Some leaned against the cliff, others against each other; many stood sheer and alone; all were crumbling, cracked, rotten.

It was a place of yellow, ragged ruin.

The passage narrowed as he went up; it became a slant, hard for him to stick on; it was smooth as marble.

Finally he surmounted it, surprised to find the walls still several hundred feet high, and a narrow gorge leading down on the other side.

This was a divide between two inclines, about twenty yards wide.
At one side stood an enormous rock.