midnight
How great it was I could not tell , for the height of its precipitous walls barred the vision . The frowning facade turned toward us was , I estimated , five miles in length . 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 .