488 
RUINS AT MOURG-AUB. 
royal party stood, during the awful ceremonies of their religious 
convocation ? 
I now descended into the lower ground, which on all sides 
seemed in the highest cultivation ; and at the distance of a quar¬ 
ter of a mile from what I would denominate the sacred platform 
for the great royal altar, and in a direction south 45° west, I 
came to a square tower-like building, which Mr. Morier calls the 
Fire-temple. It is formed of the same lasting materials with 
the former structure, the blocks of marble not being much less 
in size ; but the extent of the edifice does not seem in propor¬ 
tion to the magnitude of its component parts ; its square not 
measuring more than 9 feet along each face ; and its height not 
appearing to exceed 49 feet, if we may calculate on there being 
no difference in the measurement of the stones which compose 
the wall. From the lowest range to the highest I could reach, 
each block regularly measured 3 feet 6 inches ; and by them, I 
calculated the height to the summit, fourteen stones, comprising 
the number in the elevation. Something like a door marks the 
front to the north-west; and the remains of a projecting cornice 
finishes its top. The building has been injured in like manner 
with that of the sacred platform. Having inspected it to my 
satisfaction, I proceeded another quarter of a mile due south, to 
a third object of interest; a square pillar, of only two stones, one 
over the other ; the lower one is 12 feet high ; the other, by 
guess, I should suppose 7 or 8 feet; the whole terminated above 
with some broken work like a ledge. The faces were each 
nearly 4 feet wide ; but in that to the west, both the stones were 
deeply concave ; the lower one more than half in its diameter, 
and considerably more than half in its length. These excava¬ 
tions do not appear to have been made for any other purpose than 
