Page 469 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

428 NAKAB EL HAJAR. [C1L

of the rapidity of its course, from washing

away the base of the hill, several buttresses
of a circular form have been hewn from that

part, and cased with a harder stone. The

casing has partially disappeared, but the but­
tresses still remain.

Let us now visit the interior, where the

most conspicuous object is an oblong square

building, the walls of which face the cardinal

points. Its largest size, fronting the north
and south, measures twenty-seven yards.

The shorter, facing the eastward, seventeen

yards. The walls are fronted with a kind of

free-stone, each slab being cut of the same

size, and the whole so beautifully put toge­
ther, that I endeavoured in vain to insert the

blade of a small penknife between them.

The outer unpolished surface is covered with

small chisel marks, which the Bedowins have
mistaken for writing. From the extreme

care displayed in the construction of this

building, I have no doubt that it is a temple,

and my disappointment at finding the in­
terior filled up with the ruins of the fallen

roof was very great. Had it remained en­

tire, we might have obtained some clue to