468 ARCHITECTURE AND MECHANICAL SCIENCES. 



proofs of this, (he one in its pyramids, the other in the ruins of 

 Palmyra and Balbrc*. Italy is filled with monuments, and the 

 ruins of monuments, which aid us in comprehending the former 

 magnificence of that people ; and ancient Rome even now attract! 

 much more of our admiration than the modern. 



The greatest cities of Europe gi?e but a faint idea of that gran- 

 deur, which all historians unanimously ascribe to the famous city 

 of Babylon, which being fifteen leagues in circumference, was en- 

 compassed with walls two hundred feet in height, and fifty in 

 breadth, whose sides were adorned with gardens of a prodigious 

 extent, which arose in terasses one above another, to the very 

 summit of the walls ; and for the watering of those gardens they 

 had contrived machines, which raised the water of the Euphrates 

 to the very highest of those terrasses ; a height equalling that to 

 which the water is carried by the machine of Marly. The tower 

 of Belus, arising out of the middle of a temple, was of so vast a 

 height, that some ancient authors have not ventured to assign the 

 measure of it ; others put it at a thousand paces. 



Ecbatane, the capital of Media, was of immense magnificence, 

 being eight leagues in circumference, and surrounded with seven 

 walls, in form of an amphitheatre, the battlements of which were 

 of. various colours, white, black, scarlet, bine, and orange ; but 

 all of them covered with silver or with gold. Persepolis was also 

 a dty, which all historians speak of as one of the most ancient 

 and noble of Asia. There remain the ruins of one of its palaces, 

 which measured six hundred paces in front, and still displays th 

 relics of its ancient grandeur. 



The lake of Mrcris is likewise a striking proof of the vast un- 

 dertakings of the ancients. All historians agree in giving it above 

 an hundred and fifty leagues in circuit; yet was it entirely the 

 work of one Egyptian king, who caused that immense compass of 

 ground to be hollowed, to receive the waters of the Nile, when it 

 overflowed more than ordinary, and to serve as a reservoir for 

 Catering Egypt by means of its canals, when the overflowing of 

 the river was not of height sufficient to enrich the country. Out 

 of the midst of this Lake, arose two pyramids, of about six hun. 

 dred feet in height. 



* It is proper to remark tliat tin- temples and immense palaces of Palmyra, 

 wliose magnificence Mirpasso all other buildings in the world, appear to have 

 been built at the lime wbeii architecture was in its decline. 



