DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4376#0111
OF THE MAUSOLEUM. 95
filled up with the courses of the foundations, con-
sisting of slahs of a coarse green stone, strongly
bound together with iron clamps, and generally
measuring about 4 feet square by 1 foot thick. In
some places as many as three courses of these
foundation slabs remained, in others a single course,
which, when first uncovered, had the appearance of
a pavement, and is described as such in my earlier
despatches. In other spots the whole of the foun-
dation courses had been removed, and the original
bed of the rock was laid bare.
The whole quadrangular area in which these
courses still remained measured 127 feet from east to
west, by 108 feet from north to south—dimensions
which sufficiently correspond with Pliny's measure-
ment for the entire circuit, which is 411 feet ac-
cording to one reading, and 440 feet according to
the other, because, as it is to be presumed that
his measurement refers to the Pteron, it would
be but natural that the foundations should be
something larger than the superstructure.
On visiting the castle of Pmdrum shortly after
laying bare the site of the Mausoleum, I perceived
that the green stone of the foundations bad been
most extensively employed in the construction of
the castle, both in the walls and pavement, as
might be inferred from the narratives of Gruichard
and Pontano already referred to. . On comparing
these accounts with the facts disclosed by excavation,
it is evident that, at the time of the Knights, the
ruins of the upper part of the edifice—which was
probably entirely of marble—were lying about its
filled up with the courses of the foundations, con-
sisting of slahs of a coarse green stone, strongly
bound together with iron clamps, and generally
measuring about 4 feet square by 1 foot thick. In
some places as many as three courses of these
foundation slabs remained, in others a single course,
which, when first uncovered, had the appearance of
a pavement, and is described as such in my earlier
despatches. In other spots the whole of the foun-
dation courses had been removed, and the original
bed of the rock was laid bare.
The whole quadrangular area in which these
courses still remained measured 127 feet from east to
west, by 108 feet from north to south—dimensions
which sufficiently correspond with Pliny's measure-
ment for the entire circuit, which is 411 feet ac-
cording to one reading, and 440 feet according to
the other, because, as it is to be presumed that
his measurement refers to the Pteron, it would
be but natural that the foundations should be
something larger than the superstructure.
On visiting the castle of Pmdrum shortly after
laying bare the site of the Mausoleum, I perceived
that the green stone of the foundations bad been
most extensively employed in the construction of
the castle, both in the walls and pavement, as
might be inferred from the narratives of Gruichard
and Pontano already referred to. . On comparing
these accounts with the facts disclosed by excavation,
it is evident that, at the time of the Knights, the
ruins of the upper part of the edifice—which was
probably entirely of marble—were lying about its