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THERE is a lake that hight lake Asphaltus, and is also called the Dead Sea for its greatness and deepness: for it breedeth, ne receiveth, no thing that hath life.
Strabo, who had not seen the Nymphæum, describes it thus after the account of Poseidonius: "In the territory of Apollonia is a place called the Nymphæum; it is a rock which sends forth fire, and at the base of it are springs of warm asphaltus, the asphaltic earth, as it appears, being in a state of combustion: and there is a mine of it near on a hill.
"The ascending pile Stood fix'd her stately height; and straight the doors Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth And level pavement; from the arched roof Pendant by subtle magic, many a row Of starry lamps and blazing crezzets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky." 7th.
Whatever is cut out, is filled up again in course of time, as the earth which is thrown into the excavations changes into asphaltus, as Poseidonius says." We cannot conclude from this confused description what the real nature of the phenomenon was. Probably the asphaltus or bitumen was occasionally set on fire by the neighbouring people.
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