Our road lay over the ridges, at the foot of the mountains, along the eastern side of the plain. The soil over which we passed was thin. There was much rock on the surface, and in many places there were wide-spread masses of a very coarse puddingstone, that appeared to have once formed a huge bed of water-worn rock, bowlders, and pebbles, and owing to some cementing matter which had come over it, had become a solid rock. As we approached Baalbec this rock discontinued, and gave place to a very thick stratum of massy limestone of a peculiar kind, which is mainly used in the walls of Baalbec. Baalbec stands near the foot of the Anti-Lebanon, a little above the general level of the plain. The ridges of the mountain lower down gradually, and spreading out, form a general level, which merges insensibly into that of the plain. It is on this elevated level that the ruins stand; about a mile from them, on the side of a hill, is the quarry that has furnished the stone for these stupendous buildings. A little to the east arises the finest set of springs that I have seen in Syria. They boil up over a considerable surface, and send off a stream of water sufficient to set in operation various kinds of machinery, if applied to that purpose. The ground on which the ruins stand is nearly a dead level; a large district has been surrounded by walls, traces of them remain. The space covered by the ruins of the temple, or set of temples, and possibly theatre and other buildings, is about nine hundred feet long, and six hundred broad. The area is not, however, a regular parallelogram, there are off-sets at some of the towers--towers having apparently been added when the place was fortified, and converted into a fort. A foundation or platform of great thickness, I should say not less than ten feet, seems to have been laid over this large space, and upon this foundation the temples have been reared.