Its colossal scarp struck the eyes like a blow; its shadow, falling upon us, checked the heart.

It was overpowering--dreadful as that midnight city of Dis that Dante saw rising up from another pit.
It was a metal city, mountainous.
Featureless, smooth, the immense wall of it heaved heavenward.

It should have been blind, that vast oblong face--but it was not blind.

From it radiated alertness, vigilance.

It seemed to gaze toward us as though every foot were manned with sentinels; guardians invisible to the eyes whose concentration of watchfulness was caught by some subtle hidden sense higher than sight.
It was a metal city, mountainous and--AWARE.
About its base were huge openings.