238 NECROPOLIS OF TERMESSUS. 



architecture is not ornamented. Behind the 

 theatre is the gymnasium. The theatre over- 

 looks a deep ravine, on the opposite side of 

 which is a narrow zig-zag causeway, leading 

 up from the gulf below, and forming a second en- 

 trance to the city, equally difficult with the first. 

 Most of the ruins at Termessus are of Roman 

 date. 



A fourth wall runs along the southern edge 

 of the city, crowning the precipice, and extend- 

 ing so as to separate a hollow space in the 

 mountain, crowded with tombs, from the mass 

 of buildings. Several hundred sarcophagi are 

 thus gathered together in a natural amphitheatre. 

 There are also a number of rock-tombs among 

 the precipices, but none of them appear to be 

 of very ancient date. Indeed, most are evidently 

 Roman ; they are arched recesses or open cham- 

 bers, and the sarcophagi in many of them are 

 carved in the shape of a couch. There are 

 long metrical inscriptions on some of these 

 tombs. The name of the city did not occur in 

 any of the funereal inscriptions at Termessus 

 which we had time to examine, but their num- 

 ber is prodigious, and to copy them, many days 

 would be required. 



