CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



529 



Tombt of 

 the kings. 



PLATE 

 CLIII. 





Palmyra 

 and Bal- 

 bec. 



Ispahan. 



Ht*tory. Median. The Persians offered horses to the sun, and 

 ~""Y"^ oxen to the moon, as is shewn in the sculptured proces- 

 sion ; here is also the tiara worn in the time of Cyrus, 

 in the processions, where the principal lords were obliged 

 to assist: (See Xenop/wn.) The umbrella was in use 

 amongst the ancient Persians. The long robes, with 

 foldings, is a Median dress. 



The tombs of the kings are found in one mountain to 

 the south, and another to the north ; the facade of the 

 former is cut in the rock, and is ornamented with sculp- 

 tures, Plate CLIII. ; it is about 70 feet broad on the 

 base ; the part decorated with figures is about 40 feet 

 broad, and as much in height ; the rock extends beyond 

 it on each side about 60 paces. The other tombs are 

 similar to this. Le Brun found about 1300 figures of 

 men and animals sculptured on these tombs ; some of the 

 men from 7.5 to 10.7 feet high; some had parasols or 

 umbrellas over their heads ; some were armed with lances ; 

 and many were combating lions. But for the particulars, 

 we must refer to Plates CLIII. and CLIV., and the dis- 

 cussions under the Practice of Architecture. 



Of the cities which rose to eminence in Persia and 

 Syria under the Greek and Roman empires, the ruins of 

 Palmyra and Balbec are best known to Europeans ; but 

 as their architecture is indisputably Roman, they will be 

 noticed more properly when treating of the works of that 

 great people. 



Ispahan, the present capital of Persia, is situated in 

 the province of Irac, or Persia Proper, in 32 25' N. 

 Lat. and 86 4<V E. Long. Shah Abas, after the con- 

 quest of the kingdoms of Laz and Ormus, fixed his 

 court there in 1620 and 1628. It is situated in an ex- 

 tensive plain, surrounded by mountains ; the plain is wa- 

 tered by several rivers ; of these, Zenderoud, after be- 

 ing joined by the Mahmood, passes by Ispahan, where 

 it is crossed by three fine bridges ; it is there about the 

 breadth of the river Seine at Paris ; some streets are 

 broad and handsome, but many are narrow, crooked, 

 and dirty ; the public buildings are rather neat than 

 magnificent. The great market-place and palace, which 

 are 3-4ths of a league in circumference, and the build- 

 ings upon the bridges, make a good appearance : With 

 regard to architectural construction, their external as- 

 pect points out distinctly the use of slender upright 

 props, with flat and very slight coverings extended 

 upon them, and projecting so as to protect those walk- 

 ing in the galleries from the sun. 



These three countries, viz. Egypt, India, and Persia, as 

 far as we know, comprehend all that is great and ingenious 

 in the most ancient state of architecture. The countries 

 to the north and west were without specimens of ancient 

 art, and China possesses little which can establish a claim 

 to architecture as a fine or ingenious art. The palace of 

 Pekin presents only a large caravansera, with numerous 

 courts and extensive galleries, having their trifling wooden 

 -ogtj highly japanned and gilt. The pagodas, Plate C LV. 



C e * C ^ '^ a PP earance f tents pi' fi d upon each other ; 

 but '" none f these structures is there to be found one 

 feature expressive of great design or scientific skill. 

 Through the richest parts of this great empire, which 

 have lately been visited by Europeans, every private 

 dwelling bespeaks poverty and an overstock of popula- 

 tion ; even their great wall, destitute of any claim to 

 ingenuity, is only an instance of a numerous and timid 

 people, terrified into the pitiful project of excluding, by 

 means of a mass of earth, faced with masonry, their 

 poorer and more warlike neighbours. If, therefore, this 

 country, as has been asserted by an eminent writer, (Sir 



TOV. Vfc PABT U. 



Chinese 

 architec- 

 ture. 



General 

 remarks. 

 PLATES 

 CLV. and 

 CLVL 



W. Jones), was originally a colony from India, this co- History. 

 lony had not risen to that powerful state to enable them x "" ""Y""* 

 to adopt the sacred architecture of their parent country, 

 before they were overrun by a people whose notions of 

 building originated from the use of the tent, and whose 

 habits led them to perform an infinite number of little 

 things by almost individual independent exertions. Be- 

 ing situated at the eastern extremity of a continent, 

 at a great distance, and, in many cases, separated by 

 extensive deserts and vast ranges of mountains, from 

 those western countries which afterwards became emi- 

 nent for arts, or formidable by arms, China has long 

 retained the same arts, nearly in the same degree of per- 

 fection. 



OF GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



THE next step in the history of architecture, lead* us Grecian 

 to consider it as practised in the Grecian states ; and architec, 

 here, although during its early stages much uncertainty ture ' 

 prevails, yet by the aid of ancient historians and scien- 

 tific travellers of modern times, we are enabled to trace 

 a tolerably connected view of the rise and progress ol 

 this school of the arts. 



To conceive the Greeks totally ignorant of the state 

 of architecture in Egypt and Persia at a period when 

 those immediately adjacent empires had long existed in 

 great splendour, had constructed edifices of the greatr 

 est magnificence, and were the countries from whence, 

 if the Greeks were not originally colonies, they certain- 

 ly very early derived the first rudiments of their know- 

 ledge, would be carrying credulity to an unwarrant- 

 able length. That the Greeks benefited by the architec- 

 ture of Egypt and Persia, and even India, is rendered 

 still more probable, by considering, that their early sages 

 uniformly drew their information from these countries; 

 that the commencement of the most rapid progress ofar- 

 chitecture in Greece corresponds with the time of their , 



connection with Egypt in the reign of Psammaticus; and ments of 

 that the pillars of the finest ancient edifices in each of architec- 

 those countries, in their shafts, capitals, and other or- ture lrola 

 naments, afford sufficient hints for a people less intreni- l^P'' ., 

 ous than the Greeks. P s ,a, &c. 



But this singular people, situated in a rugged, and, in 

 a great measure, insulated country, at the junction of 

 Asia with Europe, and at no great distance from Africa, 

 with the benefit of a fine climate, and unfettered free- 

 dom, appear to have collected, refined, and carried to a 

 much higher degree of perfection, the knowledge and 

 arts of those great countries to the east and south of which they 

 them ; and in what regards poetry, vloquencc, painting, 

 sculpture, and architecture, they produced in the course 

 of a few centuries, specimens which succeeding genera- 

 tions have not been able to surpass. 



Egypt had no wood, but abounded in mountains of 

 granite, porphyry, and marble. These circumstances, Egypt 

 and the extensive use which the earliest inhabitants mads had no 

 of natural and artificial caverns, must have led them to wo d- 

 form their peculiar style of architecture. 



Greece, on the contrary, was possessed of forests, and 

 the essential parts of their finest structures are evidently Woods in 

 derived from the application of the materials which they Grcecf - 

 furnished. The columns and entablatures correspond pre- 

 cisely with upright posts and horizontal beams of wood ; 

 and, above all, the pointed roof of their temples, which 

 in Egypt and Persia had hitherto been flat, is peculiarly 

 their own. In what regards decoration, the Greeks TlieGreeks 

 chiefly made use of the essential parts, and they bestow- introduce 

 ed their attention almost exclusively upon the external the pointed 

 parts of the edifices. 



3x 



