Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/275

 TIIK TKMPI.K ix PIHKXICIA. lower third, on the other hand, presents the appearance of rock which has long been lapped by water. This circumstance, added to the actual existence of a spring whose waters now escape through the boundary wall, leads us to suppose that, when the north face was shut in with a wall, the inclosure formed a vast basin, in the middle of which the tabernacle rose like a ' holy of holies.' " l The surface of the inclosure now has the aspect of a rough meadow. A thick layer of earth has been gradually deposited above the carefully levelled rock, but at the depth of a foot water is reached. Three sides of the inclosure are walled in by barriers of living rock, about seventeen feet high at their highest parts. It is probable that where their height was deficient it was supplemented originally by masonry. The floor of the courtyard is on the same level as the valley of the Nalir-Amrith, on which it opens on its northern face. We may suppose that this side, too, was formerly closed by a wall with one or several doors. A few blocks are still in place, but a thick growth of arbutus has sprung up on the site and hides all that may remain of the ancient wall. At many points on the inner surface of these inclosing walls shallow cavities are sunk into the rock ; they were once filled, no doubt, with votive steles. Side by side with them we also find niches rounded at the top. 2 Higher up in the wall there are some smaller and deeper cavities ; these are square, and they seem to have been cut to receive the ends of beams. This conjecture is confirmed by the fact that at the four angles of the enceinte the traces ol square piers or columns are still to be found. Standing away about twelve feet from the wall, these would help numerous intermediate shafts of lighter construction to support the roof of an open gallery or arcade, the cross timbers of which would be fixed, at one end, in the holes above mentioned. The Maabed of Amrit is the only temple built by the Semitic race of which Syria has any important remains to show. There is every reason to believe it more ancient than the monuments of the same kind in Cyprus, Gozo, and Malta, of which we shall presently have to speak. " Nowhere else do we get such clear 1 REN AN, Mission, pp. 64, 65. 2 See the view of part of this courtyard at the foot of plate x. in the Atlas of the Mission de Phcnide.