ANCIENT TEMPLE. 
491 
as an extraordinary peculiarity ; that amongst so many fine ruins, 
there should be no trace of minor ones between. 
Perceiving to the south-east another columnar appearance, I 
rode in that direction for half a mile; and on arriving found an 
immense single elevation of the kind, belonging to a former edi¬ 
fice, now entirely swept away, and which, but for the fragment 
which attracted my attention, could only be marked by the bases 
on which stood its ancient columns. Its shape is a parallelo¬ 
gram, one hundred and fifty feet by eighty-one; two rows of 
pedestals divide it, each composed of four stones, the whole 
(with the exception of one of white marble, which stands 
the third on the north-east range, and is six feet square,) being 
of the dark rock of the country. The sizes of these are irregu¬ 
lar, from three to four feet; the bases in one direction were 
about fifteen feet distant from each other ; but in the transverse 
way, towards the centre, they left an opening of twenty-one feet, 
and an equal space from side to side. I know not how to ac¬ 
count for the inequality of their dimensions, unless we may sup¬ 
pose some were intended to support an elevated floor, and others 
to sustain columns. The white marble base being of the greatest 
size and height, and finest materials, might form the pedestal of 
the deity of the place, if we are to consider it a temple; and if 
not, still the image of a god or goddess might find a station there. 
If this tract is allowed to be the site of the city established by 
Cyrus, this very edifice may be that which Plutarch mentions (Vitae 
Artax. x.) as the place where the Persian kings, his successors, 
received consecration ; and which, he observes, was dedicated to 
a goddess in whose guidance was the affairs of war. By the general 
plan, there appears to have been two entrances; one from the 
north-east, the other in the opposite quarter. They are both 
3 r 2 
