ARCHITECTURE. 



fluted columns, with a square abacus, and straight 

 lintel or architrave, closely resembling the cor- 

 responding features of the Greek style. 



The greatest period of Egyptian architecture is 

 that of the Pharaonic dynasties, extending from 

 1800 to 1300 B.C. the period of the Jewish 

 exodus. The monuments of this race are to be 

 found in every part of Egypt, but are best pre- 

 served in Thebes and Upper Egypt. They differ 

 entirely from the old Memphite architecture. 

 Their buildings are irregularly set and hastily 

 built ; their tombs are long galleries cut in the 

 solid rock ; and their paintings, in place of pic- 

 tures of domestic life, represent battle-scenes and 

 conquests, and mysterious religious symbols. 



Temples are the principal works of these 

 dynasties. At Karnac, Luxor, Gournou, great 

 temples still exist. One of these temples, called 

 the Rhamession, is still preserved, and is a typical 

 example. The temple at Karnac is similar to this, 

 but of much greater extent, being 1200 feet in 

 length, and 360 feet in breadth. Fig. 3 shews a 

 section of the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnac, 

 and illustrates the Egyptian style of ornament. 

 These great palace-temples were the work of suc- 

 cessive kings, as medieval cathedrals were of 

 successive bishops, and thus give in one building 

 a history of the whole style. 



These great temples were connected with 

 smaller ones by long avenues of sphinxes, and 

 they had tanks and embankments of great mag- 

 nificence. Enormous colossal statues adorn the 

 entrance. The annexed illustrations give an idea 



Fig. 4. Fig. 5, 



Fig. 6. 



of some of the forms of Egyptian pillars, and fig. 

 8 shews the front of a temple. 



Fig. 8. Fajade of Egyptian Temple. 



The tombs of this period were frequently exca- 

 vated in the solid rock. 



There are also smaller temples of this period 

 called Mammeisi, which are interesting, as being 

 the originals of the Greek ' peristylar' temples 

 that is, a central cell with colonnade all round. 



There are almost no remains of domestic 

 architecture to be found, but there are endless 

 representations of houses in the paintings of the 

 tombs, from which it is seen that they were similar 

 in style to the temples, though, of course, small 

 and simple, and were surrounded with fish-ponds, 

 gardens, &c. 



From the time of the Pharaohs till that of the 

 Ptolemies, Egyptian art declined ; but under the 

 Greek rule her arts revived, and continued to 

 flourish under the Roman dominion. But neither 

 Greek nor Roman influence could obliterate the 

 native art of the Egyptians. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



The people who come next to the Egyptians 

 in point of antiquity as a building race are the 

 inhabitants of the great plain watered by the 

 Euphrates and Tigris. The Babylonians occupied 

 the lower part of the country, and attained civilisa- 

 tion before the Assyrians of the upper country, 

 just as Memphis preceded Thebes. Babylon is 

 supposed to have been founded by Nimrod about 

 2234 B.C. but was subdued by Assyria in 1273 

 B.C. and remained subject to the latter till the 

 days of Nabopolasser (680 B.C.), and his son 

 Nebuchadnezzar, who threw off the yoke, and 

 destroyed Nineveh in the reign of Sardanapalus 

 (625 B.C.). But both kingdoms were overwhelmed 

 by Cyrus, and absorbed into the great Persian 

 kingdom (539 B.C.). 



In Chaldea (or Babylonia), Assyria, and Persia, 

 we have the history of the rise and successive 

 developments of one great style of architecture. 

 Unfortunately, the materials with which the Baby- 

 lonians worked were of the most perishable nature, 

 namely, sun-dried bricks and timber. In the great 

 alluvial plain of the Euphrates, stone is awanting, 

 and clay abounds suitable for brick-making. But 

 there seems to have been an absence of fuel to 

 burn the bricks, and the result is that the sun-dried 

 bricks which were used have yielded to the influ- 

 ence of ages of sun and rain, and crumbled into 

 shapeless masses of mud. During the last twenty 

 years great progress has been made by Botta, 

 Layard, and others in excavating these huge piles, 

 which mark the spots where great cities once 

 flourished ; and we now know that the great temples 

 were composed of high walls or bases of brick-work, 

 supporting a platform on which a smaller story or 

 platform was raised, and on this a third story, and 



Fig. 9. 



so on, each successive story diminishing in size till 

 the top was reached, on which stood the cella, or 

 temple proper. These stories were painted in 

 different colours, according to the nature of the 



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