MONUMENTAL REMAINS. 56l 



feet in height, and derives its name from its having a china or por. 

 celain.coating. Of its founder, antiquity, or the cause of its erection, 

 we have no information. It was the Portuguese who first gave 

 to these edifices the name of pagodas, and attributed them to 

 devotional purposes; but there can be little doubt that in many 

 instances they have been ra\her erected as public memorials or 

 ornaments, like the columns of the Greeks and Romans. 



[Editor. 



SECTION XVII. 



Colossus of Rhodes. 



Tins enormous building has justly been classed among the won- 

 ders of ancient architecture. It was a vast structure of brass, or 

 statuary metal, erected in honour of Apollo or the sun, the tute- 

 lary god of the island; whose stride was fifty feet asunder, each 

 foot being placed on a rock at this distance from each other, and 

 which bounded the entrance into the haven : its height, according 

 to Pliny, was not less than a hundred and five feet, or seventy cu- 

 bits; and hence ships of considerable burden were capable of 

 sailing between its legs. It is said to have been erected by the 

 Rhodians with the money produced by the sale of the engines of 

 war which Demetrius Poliorcetes employed in fruitlessly besieging 

 the city for a twelvemonth, and which he gave to them upon his 

 reconciliation. Pliny affirms that it was commenced by Chares 

 of Lindas, a disciple of Lysippus, and finished upon his death by 

 Laches of the same town. It was thrown down by an earthquake 

 fixty years after its completion. [Plin. Enseb. Editor. 



SECTION XVIII. 



Italian Monuments and Architecture. 



ITALY, like Egypt, abounds so largely with magnificent ruins 

 and relics of different ages, that we can only indicate a few of the 

 most singular or most celebrated. 



From the former we may select for description the famous cam- 

 panill or leaning tower, erected in a square close to the great 

 church at Pisa. It is composed wholly of white marble, and was 

 built for the purpose of containing the bells. Its height is about 

 two hundred feet, and its inclination nearly fifteen feet from the 



VOL. YJ. 2 o 



