THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN. 301 Proceeding up the principal lane or pathway of the village, portions of the antient pavement of large square flat stones are discoverable, and directly in front rises the great temple with its grand and lofty portal and tall fluted columns divested of their brazen capitals. It is surrounded and disfigured by the mud huts of the village, through the interior rooms of which you are obliged to walk to get to the different parts of the building. The grand entrance faces the west, and the front of the temple is made in that portion of the building which forms the side of every other temple I have seen. Its construction is very peculiar,― on either side the gateway was supported by four fluted columns, and it is adorned by rich carvings of vine leaves and clusters of grapes in bold and spirited relief, and beautifully chiselled. The roof of the body of the building is entirely gone. In the interior, at the southern end, is the village mosque, fantastically ornamented and set off with passages from the Koran written round the walls. Passing through an Arab hut to the northern end, we crept into a small chamber of the temple, adorned with a richly carved stone ceiling divided into compartments; the centre is occupied by a single block of stone, eighteen feet in circumfer ence, hollowed out into a low dome, and divided into diamond compartments richly carved and fretted: each compartment incloses a figure head, and the whole is surrounded by a circular border, on which are the twelve signs of the zodiac, exactly similar to those used on our globes at the present day. One of the stones composing the wall of the temple is thirteen feet in length by five in breadth, and another twelve feet by six. After poking about the rooms by torch-light I was glad to get out in the open air to the eastern side of the temple, where nine beautiful channelled columns and part of a tenth of the colonnade antiently surrounding the temple still exist. They have twenty-four channellings, and are fifty feet in height without base or capital. Behind them are four richly carved windows in the wall of this temple. At the southern end of the temple is another chamber corresponding to the one at the northern end. It is surmounted with a stone ceiling, richly carved in octagonal compartments, formed by highly wrought mouldings; the centre is likewise occupied by a large block of stone, surrounded by a circular border inclosing a large ornament, but no zodiac is seen. Passing through an Arab hut and creeping into several dark holes and passages, we THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN. 303 ascended to the top of the building and walked round the walls, which are very wide, and afford a fine prospect of the ruins and the desert. Each end of the temple is ornamented with two Ionic half columns, and one would conclude that it was of the Ionic order, but from the length and bellshaped appearance of the stone to which the metal capitals were affixed, it appears to me evident that they were Corinthian, so that the temple must have been of a mixed order of architecture. The holes to which the metal capitals were attached are plainly distinguishable. The length of the body of the temple, exclusive of the colonnade, is about 134 feet, and that of the whole building about 180. Over the doorway of this temple was sculptured an eagle with extended wings, similar to the bird at Baalbec; scarcely any of it now remains, the stone upon which it was sculptured having nearly all fallen and been either carried away or buried under the rubbish. The circumstance of an eagle being sculptured over the grand portal of the temple, both here and at Baalbec, is remarkable, and no doubt had some connexion with the worship of the sun, to which it is supposed both temples were dedicated. CHAPTER XI. PALMYRA.-VALLEY OF THE TOMBS.-TOMB OF IAMBLICHUS. TOMB OF ELABELUS MANAIUS.-ANTIENT WALLS.THE SARACENIC CASTLE.-HOT SPRINGS.-ANTIENT BATHS. PALMYRENE INSCRIPTIONS. THE STONE DOORWAY. CITADEL.-THE GRAND AREA OF THE TEMPLE.-GROTTO OF HOT WATER. THUNDER-STORM. GREAT DESERT. PLAIN OF SALT. SIONS. VILLAGE OF TADMOR. LAST IMPRES "the ground, League beyond league, like one great cemetery, ROGERS. Nov. 1st. We walked across the sands to the Valley of the Tombs, the most interesting of all the ruins. These solitary towers crowning the eminences have, from every point of view, a most striking effect. As you wind up a narrow valley between the mountain range, you have them on your right and left, topping the hills or descending to the border of the valley: some present mere VALLEY OF THE TOMBS. 305 heaps of rubbish, some, half fallen, expose their shattered chambers, and one or two still exist in almost an entire state of preservation. We visited seven of these sepulchral monuments, but I shall confine my description to two of the handsomest and most perfect. The first and most perfect monument stands slightly elevated on the side of the sloping eminence which hems in the valley to the south; it is surrounded by five others much ruined. The front is entire and looks towards the north, but a portion of the side wall has tumbled, and has accumulated round the doorway, filling up the entrance to about half its height; some small narrow windows are pierced in the wall, and over the top of the portal are some raised tablets of stone, on the lowest of which is the following Greek inscription, plainly and intelligibly engraved. It requires some contrivance, however, to be able to get near enough to the elevated tablet to make out the letters, and some little patience in transcribing it, as the letters run one into the other without being separated into words. ΜΝΗΜΕΙΟΝ ΑΙΩΝΙΟΝ ΓΕΡΑΣ ΩΚΟΔΟΜΗΣΕΝ ΙΑΜΛΙΧΟΣ ΜΟΚΕΙΜΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΑΚΚΑΛΕΙΣΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΜΑΛΙΚΟΥ ΕICTE ΕΑΥΤΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΥΙΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΓΓΟΝΟΥΣ ΕΤΟΥΣ Δ Ι Τ ΜΗΝΙ ΞΑΝΔΙΚΩ VOL. II. X |