The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-09-26
THE DAILY ARGUS.
Ancient sicilian Quarries.

The objects which will most surprise
and delight the visitor TO Syracuse are
the ancient quarTies, called Latomise,
perpendicular excavations of 100 feet or
more in the solid rock of the plateau,
out of which the stone was taken to
build the city. The principal are the
latomia del Paradise, the Cappuccini,
the Casale, and the St. Venere. These
vary in extent and in beauty, but all
have the same general character. The
larger have an area of several acres.
When you descend into one of them
you find yourself in the most luxuriant
and understanding garden you can inn
agine. The high and evenly-cut walls
are hung with ivy, which spreads in
great masses of green from gigantic
stems. The rich soil of the bottom
makes to flourish the orange and the
lemon and wilderness of graceful
plants and ever-blooming flowers. The
air is vocal with the songs of birds. Out
of this paradise of scenes and color, one
looks up to sky as blue as sapphire.
The excavations are irregular. Here
single column of rock has been left by
the quarryman; here passage has
been opened into another enormous
apartment, vaster and more impressive
than any cathedral. Here the rock has
been cut under. and we are in vast
vaulted chamber, the ceiling of which
has acquired by some chemical change
pink tinge, rs if it had been decora-
ted for ball room. Indeed, superb
ball was given not many years ago IN
one of these cyclop chambers.
These ancient quarrieS have been
used in past times for various purposes,
for prisons and for burial-places, before
they were turned into gardens. In the
largest, the Cappuccini, it is supposed
that the 1000 captive Athenians were
confined in 413 b. c., until they perish
ed of alternate cold and heat, and thirst
and hunger. 1t was then horrible pit
of death, impossible to be conceived
from its present smiling aspect. Of the
1000, the few survivors were sold as
slaves, although it is said that all those
were set at liberty who could recite the
verses of Euripides.
The Paradise is more wild and gloomy
than the other queries, although not so
beautiful, but it is more famous, be-
cause it. contains the Ear of Dionysius."
This ear is one of the historic frauds.
The story was that Dionysius had the
rock hewn in the form of an ear, so that
by stationing himself in proper place
he could hear what the prisoners below
said, and enjoy their lamentations.
There is winding and lofty excava-
ton in one part of the quarry not I'M
like the passage of giant ear, and
from above there is a gallery leading
down to small chamber communicate
ing with it. 1t is evident, however, that
in making this singular carved hall the
quarrymen were only following a par
ticular vein of stone. The grotto has
extraordinary acoustic properties. A
whisper made at the entrance can be
heard in the remote chamber above, and
the cavern gives back the most remark
able echoes and reverberations. The
slamming of the wooden door at the en-
trance produces a sound resembling
thunder or the discharge of artillery,
and the tearing of a bit of paper at the
same place sounds like the crack of
revolver. 1t was Caravaggio, who was
down this way in the sixteenth century
to execute some sacred pictures for the
churches, who named this grotto the
'.Ear of Dionysius.