562 
FIRE TEMPLE. 
that already mentioned at Mourg-aub, and which is commonly 
called the Fire Temple. This temple differs from the other, in 
being higher and narrower. It has suffered no material injury 
from time or accident, and afforded me an excellent model of the 
sort of place, from which I drew an accurate plan and elevation. 
(Plate XXV.) It is built with marble from the adjacent rocks, 
each block being three feet six inches in width, but varying in 
their length. One single slab forms the cornice of the northern 
face, which is twenty-two feet eight inches long; an amazing 
mass, to have been placed where it now is. Accumulated earth, 
loose stones and rubbish, have doubtless diminished the visible 
height of the building, by encroaching on its lower range ; this 
is very credible, from observing how the increased ground has 
grown up over parts of the bas-reliefs at the foot of the mountain. 
Ten layers of marble blocks are now all that we see, which give 
the edifice an elevation of thirty-five feet. The entrance is in 
the north front, situated about eleven feet from the earth. Its 
exterior ornaments are perfectly simple. This portal is five feet 
wide and six high ; leading through a wall of five feet three inches, 
into the sacred chamber. The grooves for the pivots of its doors 
are deeply cut, both at the bottom and the top, where they were 
fastened to the sides of the wall; so that the ponderous stone di¬ 
visions must have met in the middle, and shut close. The circling 
marks of their movement are strongly worn in the marble floor. 
The chamber contained within such an immense solidity of wall 
and door-way, is only a square of twelve feet, and in height does 
not exceed fifteen or sixteen. The ceiling consists of two slabs, 
the floor of several. The whole beneath, an unsuccessful attempt 
to penetrate, has proved to be an entire mass of building, without 
a cavity; it was broken just under the threshold of the door, as 
