REMARKS ON THE RUINS. 
655 
on the first platform ; and, doubtless, has many other branches 
besides, which are now totally lost under the accumulated ruins. 
The channel is very ruggedly hewn out of the solid rock; and 
it is this dark way which some former travellers, not apprehend¬ 
ing its real purpose, have described as a secret passage com¬ 
municating with other mysterious excavations in the body of the 
mountain, and also leading to certain subterraneous entrances 
into its tombs. These designs seem very improbable, but at 
any rate a close examination of the channel, appears to me so 
very declarative of its use, that I am only surprised any other 
conjecture respecting it ever could be conceived. 
At the sides of the open court (d) stand the remains of its 
once magnificent approaches; (ee) near that to the east, ten 
or.twelve feet from the landing-place of its stairs, rise from a 
hollow beneath, to a level with the pavement, four enormously 
large and strong supports, (P) in shape not unlike rough-formed 
pedestals intended to uphold some body or bodies, of very great 
weight. The flight of steps they face, is of a double ascent, 
beginning from beneath inwardly. They are in a state of almost 
complete decay, with a scarcely legible inscription, and bas- 
reliefs of guards, with duplicates of the combat between the lion 
and the bull, all in the same broken condition. 
About sixty feet from hence, to the north, (o) appear several 
colossal masses of stone, formerly the sides of large portals lead¬ 
ing into a square edifice, small in proportion to the size and 
number of its entrances; for, from the situation of these four 
doors, it could not have been more than ninety-six feet. Three 
of the door-ways are yet pretty entire. On the interior face of 
the one to the east, are three figures of such gigantic dimensions 
as to be twelve feet in height. They are a repetition of the 
