Outside the northwest corner of the building is the huge marble base weighing approximately 32 tons that supported the towering Colossus of the Naxians, a statue of Apollo approximately 9 meters (27 ft) in height, dating to the early 6th cent. BC. The god was depicted in the Kouros type, nude, frontally, with long hair, sturdy shoulders, and the left foot placed slightly in front of the right. In his hands he held either a bow and arrows, or the Three Graces. The surviving pieces bear the holes that served to fasten the statue's bronze locks and belt. The god's bright hair was visible from the sea, and the broad Avenue of the Lions ended at its base. Even when the Sanctuary was covered with buildings, the head of Apollo was visible from all sides. According to Plutarch, the bronze palm tree dedicated by Nicias fell over and knocked down the statue. The Naxians restored it to its base and it was apparently then that they inscribed the west side of the base: To Apollo from the Naxians. The east side bears one of the earliest Greek inscriptions: "statue and base, I am made of the same stone." In 1416 the Florentine Cristoforo Buondelmonti reports that he and his comrades attempted to raise the Colossus: "we also saw upon a plain on Delos an old sanctuary constructed of many columns and a huge statue fallen upon the ground, so enormous that though we were over a thousand men and had all the equipment and ropes from our ships we were unable to raise it. Thus we despaired and left it at the same location." In 1445 Cyriacus of Ancona sketched the surviving sections of the Colossus which, according to the sketch, was facing north looking towards the pilgrims who disembarked in Skardanas bay and walked down the Avenue of the Lions to reach its base and Keraton, the final point of their pilgrimage. Around 1675, either a British captain, or the Venetian Governor of Tinos, cut off its head, all trace of which has since disappeared. At one time an attempt was made to haul away the remaining sections, but was unsuccessful because of their weight, and the parts were abandoned in front of the Artemesion. The statue's torso and pelvis are still there; the British Museum has a section of the left leg, and the Delos Museum has the left hand.