ne glance. Afterwards we began a new and a more deliberate survey.

As we enter a large open courtyard, our eye is caught by numerous
pieces of marble and fragments of columns, some of the latter
resting on tastefully sculptured plinths. Almost every thing here
is prostrate, covered with rubbish and broken fragments, but yet all
looks grand and majestic in its ruin. We next enter a second and a
larger courtyard, above two hundred paces in length and about a
hundred in breadth. Round the walls are niches cut in marble, and
ornamented with the prettiest arabesques. These niches were
probably occupied in former times by statues of the numerous heathen
gods. Behind these are little cells, the dwellings of the priests;
and in the foreground rise six Corinthian pillars, the only trace
left of the great Temple of the Sun. These six pillars, which have
hitherto bid defiance to time, devastation, and earthquakes, are
supposed to be the loftiest and most magnificent in the world.
Nearly seventy feet in height, each pillar a rocky colossus, resting
on a basement twenty-seven feet high, covered with excellent
workmanship, a masterpiece of ancient architecture, they tower above
the Cyclops wall, and look far away into the distance--giant
monuments of the hoary past.

[Illustration 7. Balbeck. ill7.jpg]

How vast thus temple must originally have been is shewn by the
remaining pedestals, from which the pillars have fallen, and lay
strewed around in weather-stained fragments. I counted twenty such
pedestals along the length of the temple, and ten across its
breadth.

The lesser temple, separated from the greater merely by a wall, lies
deeper and more sheltered from the wind and weather; consequently it
is in better preservation. A covered hall, resting on pillars fifty
feet in height, leads round this temple. Statues of gods and
heroes, beautifully sculptured in marble, and surrounded by
arabesques, deck the lofty arches of this corridor. The pillars
consist of three pieces fastened together with such amazing
strength, that when the last earthquake threw down a column it did
not break, but fell with its top buried in the earth, where it is
seen leaning its majestic height against a hill.

From this hall we pass through a splendid portal into the interior
of the little sanctuary. An eagle with outspread wings overshadows
the upper part of the gate, which is thirty feet in height by twenty
in breadth. The two sides