art, can surpass.

I know of nothing so beautiful in all remains of ancient Art as these six
columns, except the colonnade of the Memnonium, at Thebes, which is of
much smaller proportions. From every position, and with all lights of the
day or night, they are equally perfect, and carry your eyes continually
away from the peristyle of the smaller temple, which is better preserved,
and from the exquisite architecture of the outer courts and pavilions.
The two temples of Baalbec stand on an artificial platform of masonry, a
thousand feet in length, and from fifteen to thirty feet (according to the
depression of the soil) in height, The larger one, which is supposed to
have been a Pantheon, occupies the whole length of this platform. The
entrance was at the north, by a grand flight of steps, now broken away,
between two lofty and elegant pavilions which are still nearly entire.
Then followed a spacious hexagonal court, and three grand halls, parts of
which, with niches for statues, adorned with cornices and pediments of
elaborate design, still remain entire to the roof. This magnificent series
of chambers was terminated at the southern extremity of the platform by
the main temple, which had originally twenty columns on a side, similar to
the six now standing.

The Temple of the Sun stands on a smaller and lower platform, which
appears to have been subsequently added to the greater one. The cella, or
body of the temple, is complete except the roof, and of the colonnade
surrounding it, nearly one-half of its pillars are still standing,
upholding the frieze, entablature, and cornice, which altogether form
probably the most ornate specimen of the Corinthian order of architecture
now extant. Only four pillars of the superb portico remain, and the
Saracens have nearly ruined these by building a sort of watch-tower upon
the architrave. The same unscrupulous race completely shut up the portal
of the temple with a blank wall, formed of the fragments they had hurled
down, and one is obliged to creep through a narrow hole in order to reach
the interior. Here the original doorway faces you--and I know not how to
describe the wonderful design of its elaborate sculptured mouldings and
cornices. The genius of Greek art seems to have exhausted itself in
inventing ornaments, which, while they should heighten the gorgeous effect
of the work, must yet harmonize with the grand design of the temple. The
enormous keystone over the entrance has