grandeur, and commanding situation, is a large Corinthian temple, to the W. N. W. of the palace last described; and not far from the western boundary of the city wall. * The impression which the noble aspect of this building made on us, as we beheld it from every quarter of the city, was such, that we both constantly called it the "Temple of Jupiter," in our conversation, and in our notes. This was done without our ever suggesting the propriety of the title to each other, without our having sought for any reason to justify its adoption, or at all arguing the claim in our minds; but as if the proud pre-eminence which it seemed to possess over all the other buildings, could not be otherwise expressed than by its dedication to the greatest of all the gods; and since this high title was thus so unconsciously, and simultaneously given to it by us both, we suffered it to remain unaltered, as at least an appropriate one to distinguish it from the rest.

This edifice is built in the form of an oblong square, and is seventy paces, or about one hundred and forty feet, in extreme length; and thirty-five paces, or seventy feet, in extreme breadth. Its front is opent to the S. E. by E. and there is here a noble portico of twelve columns, disposed in three rows, six in the front row, four in the central one, and two only in the inner one; the intervals being left on the centre on each side of the door of entrance, and the end or side columns being thus in a line with each other. There was a low wall carried out on each side of this portico, to the distance of thirty feet in front, and as the pillars stand on an elevated platform, it is probable that the interval here was occupied by a flight of steps leading up to the temple, but of these there are now no remains. This edifice appears also to have been a peripteral one, or to have been surrounded by a colonnade on all sides, including the portico in front. The bases of the pillars are still seen in their places, and shafts and capitals lie scattered all around. These are all of the same size and order as

*No. 10. of the General Plan.

those of the portico, and leave but little doubt of their belonging originally to the exterior colonnade of this building. The whole number of the columns of the portico are still standing, and these being eight spans, or nearly six feet in diameter, and about fifty feet in height, have an air of great grandeur and majesty, and present the most happy combination of strength and beauty. The pedestals of the columns are the same as those described in the avenue of the principal street below. The shafts are plain, and swell slightly towards their centres. The capitals are well executed, and the union of the separate parts of which the shafts are composed, presents the most admirable specimen of ancient masonry; for even at this late period, the lines of their union are often difficult to be traced. These pieces were united by a large square bar of metal, going down their centre, and forming a sort of common axis to them all. The separate blocks were marked with Greek letters on the inside, near these square holes for the reception of the metal bar, as I myself observed on the blocks of a fallen shaft near the north-east angle of the building, and these marks were, no doubt, for the guidance of the workmen, in fitting every piece into its proper place. Whether, therefore, regarding the strength of those noble columns, the chaste beauty of their proportions in the details of all their parts, the admirable execution of the masonry and the sculpture, or the majestic and imposing aspect of the whole, we could not but admire the taste and skill of the ancients in this sublime art of architecture.

It must not be concealed, however, that on entering the building, a feeling of disappointment was experienced at finding it so little correspondent with the magnificence of all that is seen from without. An observation of a writer, who treats of the temples of the ancients, occurred to me very forcibly here, though, when I first met with this remark it did not appear to me quite correct, from its inapplicability to the temples of the Egyptians, which were then the only ones that I had seen. This writer says, “I am sufficiently apprised of what strikes the imagination, and raises

it to such romantic heights whilst we attend to the descriptions of ancient temples; it was the prodigious number of columns they were enriched with, that enchants us. How can we avoid believing an edifice to be extremely vast, that is supported by a hundred, or a hundred and fifty pillars. We have seen Gothic churches, with not above forty or fifty, wide enough to lose ourselves in. How vast then, we say, must the temples have been which had twice or thrice that number? The mistake of the fancy arises from this,—that it places within the body of the temple, or in the cella, that which really stood without it. It should be noted, in general, that this cella was the least object of the old architects' care; they never began to think about it before they had distributed and adorned the exterior, because that was to be the proof of genius, taste, and magnificence. The grand was not then estimated by the number of square feet contained in the area which the wall enclosed, but from their outworks of an hundred and twenty columns, as those of Hadrian's Pantheon; or of thirty-six only, as those of the temple of Theseus. From the ruins of Athens, it even appears that the richness and extent of the outworks were sometimes the very cause of contracting the cella within a narrower space than might have been otherwise allotted it."

The interior of this temple of Jupiter, at Geraza, which proudly promised so much from without, from its spacious atrium, its noble vestibulum, and its surrounding porticoes and colonnades, was found to consist simply of one square cella, without any of the subdivisions of basilica, adytum, penetrale, or sacrarium. Around the side-walls, and about half-way up their height, were six oblong recesses, without ornament. In the end-wall was a much larger one, arched at the top, which, rising from the level of the pavement, and occupying the centre of the end-wall, was, probably, the tribunal, or the place in which stood the statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated. On each side of this large recess, was a small arched door-way, and above these two small recesses, as in the side-walls; while above the supposed tribunal,