Dr Cavelli, who was there in 1812, furnished some information to the Société de Géographie de Paris; and Della Cella published an account of his visit in his Travels, translated into English in 1822. In 1821-2 important explorations were made by Lieutenant Beechey, R.N.; and he was almost immediately followed by a French artist, M √ Pacho, whose pencil preserved a number of interesting monuments that have since disappeared. M. Delaporte, French consul at Tangier, and Vattier de Bourville come next in order of time. Barth, the famous African traveller, published an account of his investigations in his Wanderungen durch die Küstenländer des Mittelmeers, 1849. In 1861 excavations were made on the site of the city by Captain Murdoch Smith, RAE., and Commander Porcher, R. N^., the results of which are detailed in their valuable Discoveries in Gyrene, London, 1864. The principal buildings of which the plan can be more or less clearly distinguished are three theatres, a small Doric temple of Bacchus, a temple of Apollo (Beechey’s temple of Diana), two temples hypothetically assigned to the worship of Venus, and a large many-chambered structure, supposed to be the palace of the Roman governor. All are composed of a friable yellow sandstone, containing a great number of shells. The temples are remarkable for the eastern position of the main entrance. Of the ancient sculpture of the city several fine specimens were exhumed and conveyed in safety to the British Museum—a statue of Bacchus, a colossal statue of Apollo playing on the Lyre, a bust of Cnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the first Roman propraetor of Cyrene, a fine portrait-head in bronze, <fcc. Far more imposing than the remains of its buildings are the long lines of tombs which occupy the scarped fronts of all the hill sides, and stretch out along the various roads leading from the city. These consist of two kinds—the excavated and the constructed,—the former being the best preserved, and, it would seem, the most spacious and elaborate. Many of the finer examples have large temple-like entrances with Doric columns cut out of the rock, and bear traces of internal decoration of - the most costly and brilliant kind. On the walls of one which still preserved its colours at the time of its discovery in 1861 was depicted a procession of thirty-six individuals in various costumes, as well as hunting scenes and games. A favourite sepulchral ornament appears to have been a large scallop-shell sculptured in marble and placed above the sarcophagus recess. The city was furnished with water by means of a perennial fountain now known to scholars as the fountain of Apollo, and to the Arabs as ’Ain Shahat, remarkable for the artificial tunnel through which it passes. In 1864 Mr George Dennis, vice-consul at Benghazi, proceeded to examine the tombs of the Cyrenaica, and obtained a fine series of painted Greek vases of the red-figure and polychrome styles, which are now in the British Museum. An account of his excavations will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Soc. of Literature, 2d ser. ix. p. 135.