The city hath a threefolde wall about it; the innermost very high, the next lower then that, and the third a countermure and is in circuit about ten English miles: it hath foure and twentie gates: and when the empire was remooued out of the West into the East, it was inriched with many spoiles of olde.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation] Reference