These celebrated ruins consist of temples, palaces, and porticos, of Grecian architecture; and lie scattered over an extent of several miles. They were accidentally discovered by some English travellers from Aleppo, above a century ago. The most remarkable of them is the temple of the sun, of which the ruins are spread over a square of 220 yards. It was encompassed with a stately wall, built of large square stones, and adorned with pilasters within and without, to the number of sixty-two on a side. Within the court are the remains of two rows of noble marble pillara, thirty-seven feet high, with their capitals, of most exquisite workmanship. Of these, only fifty-eight remain entire, but they appear to have gone round the whole court, and to have supported a double piazza. The walks opposite the castle appear to have been spacious. At each end of this line are two niches for statues, with their pedestals, borders, supporters, and canopies, carved with the utmost propriety and elegance. The space within this inclosure seems to have been an open court, in the middle of which stood the temple, encompassed with another row of pillars of a different order, and much taller, being fifty feet high; but of these, sixteen only remain. The whole space contained within these pillars is fifty-nine yards in length, and near twenty-eight in breadth.

The temple is thirty-three yards long, and thirteen or fourteen broad. It points north and south; and exactly in the middle of the building on the west side, is a most magnificent entry, on the remains of which are some vines and clusters of grapes, carved in the most masterly imitation of nature that can be conceived. Just over the door are discerned a pair of wings, which extend its whole breadth; but the body, whether of an eagle or an angel, is destroyed. The north end of this temple is adorned with the most curious fret-work in bas-relief; and in the middle is a dome, or cupola, about ten feet diameter.

North of this place is an obelisk consisting of seven large stones, besides its capital. It is about fifty feet high, and just above the pedestal is twelve feet in circumference. About a quarter of a mile from this pillar, to the east and west, are two others, besides the fragment of a third. About 100 paces from the middle obelisk, is a magnificent entry to a ppiazza, which is forty feet broad, and more than half a mile long, inclosed with two rows of marble pillars twenty-six feet high, and eight or nine in compass. Of these there still remain 129, but there must originally have been no less than 560. The upper end of the piazza was closed by a row of pillars.

To the left are the ruins of a stately banqueting-house, built of better marble, and finished with yet greater elegance, than the piazza. The pillars which supported it were of one entire stone. It measures twenty-two feet in length, and in compass eight feet nine inches.

In the west side of the piazza are several apertures for gates into the court of the palace. Each of these were adorned with four porphyry pillars, placed by couples in the front of the gate facing the palace, two on each side. Two of these only remain entire. They are thirty feet long, and nine in circumference. On the east side of the piazza stands a great number of marble pillars, some perfect, but the greater part mutilated.

At a little distance are the remains of a small temple, without a roof. Before the entry, which looks to the south, is a piazza supported by six pillars, two on each side of the door, and one at each end. The pedestals of those in front have been filled with inscriptions, both in the Greek and Palmyrene languages, which are become totally illegible.

Among these ruins are many sepulchres. They are all square towers, four or five stories high. There is a walk across the whole building; the space on each hand is subdivided into six partitions by thick walls. The space between the partitions is wide enough to receive the largest corpse; and in these niches there are six or seven piled one upon another. Many inscriptions have been found at Palmyra, which have occupied much of the attention of the learned.