The mausoleum is built throughout of westerly granite. It is thirty-three feet long, twenty-two feet wide and twenty feet high to the apex of the roof. It is often said to be a copy of the Parthenon, but that is not true. The Parthenon was a Doric structure; this is Ionic. The technical name of the building would be a Greek hexastyle, peripteral temple. It has six columns in front and eleven columns on each side in single rows. In its proportions and many of its details it is more like the old temple of Theseus, at Athens, than any ancient building extant.
Three rows of steps run up to the temple on all sides and form its base. Between the columns and the walls of the temple is a considerable space. Columns and walls are bare, without the faintest attempt at ornamentation.
In the center of the row of columns facing the south it looks as if a column had been removed to make a broad passageway. Facing this opening is the double door of the tomb. Each section of this door is eight feet high and two feet wide, and weighs a ton. The doors are of heavy bronze, and the lower part is paneled and ornamented on the outside with two dragons' heads, a big iron ring swinging in the mouth of each dragon. The upper part of the doors is a fretwork of cherubs and vines, through the opening of which the interior of the crypt can be seen.
Peering through the interstices one may see the narrow hall lined with polished Tennessee marbles. The pavement is of tesselated marble in three shades,
