DELPHI. 239 
to prove there could have been nothing ''strange^' chap. 
in the inscription, when he saw it. 
The remains of the Gymxasium are principally Gymna- 
behind the monastery. The foundations were 
there sustained by an immense bulwark of hewn 
stone, projected from the sloping ground, so as 
to offer a level area upon which the structure 
stood. The antient city, in a theatrical form% 
covered a series of such terraces rising one 
above the other; and a similar front- work of 
hewn stone is still seen in different parts of the 
immense Coilon, or semicircular range, which its 
buildings exhibited upon this abrupt declivity of 
Parnassus. Within the monastery we found 
the capitals of pillars, broken friezes, and tri- 
glyphs. Upon a marble Cippus, beautifully inscrip- 
adorned with sculptured foliage, and crowned g^,IZ- 
with the Lotus, we read the words '"""' 
Al AKI AA 
XAI PE 
(2) It is very pleasing to a traveller, and perhaps may not be less so to 
his readers, to find an observation of this kind, (describing the form of a 
city that has ceased to exist for ages) written upon the spot, anticipated by 
those who visited Delphi eigliteen centuries ago : this, in fact, is almost 
literally the remark made by Sliabo as to the form of the city : he says, 
T« S» toriof 01 AlX^a/, Tir^u^s; ^ai^Iei, 0EATPOEIAE2, Kara r.e^uipht tx," Ta 
ftafrt7oi xxi rrt* troKit, rraSiuf ixxaiitKa tux-Xif irXr^s^rx*. S:ral\ Geog. 
lib. Lx. p. 606. ed. Oxori. 
