commanding the city, the ground-plan of which building is here shown—
The interior of the walls was so profusely embellished with festoons of roses and vine-grapes—both sculptured in stone and wrought in stucco, and of very large size—that there was no room left for pictures or images. The roof of this building is almost all fallen in. I imagined this to have been a Christian church, of very remote
antiquity, on account of the vine and the roses, which are peculiarly Christian symbols—alluding to the texts, “I am the true Vine,” and “I am the Rose of Sharon;” but the chambers in each corner are difficult to account for. The east and west ends have no doors.
Near this is a square mass of masonry, upon which are standing six columns, of magnificent dimensions, which no doubt originally supported a roof. Their capitals, of chaste and correct Corinthian style, with portions of ornamental entablature, are lying near. Perhaps belonging to this, but at some distance, lies a ponderous piece of architrave, on which, between lines of moulding, is an inscription in Greek—illegible except the three letters—ΝΩΘ. These letters were nine inches in length.
Nigh to this, again, was a square building of rabbeted stones, equal to almost the largest in the walls of Jerusalem.
All down the hill, descending to our camp, were fragments of columns and of decorated friezes of temples, that had evidently been rolled or had slidden down from their places.
Upon various walls of dilapidated edifices I observed the curious marks, slightly scratched, which almost resemble alphabetical characters, but are not; and which have, wherever met with and wherever noticed, which is but seldom, puzzled
travellers, however learned, to decipher. I copied the following:—
