cover its upper surface, starting for their survey
from the transverse wall of the old church-yard, 10 m.--33 ft.--north of
the church, and proceeding thence northward along the top of the
tabulated bluff.[101]

Sixty-one metres--200 ft.--north of our point of departure we strike
stone foundations running about due east and west and resting almost
directly on the rock, since the soil along the entire plateau which I
have termed the neck is scarce, and has nowhere more than 1 m.--39
in.--in depth. The eastern corner of this wall, as far as it can be made
out, is 12 m.--39 ft.--from the eastern wall of circumvallation. From
this point on there extends one continuous body of ruins, one half of
which at least (the southern half), if not two-thirds, as the ground
plan will show, exhibits nothing else but foundations of small chambers
indicated by shapeless stone-heaps and depressions. The northern part is
in a better state of preservation; a number of chambers are more or less
perfect, the roofs excepted,[102] and we can easily detect several
stories retreating from east to west. About 9 m.--30 ft.--from its
northern limits a double wall intersects the pile for one half of its
width. The ruins beyond it, or rather the addition, is in a state of
decay equal to that of the southern extremity. The western side is,
generally, in a better state of preservation than the eastern,
especially the north-western corner. Along the eastern side upright
posts of wood, protruding from stone-heaps, often are the only
indications for the outline of the structure. Along the north-west,
however, such posts are enclosed in standing walls of stone, at
distances not quite regularly distributed, but still showing plainly
that here, at least, the outer wall presented an appearance similar to
Pl. II., Fig. 4.

At the place where I measured, the upright posts stood at about 1.39
m.--4 ft. 6 in.--from each other; the projecting wall was 2 m.--6 ft. 6
in.--long, and 0.63 m.--2 ft.--thick; the retreating wall 1.40 m.--4 ft.
6 in.--long, and 0.33 m.--13 in.--thick. The posts themselves were
sometimes, but not always, backed, or even encased in adobe sheaths,
built up like little chimneys in the wall itself. This mode of
construction was possibly peculiar to the western side alone, and gives
it a slight appearance of ornamentation, as well as more strength, the
projecting walls acting like buttresses.

The whole structure, taking the sides of the _debr