Josephus mentions the lions that adorned this palace, in defiance of the law, which Hyrcanus broke as Solomon had done, and as even the rabbis of our second century did later, by the representation of living beasts. But the ruins furnish yet more remarkable evidence of Greek influence. The cliff has a gallery excavated more than half-way up its height, and various chambers run in from it, while below are the rock stables with their mangers, and the guard-house with its Aramaic text carved beside the door, proving that we are not dealing with a Greek site. These were planned by Lieut. Mantell, R.E., in 1881, when he also photographed the inscription, which I studied at the same time. It is in Aramaic characters, similar to those of other texts, and to those of the Jewish coins about half a century later. The comparison with these shows very clearly that the earlier copyists mistranslated the text, which reads _’Aûryah_, from a root meaning “to be watchful.” It is thus either a direction to the “watch-house,” or an exhortation to the guard to be alert. The palace itself, on the flat ground above the stream, is surrounded on three sides by a broad court having boundary walls 10 feet high. The building itself measures 70 yards north and south, by 50 yards east and west, with a pillared entrance on the north. The unfinished capitals of huge pillars lie amid the ruins inside. On the east wall the top course at each angle is carved with lions, two facing north and two facing south respectively towards the corners. These also were unfinished. The total height of the building is 21 feet, and the lowest course is 8 feet high. The corner-stone is over 17 feet in length, and this fine masonry thus rivals that of Herod at Jerusalem and of the Romans at Ba’albek. [Sidenote: DRAFTED STONES]