Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/246

196 The temple of which Ross discovered the remains, and which probably occupies the original site consecrated to Athene, was of very small dimensions, its scale being intermediate between that of the Erectheum and the Temple of Victory at Athens.

The site of the ancient theatre is south of the Acropolis. Most of the seats are cut out of the native rock, and face the S.E.; sixteen rows remain on one side; on the opposite side, the seats must have been constructed with masonry.

Immediately to the west of the theatre is the peribolos of an ancient temple, described both by Hamilton and Ross, and which we found in a fair state of preservation.

The walls are of blue limestone. "Within this precinct is a chapel, dedicated to St. Stephen, antecedently to which a Byzantine church on a larger scale probably occupied this site. On a square block lying here is an inscription, dedicated by a priest of Apollo and Artemis.$84$ To the west of the town are the remains of the interesting rock tomb, of which a view is given as the frontispiece to Ross's Travels, vol. iii. It consisted originally of a large sepulchral chamber cut in the native freestone rock, with oblong recesses, theeæ, cut in the sides for the reception of the dead bodies. Externally the tomb has been cut in the form of a Doric façade with engaged columns, the centre part of which is now broken away. Above this façade the rock is cut so as to form a level platform, on which have been placed a number of round sepvdchral cippi, ornamented with bulls' heads and