TEMPLE OF DIANA. 
141 
since the Diana of the Greeks was the same supposed intelli¬ 
gence whom the Sabian corrupters of the Mithratic faith deified 
under the name Astarte, queen of heaven. The spot on which 
the temple stood, commands the whole vale, and, doubtless, was 
originally surrounded by a citadel. 
As soon as I had settled my people in their quarters, I took 
Sedak Beg with me; and, accompanied by our host as a guide, 
set forth to minutely examine the ruins. The greatest part of 
the site of the ancient edifice is totally concealed from obser¬ 
vation, by the modern houses, and hovels, built of its materials, 
and over its former platform.. Some of these habitations, from 
the inequalities of their situations, are evidently erected on earth- 
covered heaps of the fallen temple, and others are crushed in 
between broken fragments of the causeway-like walls ; but enough 
of the fine stone foundations are every where discernible to enable 
an investigating eye to trace the original form of the building. 
It must have been quadrangular, and each face measures three 
hundred yards. The front, to the westward, is the most perfect; 
there, a considerable part of the wall rises above the accumulated 
rubbish at its base; the thickness of the fabric, towards its foun¬ 
dation, appearing not less than thirty feet; a structure, certainly, 
to stand the shock of time. I could not compass the elevation 
exactly, but I should deem it to be nearly twenty feet. It is 
built of large stones cut in regular proportions ; and, not far from 
the edge of this magnificent wall, runs a beautifully executed 
cornice, which, formerly, at a foot’s height above it, sustained a 
noble colonnade, each column being distant from each other ten 
feet. The pedestals of eight, are still surmounted by the chief 
part of their shafts, in good preservation. The southern front 
stood almost on the very verge of a nearly perpendicular ascent. 
