at the bottom of the enclosure, which is still high 

 above the surrounding country. 



The palace itself is built on terraces, the court and 

 entrance being three stories higher than the first open 

 terrace in front of the house. Beyond these a most 

 elaborate system of terraces, connected by stairways 

 and fountains, brings one down to the large terrace 

 below. Beyond the magnificent site, the greatest nat- 

 ural advantage of the place is a practically unlimited 

 supply of water. This the architect has used in every 

 conceivable way, and in addition to the great variety 

 of fountains and grottos there is hardly an architect- 

 ural feature in the villa in which a play of water is not 

 made to form a part. It might be added that they are 

 now to be found in almost every imaginable state of 

 decay. Most of the fountains and other architectural- 

 features have long since been stripped of their finest 

 pieces of statuary, and in being thus stripped many of 

 them have lost their raison d'etre. 



The excavations of Hadrian's villa are the mine 

 from which they were originally taken, and they have 

 now, most of them, found their places in museums, 

 being too valuable to be left in a spot so long unin- 

 habited. 



The palace is an enormous structure of perfect sim- 



72 





