Before the cool of the evening we visited the ruins of this once flourishing city; and towards the western part observed the standing walls of two or three spatious and lofty rooms, not unworthy the palace of the ancient kings of _Lydia_. They were all arched towards the foundation, and adorned as well as strengthened at each corner with hewn stone; but the main part of the fabric consisted of a broad and durable brick, which is likewise observable in most of the ancient ruins of _Asia Minor_. From hence we passed thro heaps of rubbish, and tracks of continued foundations, to the eastern part of the city; where stand the pillars and front of another spatious building, the figure and situation of which persuaded us, that they were the remains of the cathedral church. A little southerly from hence we viewed the full extent of another stately room, which however antient it might be, was nevertheless raised out of ruins more antient than itself; as appeared from several rich pillars, and architraves, confusedly placed among the rubbish of the walls. About the distance of a furlong, full south of the antient city, are to be seen the beautiful remains not of an amphitheatre, as has been supposed, but rather of some royal palace. Here we observed six lofty Ionic pillars, all of them still intire, except that the capital of one is distorted by an earthquake. There adjoins to them a fair and magnificent portal, the pilasters of which, being about twenty feet high, and twelve feet distant from each other, are joined at the top by one entire stone, which, by what art or force it was there erected, is difficult to conceive; for tho _Pliny_[29] pretends to account for the like difficulty in the architecture of the temple of _Ephesus_, yet that passage gives but little satisfaction in the matter. There occurs nothing else, that is remarkable about _Sardis_, besides the broken walls of the castle on an adjoining hill; the ascent and prospect of which, however magnified by Sir _Paul Rycaut_, we yet thought so inferior, to what we lately had found at _Magnesia_, that it could not raise our curiosity to undertake the climbing of that precipice, especially since we could promise ourselves the same prospect to a greater advantage from the top of _Tmolus_; and as for two or three broken inscriptions, which are there extant, we were content to peruse them in Dr. _Smith’s_ printed _Journal_[30]. April xxviii.