RUINS OF PALMYRA. 
705 
The space within this enclosure seems to have been an open court, in 
t!ie middle of which stood the temple encompassed with another row 
of pillars of a different order, and much taller, being fifty high ; but 
of these, sixteen only remain. The whole space contained within these 
pillars is fifty nine yards in length, and twenty-eight in breadth. The 
temple is thirtv-three yards long, and thirteen or fourteen broad ; it 
points north and sooth, and exactly in the middle of the building, on 
the west side, is a most magnificent entry, on the remains of whicft 
are some vines and clusters of grapes, carved in the most juasterly 
imitation of nature that can be conceived. Just over the door as’e 
discerned a pair of wings, which extends its whole breadth, but the' 
body, whether of a eagle or an angel, is destroyed. The north end 
of this temple is adorned with the most curious fret-work and has 
relief; and in the middle there is a dome or cupola about ten feet in 
diameter. North of this place is an obelisk, consisting of seven large 
stones, besides its capital. It is about fifty feet high, and just above 
the pedestal, twelve feet in circumference. About a quarter of a 
mile from this pillar, to the east and west, are two others, besides the 
fragments of a third. About one hundred paces from Mie middle 
obelisk is a magnificent entry to a piazza, which is forty feet broad, 
and more than half a mile long, enclosed with two rows of marble 
pillars twenty-six feet high, and eight or nine in compass. Of these 
there still remain one hundred and twenty-nine, but there must origi- 
nally have been no less than five hundred and sixty. The upper end 
of the piazza was closed by a row of pillars. 
To the left are the ruins of a stately banqueting house, built of 
better marble, and finished with yet greater elegance, than the piazza. 
The pillars which supported it were of one entire stone. It measures 
twenty-two feet in length, and in compass eight feet nine inches. In 
the west side of the piazza are several apertures for gates into the 
courts of the palace. Each of these were adorned with four porphyry 
pillars, placed by couples in the front of the- gate facing the palace, 
two on each side. Two of these only remain entire. They are thirty 
feet long, and nine in circumference. On the east side' of the piazza 
stands a great number of marble pillars, some perfect, but the greater 
part mutilated. At a little distance are the remains of a small temple 
w'ithout a roof. Before the entry, which looks to the south, is a piazza 
supported by six pillars, two on each side, and one at each end. 
The pedestals of those in front have been filled with inscriptions both 
in the Greek and Palmyrene languages, which are become totally 
illegible. 
Among these ruins are many sepulchres ; these are all square 
towers, four or five stories high. There is a wail across the w'hole 
building, and the space on each hand is subdivided into six partitions 
by thick walls. The space between the partitions is wide enough to 
receive the largest corpse, and in these niches there are seven or 
eight piled one above another. Many inscriptions have been found 
at Palmyra, which have occupied much of the attention of the learned. 
See Barthelemy’s Reflections on the Palmyrene Alphabet, published 
at Paris in 1754; An Explication of the Inscriptions at Palmyra 
hitherto published, by John Swinton, of Christ Church, Oxford ; 
4 17 
