The City of the Sun | Page 4

second walls. From hence can be seen large
palaces, all joined to the wall of the second circuit in such a manner as
to appear all one palace. Arches run on a level with the middle height
of the palaces, and are continued round the whole ring. There are
galleries for promenading upon these arches, which are supported from
beneath by thick and well-shaped columns, en- closing arcades like
peristyles, or cloisters of an abbey.
But the palaces have no entrances from below, except on the inner or
concave partition, from which one enters directly to the lower parts of
the building. The higher parts, however, are reached by flights of
marble steps, which lead to galleries for promenading on the inside
similar to those on the outside. From these one enters the higher rooms,
which are very beauti- ful, and have windows on the concave and
convex partitions. These rooms are divided from one another by richly

decorated walls. The convex or outer wall of the ring is about eight
spans thick; the concave, three; the intermediate walls are one, or
perhaps one and a half. Leaving this circle one gets to the second plain,
which is nearly three paces narrower than the first. Then the first wall
of the second ring is seen adorned above and below with similar
galleries for walking, and there is on the inside of it another interior
wall enclosing palaces. It has also similar peristyles supported by
columns in the lower part, but above are excellent pictures, round the
ways into the upper houses. And so on afterward through similar spaces
and double walls, enclosing palaces, and adorned with galleries for
walking, extending along their outer side, and supported by columns,
till the last circuit is reached, the way being still over a level plain.
But when the two gates, that is to say, those of the outmost and the
inmost walls, have been passed, one mounts by means of steps so
formed that an ascent is scarcely discernible, since it proceeds in a
slanting direction, and the steps succeed one another at almost
imperceptible heights. On the top of the hill is a rather spacious plain,
and in the midst of this there rises a temple built with wondrous art.
G.M. Tell on, I pray you! Tell on! I am dying to hear more.
Capt. The temple is built in the form of a circle; it is not girt with walls,
but stands upon thick columns, beautifully grouped. A very large dome,
built with great care in the cen- tre or pole, contains another small vault
as it were rising out of it, and in this is a spiracle, which is right over
the altar. There is but one altar in the middle of the temple, and this is
hedged round by columns. The temple itself is on a space of more than
350 paces. Without it, arches measuring about eight paces extend from
the heads of the columns outward, whence other columns rise about
three paces from the thick, strong, and erect wall. Between these and
the former columns there are galleries for walking, with beautiful
pavements, and in the re- cess of the wall, which is adorned with
numerous large doors, there are immovable seats, placed as it were
between the inside columns, supporting the temple. Portable chairs are
not want- ing, many and well adorned. Nothing is seen over the altar
but a large globe, upon which the heavenly bodies are painted, and

another globe upon which there is a representation of the earth.
Furthermore, in the vault of the dome there can be dis- cerned
representations of all the stars of heaven from the first to the sixth
magnitude, with their proper names and power to influence terrestrial
things marked in three little verses for each. There are the poles and
greater and lesser circles according to the right latitude of the place, but
these are not perfect because there is no wall below. They seem, too, to
be made in their re- lation to the globes on the altar. The pavement of
the temple is bright with precious stones. Its seven golden lamps hang
always burning, and these bear the names of the seven planets.
At the top of the building several small and beautiful cells surround the
small dome, and behind the level space above the bands or arches of
the exterior and interior columns there are many cells, both small and
large, where the priests and relig- ious officers dwell to the number of
forty-nine.
A revolving flag projects from the smaller dome, and this shows in
what quarter the wind is. The flag is marked with figures up to
thirty-six, and the priests know what sort of year the different kinds of
winds bring and what