The cell is formed of four quarried blocks, which are laid one over the
other. These are nearly of the same size, and similarly shaped, each of
them enclosing the cell on three sides, towards the east, the south,
and the west. The fourth, which is larger than any of the others,
constitutes the roof. It is a massive stone, carefully cut, which
projects considerably in front of the rest of the building, and is
ornamented towards the top with a cornice and string-course, extending
along the four sides.[616] Internally the roof is scooped into a sort of
shallow vault. The height of the shrine proper is about seventeen feet,
and the elevation of the entire structure above the court in which it
stands appears to be about twenty-seven feet. M. Renan conjectures that
the projecting portion of the roof had originally the support of two
pillars, which may have been either of wood, of stone, or of metal, and
notes that there are two holes in the basement stone, into which the
bottoms of the pillars were probably inserted.[617] He imagines that the
court was once enclosed completely by the construction of a wall at its
northern end, and that the water from a spring, which still rises within
the enclosure, was allowed to overflow the entire space, so that the
shrine looked down upon a basin or shallow lake and glassed itself in
the waters.[618] An image of a deity may have stood in the cell under
the roof, dimly visible to the worshipper between the two porch pillars.

The two ruined tabernacles lie at no great distance from the complete
one, which has just been described. One of them is so injured that its
plan is irrecoverable; but M. Renan carefully collected and measured
the fragments of the other, and thus obtained sufficient data for its
restoration.[619] It was, he believes, a monolithic chamber, with a roof
slightly vaulted, like that of the _Maabed_, having a length of eight
feet, a breadth of five, and a height of about ten feet, and ornamented
externally with a very peculiar cornice. This consisted of a series of