ANCIENT PILLARS, &c. 
7 55 
appropriate fountains received the deposit, ready for the in¬ 
habitants, who came to dll their buckets. 
We proceeded thence, to what is now called the Burnt Pillar ; 
but on arriving at the spot, I could perceive nothing on it, or 
near it, that could explain so extraordinary an appellation. Its 
first appearance struck me with a disagreeable impression, from 
the shape of its pedestal, which looks like the bottom of a water- 
decanter ; a form very different from the usual grace and pro¬ 
portion of Grecian relics of the kind ; and, on enquiry, I found 
this preposterous base to so noble a shaft, had been the work¬ 
manship of the Turks; who had thus disgraced themselves by 
deforming one of the finest monuments in their capital, in the 
alteration they made of its original shape. The column which rises 
from it, is of red porphyry, and divided into successive parts, now 
numbering six. The five lower ones are each of one solid piece, 
distinguished from each other by thick projecting wreaths of 
closely woven ivy, the sculpture of which is admirable. The 
upper division is white, and raised in courses of marble; round 
the second of which a Greek inscription is visible, but at so 
great a height it seemed scarcely possible to read it. According 
to Gibbon, this beautiful pillar does not stand now at half its 
original elevation; he describes its pedestal as twenty feet high : 
44 the column,” he adds, 44 was composed of ten pieces of 
porphyry, each ten feet in height, and thirty-three in circumfer¬ 
ence. On the summit of all stood a colossal statue of Apollo. It 
was of bronze, and attributed to Phidias.” By this computation, 
its original elevation from the base of the pedestal must have 
been 120 feet. What at present remains of the porphyry shaft 
rises to a height of fifty feet. Its white marble addition appears 
of more modern date; but at what period it may have replaced 
5 d 2 
