Note 3844 — BOOK V. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

Strabo describes this cave as a vast hollow of circular form, surrounded by a margin of rock on all sides of considerable height; on descending it, the ground was found full of shrubs, both evergreens and cultivated, and in some parts the best saffron was grown. He also says that there was a cave which contained a large spring, from which arose a river of clear water which immediately afterwards sank into the earth and flowed underground into the sea. It was called the Bitter Water. This cave, so famed in ancient times, does not appear to have been examined by any modern traveller. It was said to have been the bed of the giant Typhon or Typhœus.