Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/301

THE TEMPLE IN CYPRUS. 279 hinges may still be traced. The width of its opening is eighteen feet, enough for the passage of a crowd. The courtyard must have been surrounded by colonnades, under which the faithful could take refuge during the burning noons of summer ; even if no vestiges of them were ever to come to light we should have no doubt of their former existence. It is not so easy to determine the exact character of the inner inclosure or structure. Was it a cella, like that of a Greek temple ? neither analogy nor an examination of the existing ruins point to such a thing. We have every reason to believe that, in its general arrangement, the temple at Paphos resembled that at Byblos, which was built by the same architects in honour of the ..1 7l,i3S -> FIG. 201. Plan of the remains of the temple at Paphos. According to Cesnola. same deity ; now, in the views of the latter temple which we find upon coins (Fig. 19), the sacred stone is standing in the open air, in the middle of a peristylar court. W T hy should it not have been the same at Paphos, where the climate was certainly dryer than on the Syrian coast ? Two things confirm this idea. One is the mention by Tacitus of those altars which were never moistened by a drop of rain although they stood in the open air. Secondly, the dimensions of the temple accord ill with the notion of a covered building. In order to carry its roof a number of internal supports must have been introduced, and of these some traces would be sure to exist, either bases still in situ, or capitals strewn among the ruins. On the other hand, the dimensions