MY HOME IN PALESTINE. 131 



rocks about fifty feet high, here and there rent into 

 chasms. Skirting these, we suddenly find ourselves 

 at an opening, apparently artificial. It is just wide 

 enough to admit the carriage ; and now we perceive 

 the deep ruts of ancient chariot-wheels in the white 

 rock, and examining more minutely, find holes in 

 the entrance-rocks at each side, showing that in old 

 time this passage could be barred. For about fifty 

 yards we traverse the narrow passage. Here and 

 there on the sides we observe steps cut in the face of 

 the rock, the surface of which, in all directions, bears 

 the marks of cuttings. We emerge from this artifi- 

 cial cleft upon a small sandy plain, and find ourselves 

 suddenly in the presence of the ruins of Athlit, the 

 most striking feature of which is a magnificent iso- 

 lated fragment of wall, some sixty feet high. The 

 carved blocks which formed its external casing have 

 been partially removed, and it looks like some grand 

 skeleton of departed greatness. "We enter the ruins 

 by a gateway, in which there are still massive wooden 

 doors, and perceive immediately on our right the 

 traces of three tiers of vaults, one above another, 

 forming possibly the foundations upon which the 

 temple was built, of which the fragment of wall is all 

 that remains. High up on its inner surface we see 

 the spring of three of the arches which probably 

 formed the support of the roof, and which rest upon 

 corbels formed respectively of the heads of a man and 

 a woman and a bunch of acanthus-leaves. Attracted 



