There appear to have been at least ten enclosures. There are eleven divisional entrances, all rounded, of which eight have portcullis grooves and several have rounded buttresses on the inside. Two long granite beams and some sections of broken beams were found in most of the entrances, but not in those in which the portcullis grooves had been carefully built up.
In the northern enclosures and 2 ft. under the surface were found several large and massive cement steps laid on curved lines.
MIDDLE SECTION OF “THE VALLEY OF RUINS”
RENDERS RUINS
These are the best-defined ruins of the Middle Section of the Valley of Ruins, are of better construction, and have walls still standing of a fairly good height. All the other ruins in this section are almost, if not quite, impossible to trace, and a view of them gives the impression that they are of much later construction than the Renders Ruins.
These ruins, which lie east and west, cover an area of 300 ft. from east to west, and 200 ft. from north to south. They lie within 30 yds. of the south and south-west sides of Posselt Ruins, A and B, the intervening space, being full of outcrops of walls. On the south and south-west sides of these ruins is the Upper Section of the Valley of Ruins.
The most striking features of the Renders Ruins are (1) their complicated plan; (2) the banquette wall on the summit of the south wall of No. 3 Enclosure; and (3) the great amount of ancient gold, Arabian pottery and glass, and other relics discovered in No. 1 Enclosure.
The ruins are built upon the formation rock which slopes down from south-west to north-east, the floors of all the enclosures being the bed-rock itself, and this has such a steep gradient that at some points it makes it difficult for those wearing nailed boots to ascend from the lower to the higher portions of the ruins.
These ruins are approached from the Mauch Ruins by a passage and steps, also from the Motelekwe wagon-track, and by a path passing the west end of Posselt Ruins B. The North-East Passage leading from the Elliptical Temple is scarcely any longer an approach, as the passage walls have in some places fallen inwards and blocked the passage.
No. 1 Enclosure.—This is the most easterly of the enclosures of these ruins. It is oval in plan, being 73 ft. from east to west, and 52 ft. from north to south. The walls are substantially built, but are constructed in the style usually found in ruins built at some distance from any of the main ruins. The highest walls are on the west and southern sides, and these average from 7 ft. to 9 ft. in height, 4 ft. to 5 ft. at 5 ft. above the floor in width, and are 4 ft. wide at the summit. The other walls are considerably dilapidated and average about 4 ft. in height. The bare formation rock forms its floor, and it slopes considerably from south to north.