314 RUINS OF TELMESSUS. 
CHAP, sea, had been levelled^ and was formerly 
VIII. •' 
covered by masonry, now only visible in a 
few remaining traces. In this extraordinary 
sepulchre, there is nothing which should induce 
us to believe it to be of less antiquity than the 
Tomb of Helen before described ; consequently 
we may refer to it as offering a satisfactory 
proof of the existence of circular arches, and 
even of a dome, in architecture, four centuries 
before the Christian sera. 
We aftervv^ards ascended the cliffs, for the 
purpose of examining more accurately what are 
deemed, and with reason, the greatest curiosi- 
ties of Macri ; the tombs cut out of the solid 
rock, in the precipices towards the sea. The 
labour here bestowed has been immense ; and 
the work is very beautiful. Some of these are 
more adorned than others, having, as was 
before stated, a kind of portico, with pillars in 
front. In those which w^ere almost plain, the 
hevv^n stone was as smooth as if the artist had 
been employed upon wood, or any other soft 
substance. The exterior form of almost every 
one of them cannot, perhaps, be better de- 
scribed, .nan by comparing them with a familiar 
article of household furniture, to which they 
have great resemblance; namely, to those 
book-cases, with glass doors, seen upon bureaus, 
