The Cyclopean walls
The Cyclopean walls enclosed the north western side of the peak of Mount Erice which was the only one accessible in case of an attack. They are an example of very ancient military architecture. A rocky precipices naturally protected the other side.
The walls wind along the brink of the precipice, north east of Porta Spada. Not far away there is a quiet medieval sentry post with loop-holes and communication trenches that stretch for about 700 metres as far as Porta Trapani.
The defensive work of walls fits time by time to the various altitudes of the ground varying from 682 mt a.s.l. at Porta Spada to 727 metres a.s.l . at Porta Trapani.
The Cyclopean masonry
This Cyclopean masonry is a type of stonework of Mycenaean architecture. The big walls are built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with a minimal distance between adjacent stones and no use of mortar.
The boulders typically seem unworked, but some may have been worked roughly with a hammer. Gaps between boulders were filled in with smaller chunks of limestone. The boulders themselves are never carefully cut blocks. Small stones were so inserted that each of them binds the large blocks firmly together.
The most famous examples of Cyclopean masonry are found in the walls of Mycenae and Tiryns, and the style is characteristic of Mycenaean fortifications. Similar styles of stonework are typical in other cultures so the term describes typical stonework of this sort.
Why Cyclopean walls?
The term comes from the belief of classical Greeks that only the mythical Cyclopes had the strength to move the enormous boulders that made up the walls of Mycenae and Tiryns.
The Cyclops are figures of Greek mythology, gigantic gods with one eye.
Thucydides in book VI of his Stories tells about the existence of a population or tribe named Cyclopes. This was a barbarian populations existing in Sicily before the Greek colonization.
He writes that the most ancient to inhabit a part of the country were the Lestrigoni and the Cyclops, of which unfortunately he knew nothing.
The most reliable hypothesis about Cyclops is that they were ancient blacksmiths. Those artisans emigrated from the east to the Aeolian islands. There they found traces of metal working during the IVth millennium BC. The archaeological evidence could thus confirm the myth that wanted them to live on these islands.
Odyssey and Cyclops
In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus and his crew have some close encounters with man-eating giants. Book Ten tells us that upon reaching the island of the Laestrygonians, Odysseus sends men to search out the island. The men follow a large girl to her father’s palace.
Perhaps the most famous tale from the Odyssey appears one book earlier when Odysseus visited the island of the Cyclops (Kyklopes). There, Odysseus and some of his men are trapped in the cave of Polyphemus, a giant cyclops who devours six of Odysseus’ men.
But curiously, the idea of monstrous giants devouring people can be found elsewhere in ancient literature.
Towers in the walls of Erice
At the present, there are only 16 of the original 25 towers of the original cyclopean walls, linked by mighty curtains. The last ones have an average length of 45 meters and thickness of about 2,30 meters .
Along the curtains there are several little gates or posterns useful in case of emergency. They would ensure the supply of provision or raids outside, to avoid the opening of the town gates.
Today only six of them are left, which are still in good condition.
The most ancient have an enormous calcareous slab as a lintel. Some rows jutting progressively upwards, according to a technique recalling the one of the posterns in Selinus, close the other ones. Romans, instead, introduced the arch.
The upper levels of the Cyclopean walls
In the upper levels the walls are made of small dimension stones and belong to the period after the VI century B.C..
The extensive restoration and remakings made in the Roman and medieval periods have somewhat modified the original aspect of the walls.
The towers and the curtains next to Porta Spada look better preserved.
Near Porta Carmine, instead, the use of small size building material characterize the work carried out during the medieval time. This restoration left remarkable changes especially in the arches.
The rebuilding of Porta Trapani probably dates back to that period. Its pincer-shaped layout is a feature of the fortifications of the time.
The gates of the Cyclopean walls
There are still 3 gates, whose names are Trapani, Carmine and Spada.
Porta Trapani looks towards Trapani. Between two solid bastions, it has an ogival shape.
Porta Spada is in the northern part. Its name is due to the massacre of the Angevins who were occupying Erice during the Vespers War (13th century).
Porta Carmine is in the square opposite the Chiesa del Carmine (Church of Mount Carmel) and on it there’s a large niche with a calcareous headless statue of St. Albert.
The Phoenician letters on the Cyclopic walls
The foundation blocks are of remarkable size and date back to the Elymnian period, VIII century B.C.
Over them stand the rows of squared stones belonging to the Carthaginian period. Compared to the lower walls they are stright and well squared.
In 1882 they discovered some letters of the Phoenician alphabet, caved on these stones.
These letters are evidence of the consolidation work by the Carthaginians during a period roughly between VII and VI century B.C.
ain, beth and phe
The letters ain, beth and phe are recurrent. Probably stonecutters left them to distinguish the different stones. But there are other interpretations.
According to a symbolic interpretation ain means eyes, phe means mouth, and beth means house.
“The walls have eyes to see the enemy, a mouth to eat him when attacked and they are the safe house for the inhabitants”.