Through Portugal . he way by which we another strong gate tower we pass through;and with a sudden turn we are inside the fortress,on the right of us a ruined chapel, once a mosque,and on the left a watch-tower, with, at its foot, amonument upon which the cross is graven sur-mounting the crescent, emblematical of the fateof the adjoining chapel. To describe in detail this prodigious ruin wouldbe impossible in any reasonable space. Thesummit of the crag consists of two separate peaksat some distance from each other, the higher oneoccupied by the main keep, the royal tower,and long battl
Through Portugal . he way by which we another strong gate tower we pass through;and with a sudden turn we are inside the fortress,on the right of us a ruined chapel, once a mosque,and on the left a watch-tower, with, at its foot, amonument upon which the cross is graven sur-mounting the crescent, emblematical of the fateof the adjoining chapel. To describe in detail this prodigious ruin wouldbe impossible in any reasonable space. Thesummit of the crag consists of two separate peaksat some distance from each other, the higher oneoccupied by the main keep, the royal tower,and long battlemented walls reach from one pointto the other, with bastions at intervals and mas-sive square keeps at the salient angles. On allsides within the great enclosure formed by thebattlements, covering the whole summit, remainsof towers and buildings of various sorts are scat-tered, amidst the dense growth of trees and brush-wood that have intruded upon the space. Thebattlements, many of them built upon the rounded 2IO. CINTRA boulders that border the precipice and follov/ingthe contour of the hill top, are strong and perfectstill; and it needs but little imagination to peoplethem again with the turbaned and mailed warriors,sheltered snugly behind them, watching for theadvancing hosts of the Christian king, certainthat, so long as Islam was true to itself, no forcecould take this stronghold of their race. Theview over the battlements on all sides is tre-mendous. Just below the walls a Titanic scatterof boulders, varying in size from a few feet indiameter to the bulk of a cathedral, and thenthe descending folds of greenery, with the sunlitplains and clustering towns below ; and there onthe west, seemingly almost at the foot, a longstretch of breaker-strewn beach, and the blue lineof the sea. The view on the Cintra side is almostappalling, the drop from the battlements andboulders to the town being almost sheer, and onthe south-east a great bay opens, and the mouthof the Tagus bounds
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Keywords: ., bookauthorhumemartinandrewsharp, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900
