298 RUINS OF TELMESSUS. 
CHAP, the front of this fine theatre extended a noble 
VIII. • n- 1 r 
< I .y ,./ terrace, to which a magnificent flight of steps 
conducted from the sea. The beautiful harbour 
of Telmessus, with the precipices and snow-clad 
summits around it, were in the prospect sur- 
veyed by the spectators ; and behind towered 
the heights of that mountain, to whose shelving 
sides the edifice was itself adapted. It is not 
in the power of imagination to conceive a 
sublimer scene, than, under so many circum- 
stances of grand association, was presented to 
the stranger, who, landing from his bark 
beneath the Propylcea of this building, ascended 
to the terrace of the Theatre from the strand, 
and, entering its vast portals, beheld the 
Telmessensians seated by thousands within its 
spacious area. 
Oracular Ncar to the ruins of this edifice there are 
Cave. 
other remains ; and, among them, there is one, 
of a nature too remarkable to be passed without 
notice : it is a lofty and very spacious vaulted 
apartment, open in front, hewn in the solid 
substance of a rock, beneath the declivity upon 
which the Theatre is situate, and close to the 
sea. The sides of it are of the natural stone ; 
but the back part consists of masonry, stuccoed 
with so much art, that it exhibits the appear- 
ance of the rock itself. This stucco evidently 
