RUINS OF TELMESSUS. 313 
That a building equal to this in magnitude "^'Jf* 
should have been erected for any private indi- ^— v — ' 
vidual, seems to be improbable : and that it 
could not have been one of the public edifices 
of the Telmessensians, is evident, because it did 
not admit light : and further, that its origin was 
sepulchral, may also be inferred from the cir- - 
cumstance of its situation in the midst of tombs. 
Its form is quadrangular ; it consists of enor- 
mous masses of stone, placed together without 
cement : strength seems all which the architect 
intended in its formation. It bears every trace 
of having sustained some enormous obelisk or 
pyramid, to which it supplied a basement. 
Viewed externally, it has the appearance of a 
solid cube ; but having effected a passage to the 
interior of the pile, by means of chasms wliich 
had been opened by earthquakes, we found an 
arch, within, upon each of the sides of the 
cube. Between these arches, the intervening 
parts, that is to say, the solid angles of the 
building, were each of them of one entire stone, 
of incredible size, and scooped within, so as to 
form a dome by meeting together in the upper 
part of the fabric. Upon the outside of the 
pile the arches were walled up, to give addi- 
tional strength to the work, and better enable 
it to sustain the immense weight it was designed 
to bear. All the ground before it, towards the 
