VIII. 
294 RUINS OF TELMESSUS. 
CHAP, to the appearance of their theatres. Indeed, it 
may be said, that not only the mountains, but 
the sea itself, and all the prospect before the 
spectators, who were assembled in those 
buildings, must have been considered, by the 
architects of Grecian theatres, as forming parts 
of one magnificent design. The removal of any 
object from the rest would materially have 
injured the grandeur of the whole. Savary, 
who saw this theatre at Telmessus, says it is 
much less than that of Patara ', and we found 
its diameter not half so great as that of 
Alexandria Troas ; yet the effect produced by 
it seemed to be greater. Some of the stones 
used in its construction are nine feet long, 
three feet wide, and two feet thick. Three 
immense portals, not unlike the Rains of 
Stonehenge, conducted to the arena. The stones 
which compose these gates are yet larger than 
those already mentioned : the central gateway 
consists only oijive, and the two others oi three 
each, placed in the most simple style of archi- 
tecture. Every thing at Telmessus is Cyclopean ; 
a certain vastness of proportion, as in the walls 
of Tirynthus or of Crotona, excites a degree of 
admiration which is mingled with awe ; and 
this may be said to characterize the vestiges of 
(l) " Letters on Greece," lib. ii. 48, Lond. 1783. 
