50 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



toes, huts, and tents. In early times, the 

 country of Judea, which is mountainous and 

 rocky, offered cavernous retreats to the in- 

 habitants, who accordingly used them instead 

 of artificial places of shelter. From various 

 passages in scripture, it appears that these 

 caves were often of great extent, for, in the 

 sides of the mountain of Engedi, David and 

 six hundred men concealed themselves. In 

 the course of time, art was employed to 

 fashion the rude cavernous retreats, and to 

 excavate blocks by which rude buildings were 

 compiled in more convenient situations. The 

 progress of architecture, however, from its 

 first dawn, differed in almost every different 

 locality. Whatever rude structure the climate 

 and materials of any ountry obliged its early 

 inhabitants to adop for their temporary 

 shelter, the same structure, with all its prom- 

 inent featurcD s was afterward kept up by their 

 refined and opulent posterity. 



From the cause now mentioned the Egyp- 

 tian style of building had its origin in the 

 cavern and mound ; the Chinese architecture, 

 with its pavilion roofs and pointed minaret, is 

 molded from the Tartar tent ; the Grecian is 

 derived from the wooden cabin ; and the 

 Gothic from the bower of trees. It is evident 

 that necessity as much as choice or chance led 

 to the adoption of the different kinds of edi- 

 fices. 



After mankind had learned to build houses, 

 they commenced the erection of temples to 

 their gods, and these they made still more 

 splendid than private dwellings. Thus archi- 

 tecture became a fine art, which was first dis- 

 played on the temples, afterward on the habi- 

 tations of princes and public buildings, and 

 at last became a universal want in society. 



Traces of these eras of advancement in 

 the art of erecting buildings are found in 

 various quarters of the globe, especially in East- 

 ern countries, where the remains of edifices 

 are discovered of which fable and poetry can 

 alone give any account. The most remark- 

 able of these vestiges of a primitive architec- 

 ture are certain pieces of masonry in the island 

 of Sicily, as well as in some other places, called 

 the works of the Cyclops, an ancient and fab- 

 ulous race of giants, mentioned by Homer in 

 his Odyssey. By whom these walls were ac- 

 tually erected is unknown. 



Of the progressive steps from comparative 

 rudeness to elegance of design, history affords 

 no certain account, and we are often left to 

 gather facts from merely casual notices. The 

 most ancient nations known to us among 

 whom architecture had made some progress 

 were the Babylonians, whose most celebrated 

 buildings were the temple of Belus, the palace 



and the hanging gardens of Semiramis ; the 

 Assyrians, whose capital, Nineveh, was rich 

 in splendid buildings; the Phoenicians, whose 

 cities, Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, and Sarepta, were 

 : adorned with equal magnificence ; the Israel- 

 ites, whose temple was considered as a won- 

 der of architecture ; the Syrians and the Phi- 

 listines. No architectural monument of these 

 nations has, however, been transmitted to us ; 

 but we find subterraneous temples of the Hin- 

 doos, hewn out of the solid rock, upon the 

 islands Elephanta and Salsette, and in the 

 mountains of Elora. These temples may be 

 reckoifed among the most stupendous ever ex- 

 ecuted by man. The circuit of the excava- 

 tions is about six miles. The temples are 100 

 feet high, 145 feet long, and 62 feet wide. 

 They contain thousands of figures, appearing, 

 from the style of their sculpture, to be ol an- 

 cient Hindoo origin. Everything about them, 

 in fact, indicates the most persevering indus- 

 try in executing one of the boldest plans. 



Egyptian Architecture. All the ar- 

 chitectural remains of ancient times sink 

 into insignificance when compared with those 

 of Egypt. The obelisks, pyramids, temples, 

 palaces, and other structures of this coun- 

 try, are on the grandest scale, and such as 

 could only have been perfected by a people 

 considerably advanced in refinement. The 

 elementary features of Egyptian architecture 

 were chiefly as follows : 1. Their walls were 

 of gi'eat thickness, and sloping on the outside. 

 This feature is supposed to have been derived 

 from the mud walls, mounds, and caverns of 

 their ancestors. 2. The roofs and covered 

 ways were flat, or without pediments, and com- 

 posed of blocks of stone, reaching from one 

 wall or column to another. The principle of 

 the arch, although known to the Egyptians, 

 was seldom if ever employed. 3. Their col- 

 umns were numerous, close, short, and very 

 large, being sometimes ten or twelve feet in 

 diameter. They were generally without bases, 

 and had a great variety of capitals, from a 

 simple square block, ornamented with hiero- 

 glyphics, or faces, to an elaborate composition 

 of palm leaves, not unlike the Corinthian cap- 

 ital. 4. They used a sort of concave entab- 

 lature or cornice, composed of vertical flutings 

 or leaves, and a winged globe in the center. 

 5. Pyramids, well known for their prodigious 

 size, and obelisks, composed of a single stone, 

 often exceeding seventy feet in height, are 

 structures peculiarly Egyptian. 6. Statues 

 of enormous size, sphinxes carved in stone, 

 and sculptures in outline of fabulous deities 

 and animals, with innumerable hieroglyphics, 

 are the decorative objects which belong to thil 

 style of architecture. 



