372 THE HOLY LAND/ 
CHAP, the appearance they exhibit'. There is a cer- 
< — , ' tain air of grandeur, and of sublimity, in their 
massy structure, in the boldness of their design, 
and in the sombre hue prevailing not only over 
the monuments themselves, but over all the 
surrounding rocks whence they were he^vn, 
which is lost in the minuteness of engraved 
representation ^ In order to form the sepul- 
chres of Absalom and of Zechariah, the solid 
substance of the mountain has itself been cut 
away : sufficient areas being thereby excavated, 
two monuments of prodigious size appear in the 
midst ; each seeming to consist of a single 
stone, although standing as if erected by an 
(1) The engravings m Pocoche's Second Volume of his 'Description 
of the East, Land. 1745,' may be considered as affording the most 
faithful delineation of these monuments ; but they are by no means 
adequate to the effect produced hy the originals. 
(2) Mons. De CTictteaubriand, considering these monuments as de- 
signed by Jews, who had adopted something of the Grecian model, is 
particularly happy in describing the singular taste which resulted from 
the alliance. " Bai," {Trav. vol. U. }>. 10^2. Zwr/. 1811.) " in natu- 
ralizing at Jerusalem the architecture of Corinth and .Jtlicns, the Jews 
intermixed with it the forms of their peculiar style. The tombs in the 
f 'a llej/ of Jehosaphat display a manifest alliance of Xhe. Egyptian and 
Grecian taste. From this alliance resulted a heterogeneous kind of 
monuments, /orwHw^-, as it were, the link between the Pyramids and the 
Parthenon." This observation is not less remarkable for its truth 
than for the judicious taste which it displays. 
