36 ARCHITECTURE. 
large altar, behind which is the reservoir intended for the sacred ablutions, 
particularly the washing of the feet. 
The second or main hall is separated from the first by a passage lined with 
stone slabs. It is one step above the former, and the floor is entirely 
covered with stone slabs. The right hand side of the hall at 1, is shut off 
by a breast-work containing the altar, d, near which a few low stone slabs, 
e, are placed upright, in such a position as to suggest their having supported 
a table top. Behind these stones the holes f f are cut out in the walls, 
which even at present retain the marks of fire. They were probably the 
places where the small sacred cakes were baked. At /, is a small reservoir, 
probably for the water with which the dough was prepared; and near it a 
long stone, with the form of a fish wrought on it. The opposite side of the 
hall at #, contains the sanctuary, g, partitioned off by large upright stones 
with tables between them. The background is lined with small cells, which, 
according to the stamp of a coin of the times of Antoninus, representing 
similar cells in the temple of Venus, must have served as nestling places 
for sacred doves. 
The posterior portion of the hall, at a, is the most elevated, and contains 
nothing but a few fragments of stone. This was probably the location of 
the statues of the goddess Astarte of the Pheenicians, the prototype of the 
Grecian Venus Urania, to whom the temple was consecrated. 
The second smaller temple, 8, is of similar form with the large one, but 
destitute of any kind of exterior finish, except the altar at m, of a single 
stone. At isa pile of bones and broken pottery, from which it may be 
inferred that the remains of the victims were deposited in this part of the 
temple, which is separated from the rest of the temple by the wall, J. 
Neither of these temples appears ever to have had a roof, and they agree in this 
respect with the temple of Venus at Paphos, and all other temples where 
the religious rites bore any relation to Sabeism. But there are in many 
places holes in the stones in which perhaps masts were placed to support 
a suntent, the regulating strings of which may have been fastened in other 
holes near by. : 
The necropolis (city of sepulchres) of the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinii 
deserves to be mentiond here, as its construction took place in the Cyclopean 
period. The subterranean chambers in the neighborhood of Corneto are 
the only remains of this place which we have mentioned in the historical 
part of this work, giving a view of it in Plates, Division IV. pl. 11, fig. 1. 
It was situated on a hill, and the sepulchres were marked by circular struc- 
tures above-ground supporting a conical mound of earth. The interior of 
the sepulchres was frequently decorated with sculptures and paintings. 
Several of these chambers are in good preservation, and are known as the 
grottoes of Corneto (pl. 8, figs. 8, 4). hice 
2. TEMPLES AND DIFFERENT oTHER Butnprnes. The increased civilization 
and wealth of the Greeks, together with the abundance of superior materials, 
and the assistance of Phoenician and Egyptian mechanics and artists, at an 
early period induced them to construct the buildings erected in honor of 
their tutelary deities exclusively of stone. 
36 
