CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



of statuaries, all employed in making images of the god 

 Godama, and all in the same position, that is, sitting 

 upon a pedestal ; the smillert exceeded the 

 ttiturc. The price of this site was 100 tackals, 

 or 19 or IS pounds sterling. They work the marble 

 with a chisel and mallet, and poluh with three stones of 

 different fineness ; and, lastly, by rubbing with the hand, 

 which give* a great degree of brightness and smooth- 



At Unup*ora, were spires, turrets, and lofty obelisks. 

 The fort is an exact square, with public granaries and 

 storerooms, and a gilded temple at each angle, upwards 

 of 100 feet high. In the centre of the front stands the 

 royal palace, with a wide court in the front, bevond 

 which is the council-hill, supported by eighty pillars, 

 on eleven roods. The royal library B a brick building, 

 raited on a terrace, .and covered with a roof of a very 

 compound structure j it consists of one square room, 

 with an inclosed veranda or gallery round it. (See Colo- 

 nel Syme's Embasty to Ava, 1795.) 



With regard to the present practice of Hindu archi- 

 tecture, we learn, that in Benares, their holy city, situ- 

 ated on the north bank of the Ganges, 460 miles N. W. 

 of Calcutta, the streets are so narrow as not to admit of 

 two carriages to pass one another. The houses are built 

 with large stones, accurately joined. Some of them are 

 six stories high, with terraces on the summits; a band 

 or string course, decorated with sculpture, tolerably well 

 executed, serves to mark externally the division of each 

 story. The windows are very small. The houses on 

 the opposite side of the streets sometimes communicate 

 by galleries. The number of houses built of stone and 

 brick are reckoned at 12,000 ; those with mud walls 

 16,000. In this city there is a stupendous observatory, 

 a great number of Hindu temples, and a spacious mosque, 

 built by Aurenzcbe, from the minarets of which, the 

 whole city may be seen. 



By the kindness of a gentleman, whose opportunities 

 and disposition for accurate observation have qualified 

 him to afford the most authentic information, we are en- 

 abled to give the following account of the modes pur- 

 sued by the Hindoos in the construction of their dwell- 

 ing-houses : " The houses of the opulent are substan- 

 tially built of stone and brick, with lime mortar, gene- 

 rally terraced with small bricks, about four inches square, 

 and one inch in thickness ; the beams are laid about 13 

 feet apart, and the joints tee inches. The masons be- 

 gin to form the terrace at one angle of the building, sit- 

 ting upon a plank, which is supported on the brick-work 

 as they proceed, until they, finish at the angle opposite to 

 that at which they commenced. They have no planks 

 upon the beams or joists to support the work below ; but 

 as the middle of the terrace (generally about 18 feet 

 wide) is from five to six inches higher than the sides, an 

 arch is thereby formed and supported by the surround- 

 ing walls, which are 20 inches in thickness, and have a 

 parapet placed upon them, both for ornament and adding 

 to the security. Over this brick arch is laid a coat or 

 layer of jelly or gravel, or broken bricks, about the size 

 of a large pea, mixed with quicklime and jaggury water; 

 this is beat down hard with small hand mallets. Over 

 this first coat is laid a second, composed of rough lime 

 mortar, which ii scored across. The third and last coat is 

 a 6ne chunan ; and this, altogether, forms so strong and 

 firm a body, that a whole terrace sometimes falls down en- 

 tire and unbroken. Many houses are built with pointed 

 roof*, covered with flat lyles, four inches square, and 

 three-quirteri of an inch in thickness ; others have a slight 

 ton 9t lime, w:th pantylei, which are seldom above 



seven inches by four ; they are semicircular nearly. The Prttiict 

 houses of the middling class are usually built in a square, ^"" "V" 

 and covered with tyles, with a seat round the inside of 

 the square, about three feet high, and three feet in width, 

 protected by a viranda ; it is here the inhabitants sit to 

 receive their guests. There are no windows in the ex- 

 ternal walls, but to each house there is a small door, and 

 frequently a window ; the latter placed as high as the 

 viranda will admit. In the open square there is generally 

 a wall, with a water- course below the house for domestic 

 purposes. The houses of the poor are miserable ; a few 

 bamboos stuck in the ground, in a circular form, are col- 

 lected, bent, and tied at the top, so as to represent an 

 egg with the end cut off. They are seldom ten feet di- 

 ameter, with a hole about three feet high to creep in at ; 

 this is shut with a leaf, tied on a simple wicker frame. 

 The towns are generally a long street, with others at 

 right angles, but seldom built with much regularity ; 

 some are large, some small ; some are thatched and others 

 tyled. Those in the interior parts of the country are 

 inferior to those near the sea-coast towns where Euro- 

 peans are settled." 



From the account of Colonel Syme's embassy to Ava, 

 we learn, that in the Birman empire, in private hou- 

 ses, the use of brick and stone are prohibited, and 

 they are therefore all constructed of wood. They are 

 all raised from the ground by wooden posts or bam- 

 boos, according to the size of the building, and made 

 tolerably convenient. The roofs are slightly covered, 

 and at every door stands a long bamboo, with an iroi 

 hook at the end, to pull off the thatch, and another with 

 an iron grating, to stifle the flame by pressure. Firemen 

 constantly patrole the streets at night. 



PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



The ancient architecture of this extensive, rich, and General 

 interesting country, must be considered chiefly as it re- remarks, 

 gards their cities, palaces, and tombs ; for, with the ex- 

 ception of the temple of Belus, and some other temples, 

 their mythology did not admit of sacred edifices. They 

 were in this respect the reverse of the Egyptians and 

 Indians, who, as has just been seen, seem to have de- 

 voted much of their time and attention to constructing 

 and decorating temples. The accounts of the ancient 

 Persian cities and palaces which have reached us, being 

 very general and indistinct, we can add but little to what 

 has already been stated in the historical Part. It will 

 therefore be by the means of Pcrsepolis alone, that we 

 shall be enabled to enter into any particular details, or 

 produce engraved specimens of the ancient school of this 

 country ; fortunately, sufficient remains of this palace 

 have been preserved to afford satisfactory information in 

 regard to many of its leading features. Of the present 

 style of architecture, in their principal cities, some spe- 

 cimens will also be produced. 



The ancient cities of Babylon and Nineveh seem to 

 have been existing at one time, and are said to have been 

 nearly of the same form and extent. All accounts agree 

 that this extent was very great, and that they had many 

 wide streets, crossing each other at right angles. But Streets. 

 Babylon was repeatedly destroyed and restored. The 

 descriptions of it were taken after it had bee.n rebuilt 

 upon an uncommonly magnificent scale, by Nebuchad- 

 nezzar ; and the comparisons, having formerly been ju^t, 

 were afterwards transferred to the new city. But that 

 great degree of regularity which is mentioned in the 

 descriptions of Babylon, are not to be attributed to cities 

 of slow and gradual growth ; it is the result of conquest 



Babyleu 

 and Ni- 

 neveh. 



' 



