MATERIAL OF THE STATUES. 153 



At a distance of one hundred and forty-two feet in a 

 southeasterly direction is the idol marked P. It stands 

 at the foot of a wall rising in steps to the height of thirty 

 or forty feet ; originally much higher, but the rest fallen 

 and in ruins. Its face is to the north ; its height eleven 

 feet nine inches, the breadth of its sides three feet, and 

 the pedestal is seven feet square. Before it, at a dis- 

 tance of twelve feet, is a colossal altar. It is of good 

 workmanship, and has been painted red, though scarce- 

 ly any vestige of the paint remains, and the surface is 

 time-worn. The two engravings given opposite repre- 

 sent the front and back view. The former appears to 

 represent the portrait of a kfhg or hero, perhaps erected 

 into a deity. It is judged to be a portrait, from certain 

 marks of individuality in the features, also observable in 

 most of the others, and its sex is ascertained by the 

 beard, as in the Egyptian monuments, though this has 

 a mustache, which is not found in Egyptian portraits. 



The back of this idol, again, presents an entirely dif- 

 ferent subject, consisting of tablets, each containing 

 two figures oddly grouped together, ill-formed, in some 

 cases with hideous heads, while in others the natural 

 countenance is preserved. The ornaments, diadems, 

 and dresses are interesting, but what these personages 

 are doing or suffering it is impossible to make out. 

 This statue had suffered so much from the action of 

 time and weather, that it was not always easy to make 

 out the characters, the light being in all cases very bad, 

 and coming through irregular openings among the 

 branches of trees. 



The stone of which all these altars and statues are 

 made is a soft grit-stone from the quarries before re- 

 ferred to. At the quarries we observed many blocks 

 with hard flint-stones distributed through them, which 



Vol. I.— U 



