...viewing the steps
»steps« at that place in the sentece in my opinion would be too far from context. there were no steps mentioned elsewhere in connection with the temple.
Having read the full transcription, I now wonder if mckha was right after all:
I wondered if “etope”” was slope.
I did too for a time, but the tall letter is crossed like a 't'.
Yes - but this is a document that has been copied from another document. So it could be a mistranscription. Slope makes sense if you consider the description of viewing petrifried wood which could be on a slope of a river bank for instance.
The temple is on a "hilldoh", which I think must be a hilltop. It's surrounded by something which is prevented from falling by these small palings made of petrified wood. For someone approaching and seeing them for the first time, "the first impression left upon the mind in viewing the slope" would make good sense.
It's most unfortunate that a word seems to have been missed out ("a little ... raised all round it") so we can't really envisage the scene. Or can we make "raised" into a noun that would fit the context?