id in bitumen; but it is faced through out with a wall, ten feet
in thickness, composed of red kiln dried bricks, likewise cemented with
bitumen. This external wall is at once strengthened and diversified to
the eye by a number of shallow buttresses or pilasters in the same
material; of these there are nine, including the corner ones, on the
longer, and six on the shorter sides. The width of the buttresses is
eight feet, and their projection a little more than a foot. The walls
and buttresses alike slope inwards at an angle of nine degrees. On the
north-eastern side of the building there is a staircase nine feet wide,
with sides or balustrades three feet wide, which leads up from the
platform to the top of the first story. It has also been conjectured
that there was a second or grand staircase on the south-east face, equal
in width to the second story of the building, and thus occupying nearly
the whole breadth of the structure on that side. A number of narrow
slits or air-holes are carried through the building from side to side;
they penetrate alike the walls and buttresses, and must have tended to
preserve the dryness of the structure. The second story is, like the
first, a parallelogram, and not of very different proportions. Its
longer sides measure 119 feet, and its shorter ones 75 feet at the base.
Its emplacement upon the first story is exact as respects the angles, but
not central as regards the four sides. While it is removed from the
south-eastern edge a distance of 47 feet, from the northwestern it is
distant only 30 feet. From the two remaining sides its distance is
apparently about 28 feet. The present height of the second story,
including the rubbish upon its top, is 19 feet; but we may reasonably
suppose that the original height was much greater. The material of which
its inner structure is composed, seems to be chiefly (or wholly)
partially-burnt brick, of a light red color, laid in a cement composed of
lime and ashes. This central mass is faced with kiln-dried bricks of
large size and excellent quality, also laid, except on the north-west
face, in lime mortar. No buttresses and no staircase are traceable on
this story; though it is possible that on the south-east side the grand
staircase may have run the whole height of both stories.

According to information received by Mr. Taylor from the Arabs of the
vicinity, there existed, less than half a century ago, some remains of a
third story, on