S6 EXTRACl FROM A JOURNAL, DURING 



possible. It is probably rather an advantage t^ 

 the temple, its being so suriounded with ruins as 

 to be secreted till you approach sufficiently near, 

 to receive a more perfect impression of its beau- 

 ties. The rubbish, however, with which it is 

 choaked up, confines the sight too much, and 

 almost precludes the possibility of viewing the 

 building with so good an effect as would arise 

 from a greater choice of situation on the part of 

 the spectator. Passing this gateway, the passage 

 through which is also beautifully sculptured, we 

 reached on the right hand a temple, surrounded 

 by a gallerj^ still entire, though almost buried ; 

 the 'whole ornamented with a variety of figures, 

 surrounded with hieroglyphics, which doubtless 

 explain the meaning of the various objects, some 

 human, others of a less definite nature ; the work- 

 manship is in ver}' great preservation, but the gal- 

 lery so filled as to prevent our standing erect, though 

 the body of this temple, into which we descended, 

 was near thirty feet in height, covered with large 

 slabs of stone. The entrance to this edifice is 

 through a corridore supported on pillars almost bu- 

 ried in the ruins. 



The grand temple, retired from the gateway about 

 fifty yards, presents a front of one hundred and 

 forty feet at the base; at least what is now the ter- 

 replain : and about sixty feet in height, the rest be- 

 ing invisible. This part is in the most perfecl state ; 

 the fillet, torus, and almost every ornamental part, 

 save what the bigotry of the yirabs has induced them' 

 to deface, beii^g in excellent preservation. In the 

 centre an entrance of nineteen feet leads into a peri- 

 style divided by three rows of columns on either 

 side of twenty-two and ahalf feet circumference, the 

 front row connected to each other, at their bases, by 

 a wall ; which, from a part that has been cleared 



