FIFTH TERRACE. 645 
on these are the vestiges of much fine bas-relief decoration. 
Having reached the plane of the terrace, I saw a square of 
ninety-six feet; thirty-eight feet of the western side was occupied 
by the depth of the approach just described; whence ran along, 
in two direct lines, the bases of ten columns ; their diameter 
being three feet three inches, and standing ten feet equi-distant 
from each other. These were all the remains existing on this 
level of the fourth terrace; but were the hillocks of buried ruins 
removed from its surface, I doubt not we should find the 
remnants of a continued piazza, along every side. Fifty-eight 
feet of this terrace, at its south-western angle, is surmounted by 
* 
an additional square elevation, (M) the whole depth of which, 
from the summit to the base, is sixty-two feet; and along its 
upper surface are the lower parts of twelve pillars, divided into 
three rows, of the same diameter and distance from each other, 
as those in the neighbouring colonnade. 
Immediately beyond the completely obliterated tract of build¬ 
ings, on this comparatively small terrace, which I call that of the 
Double Pillars, (to facilitate the explanation of so complicated 
a succession,) rises a fifth, and much more extensive elevation. 
The plan of its edifice might seem to indicate part of the 
dwelling-quarters of the royal residence. For, that the different 
offices which comprised a palace of the ancient eastern so¬ 
vereigns, were not merely divided into courts, as is the present 
style in these countries, but were often distinct buildings, may 
be seen by referring again to the first book of Kings, c. vii. where 
the House of the Forest of Lebanon is described, under the 
appellation of Porches, as four completely separate structures. 
But before I commence the details of this fifth terrace, I must 
stop to hazard a few suggestions on one of the most interesting 
