The greater portion of the floor and the walls is covered with marble.
Altogether, marble seems to be much sought after at Damascus.

Every thing that passes for beautiful or valuable is either entirely composed of this stone, or at least is inlaid with it.

Thus a pretty fountain in a little square near the bazaar is of marble; and a coffee-house opposite the fountain, the largest and most frequented of any in Damascus, is ornamented with a few small marble pillars.

But all these buildings, not even excepting the great bathing-house, would be far less praised and looked at if they stood in a better neighbourhood.

As the case is, however, they shine forth nobly from among the clay houses of Damascus.
In the afternoon we visited the Grotto of St.Paul, lying immediately outside the town.