CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



deity. The platforms were of great size ; the 

 Mugheyr Temple (fig. 9) had a base 198 feet by 

 133 feet The Birs Nimroud is another celebrated 

 temple, the lower story of which is 272 feet each 

 way. Great flights of outer stairs led 

 from one story to another. 



The architecture of Assyria resembles 

 in its leading features that of Babylo- 

 nia, but the remains here are chiefly 

 palaces. These were always raised on 

 huge artificial mounds, and approached 

 by splendid flights of open stairs. The 

 walls were, as in Babylon, built with 

 sun-dried bricks, but they were also 

 lined with great slabs of alabaster, 

 covered with sculptures, and these have 

 been preserved to us by the masses of 

 rubbish which have fallen around them. 

 By means of these slabs, which remain 

 standing in their original positions, the 

 ground-plans of the buildings can be clearly made 

 out. They contain great audience-halls and other 

 apartments and courts for the use of the palace. 

 These halls were covered with flat earthen roofs 

 (similar to those of Egypt), which were supported 

 by wooden beams and pillars, arranged probably 

 as we shall see in the remains of the stone archi- 

 tecture of Persepolis. The oldest of these palaces 

 hitherto explored is the north-west palace of Nim- 

 roud (884 B.C.). Those of Khorsabad, Koyunjik 

 (Sennacherib), the south-west palace of Nimroud 

 (Esarhaddon), and others have also been explored, 

 and their forms so far made out as to enable Mr 

 Fergusson to publish drawings of a ' restoration ' 

 of these buildings, which, with the great courts 

 and halls, surrounded with colossal carvings of 

 winged bulls and lions, and innumerable carved 

 wooden columns, with capitals of bulls' heads, &c. 

 must have had a gorgeous, though barbaric splen- 

 dour. The sculptures also represent the king 

 engaged in religious rites, or hunting, or driving his 

 chariot to battle. They also record the various 

 scenes of warfare executions, captives, &c. 

 and are familiar from the slabs preserved in the 

 British Museum. 



After Babylon came Pasargada where the 

 splendid palaces of Cyrus and Cambyses still exist 

 in ruins and Persepolis, the capital of Darius 

 and Xerxes. Some remains are also to be found 

 at Susa, Ecbatana, and Teheran. The Persians 

 possessed and used stone in their architecture, and 

 we here find the wooden parts of the architecture 

 of their predecessors in Assyria reproduced in 

 stone, and thus preserved to us. 



The Persian palaces were, like the older exam- 

 ples, set on raised platforms, approached by 

 great flights of steps, and supported with walls of 

 Cyclopean masonry. The halls of the palaces 

 were square in plan, having an equal number of 

 pillars in each direction, for the support of the 

 flat roof. In the centre, a portion was left open 

 for the admission of light, and sheltered by 

 another roof raised upon pillars. The accom- 

 panying section of the Great Hall of Xerxes at 

 Persepolis will explain this arrangement. This 

 hall is the most splendid building whose re- 

 mains exist in this part of the world. It was 

 350 feet by 300, and covered more ground than 

 any similar building of antiquity, or medieval 

 cathedral, except that of Milan. The staircases 

 and walls are adorned with sculptures similar to 



468 



those of Assyria, and the interiors were orna- 

 mented with paintings. 



The use of the arch was known in Assyria (and 

 also in Egypt) : Layardhas discovered subterranean 



Fig. 10. Section of Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis. 



arched conduits of perfect construction ; and the 

 gates of Khorsabad, discovered by M. Place, have 

 arches springing from the backs of sculptured 

 bulls, and are beautifully ornamented with enam- 

 elled bricks. 



GREEK ARCHITECTURE. 



We have seen in Egypt and Assyria the origi- 

 nals from which much of the architecture of Greece 

 was designed ; but before tracing the rise of the 

 well-known styles of this country, a few words must 

 be said on another class of remains found here, 

 and in Asia Minor and Etruria, which belong 

 evidently to an earlier race than the historic in- 

 habitants of these countries. This early race is 

 called the Pelasgian, but little is known of it except 

 through the remains of its buildings. In Asia 

 Minor, these consist almost entirely of tombs which 

 have the form of a circular cone set on a high base 

 a design common in Etruscan tombs, and after- 

 wards retained in Roman tombs. In Greece and 

 Italy, the remains of the Pelasgi are interesting to 

 the archaeologist rather than the architect. They 

 consist of remnants of tombs, city walls, bridges, 

 &c. The tomb of Atreus at Mycenae is a well- 

 known example, and is a beautiful specimen of the 



Fig. 1 1. Section of Tomb of Atreus at Mycenae. 



horizontal construction of the arch. The joints of 

 the stones are all horizontal, and not radiating, as 

 in the ordinary arch. This form of arch, if pro- 

 perly weighted on the outside, or haunch, forms a 

 very stable structure. 



It was at onetime thought that the Greeks, from 



