1 58 Mr. smeathman’s Account of 
wife be inacceflible : by which, and fimilar contrivances, they 
travel with great facility to every interior part. 
This too is probably the caufe of their building a kind of 
bridge of one va'ff arch, which anfwers the purpofe of a flight 
of flairs from the floor of the area to fome opening on the f de 
of one of the columns which fupport the great arches, which 
muft fhorten the diftance exceedingly to thole labourers who 
have the eggs to carry from the royal chamber to fome of 
the upper nurferies, which in fome hills would be four or f ve 
feet in the flraightefl line, and much more if carried through 
all the winding paflages which lead through the inner cham- 
bers and apartments. 
_ I have a memorandum of one of thefe bridges, half - an inch 
broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and ten inches long, mak- 
ing the fide of an elliptic arch of proportionable fze ; fo that 
it is wonderful it did not fall over or break by its own weight 
before they got it joined to the fide of the column above. It 
was flrengthened by a fmall arch at the bottom, and had a 
hollow or groove all the length of the upper furface, either 
made purpolely for the inhabitants to travel over with more 
fafety, or elfe, which is not improbable, worn fo by frequent 
■treading (tab. VII. fig. 2 . e. e.). 
'Thus I have defcribed, as briefly as the fubjedl would admit, 
and I trufl without exaggeration, thofe wonderful buildings 
whofe fize and external form have often been mentioned by 
travellers, hut whofe interior and more curious parts are fo 
little known, that I may venture to confider my account of 
them as new, which is the only merit it has : for they are 
conftrudted upon fo different a plan from any thing elfe upon the 
■earth, and fo complicated, that I cannot find words equal to 
c the 
