The latter seen from a distance resembles a medieval castle crowning a hill-top.
The cathedral is Wren's crowning work.
Deep valleys winding through the barren foothills lead gradually up to the higher mountains, and as the track ascends the scenery and vegetation change their character; the trees which line the banks of the wadi are overgrown with creepers, and the running stream is dammed at frequent intervals, and led off in artificial channels to irrigate the fields on either side; the steeper parts of the road are paved with large stones, substantially built villages, with their masonry towers or da y s, crowning every height, replace the collection of *mud walls and brushwood huts of the low country; while tier above tier, terraced fields cover the hill slopes and attest the industry of the inhabitants and the fertility of their mountains.
The town clusters at the foot of the monastery of St John, which, crowning the hill with its towers and battlements, resembles a fortress rather than a monastery.
But even in this crowning triumph the cramping egotism of his nature - a mental vice which now grew on him rapidly - fatally narrowed his outlook and led him to commit an irretrievable blunder.