“Non illic Libycæ posuerunt ditia gentes
Templa, nec Eöis splendent donaria gemmis
Quamvis Æthiopum populis Arabumque Beatis
Gentibus, atque Indis, unus sit Jupiter Ammon:
Pauper adhuc deus est; nullis violata per ævum
Divitiis delubra tenens, morumque priorum
Numen Romano templum defendit ab auro.”
Lucan, lib. ix.
The Temple of Ammon further may be presumed, to have been of small dimension. When Alexander alone enters the building, it is mentioned by his historians, that such exclusive permission was a mark of high respect; but Strabo further informs us, that all who attended on Alexander, “heard the Oracle from without:” ἔξωθὲν τε τῆς θεμεστείας ΑΚΡΟΑΣΑΣΘΑΙ πάντας πλὴν Αλεξάνδρου, Τουτον δ᾿ ἔνδοθὲν εἶναι. edit. Casaub. p. 814. The Oracle given from the extreme recess of the interior, (to which the priest retired for the purpose, as before cited from Diodorus), could be heard and distinguished from without, only under supposition, that the entrance was at no great distance from the adytum, and the temple, of course, not large.
Thirdly, It is exclusively stated by Mr. Horneman, that the building at Siwah is situated in the centre of an inclosure, surrounded at some distance by ancient foundations of a strong and massive wall. Not to lengthen this note by unnecessary citations, it may be sufficient to refer generally to the Itinerary of Pausanias, wherein scarcely a temple is mentioned throughout Greece, without noticing, at the same time its inclosure and circumvallation: and even the sacred grove, distinctively from the temple, was often surrounded by a wall, as was that of Venus in Eliacis, cap. xxv.