MEMOIR OF BURCKQARDT. 43 



the ancient Coelo-Syria, and stretches between the 

 two mountain chains of the Libanus and the Anti- 

 Libanus. 



At Baalbec Burckhardt remained three days, in- 

 specting the ruins and copying inscriptions ; but the 

 celebrated work of Wood and Dawkins, who visited 

 the place in 1751, and the subsequent account given 

 by Yolney (in 1784), rendered it unnecessary for 

 him to enter into any description of these magnifi- 

 cent architectural remains. Yolney, he remarks, 

 is incorrect in describing the rock of which tlie 

 great temple is constructed, as granite ; it is of the 

 primitive calcareous kind ; although in different 

 parts there are fragments of granite columns to be 

 found. Having lately visited Tadmor, he was 

 naturally led to draw a comparison between those 

 renowned monuments of antiquity. " The entire 

 view (says he) of the ruins of Palmyra, when seen 

 at a certain distance, is infinitely more striking 

 than that of Baalbec ; but there is not any one 

 spot in the ruins of Tadmor so imposing as the in- 

 terior view of the temple of Baalbec. The temple 

 of the sun at Tadmor is upon a grander scale than 

 that of Baalbec, but it is choked up with Arab 

 houses, which admit only of a view of the building 

 in detail. The architecture of Baalbec is richer 

 than that of Tadmor." 



The walls of the ancient city may still be traced, 

 forming a circuit of between three and four miles, 

 and including a larger space than the present town 

 ever occupied, even in its most flourishing condi- 



