This monument must formerly have been very impressive amid the wide landscape; but, a few years ago, for protection against peasant depredators, a wall ten feet high was built close around the columns, so that no good view of them is any longer obtainable.

To the enclosure admission is obtained through an iron gateway with a lock.

I may add, as a picturesque detail, that the lock has long been useless; my guide simply pushed the gate open.

Thus, the ugly wall serves no purpose whatever save to detract from the beauty of the scene.
Vegetation is thick within the temple precincts; a flowering rose bush made contrast of its fresh and graceful loveliness with the age-worn strength of these great carved stones.

About their base grew luxuriantly a plant which turned my thoughts for a moment to rural England, the round-leaved pennywort.