Beyond this channel a river ran into the lake, and in the Y, between the creek and the river, the city had been built.
It was surrounded with a brick wall, and there were two large round brick towers on the land side, which indicated the position of the castle and palace.

The space enclosed by the walls was not more than half a mile square, and the houses did not occupy nearly all of it.
There were open places, gardens, and even small paddocks among them.
None of the houses were more than two storeys high, but what at once struck a stranger was the fact that they were all roofed with red tiles, most of the houses of that day being thatched or covered with shingles of wood.

As Felix afterwards learnt, this had been effected during the reign of the present king, whose object was to protect his city from being set on fire by burning arrows.

The encircling wall had become a dull red hue from the long exposure to the weather, but the roofs were a brighter red.

There was no ensign flying on either of the towers, from which he concluded that the king at that moment was absent..