§76. 



EARLY ARCHES IN GREECE. 297 



of them is in the polygonal masonry of the walls of (Eniadae 

 in Acarnania (Leake, N. Greece, iii. p. 560; Mure, i. p. 

 109; and Mon. Ined. pi. 57); another at Ephesus, in poly- 

 gonal masonry (Canina, pi. cl.) ; another at Xerokampo, near 

 Sparta, also with polygonal masonry about it (Mure, ii. p. 248 ; 

 and Mon. Ined. Ann. Inst. 1838, p. 140); and Mr. Falkener 

 found an arch in the polygonal walls of (Enoanda, in the 

 Cibyratis north of Lycia, with Greek inscriptions. The arch 

 too of most perfect construction was employed by the Etrus- 

 cans at least as early as the age of the kings of Rome, " in 

 the 7th century B.C." (see Canina, part ii. p. 17); and Diodo- 

 rus (ii. 9) describes a tunnel under the Euphrates at Babylon 

 which was arched, of brick cased with bitumen, and twelve 

 feet in span throughout. 



Those semicircular roofs formed by the overlapping of 

 layers of stone, into which the curve of the vault was often 

 cut, were of a still earlier period, though used also at the same 

 time with the arch ; but they were false arches, and have no 

 more pretensions to be classed with the real ones than many 

 conical constructions of early times, such as the so-called tomb 

 of Agamemnon (or Treasury of Atreus), the nuraghe of Sardi- 

 nia, and similar monuments. It is remarkable that they are 

 met with not only in Egypt, in Etruria, in Greece, in Pelasgic 

 towns of Italy and Greece, but at Palenqui, in Central Ame- 

 rica, affording one of many examples of man's supplying his 

 wants in the most distant regions in the same way. And, 

 indeed, instead of wondering whenever we find men alike, we 

 should rather feel surprised that they often have so little 

 resemblance to each other in different parts of the world. 



I have stated that in the earliest arches the bricks were 

 placed lengthways, with the idea of making those large sun- 

 baked bricks extend at once over the greatest possible space ; 

 and this is a sufficient proof that the ancient Egyptian arch 

 was not derived from the summit of a primitive round hut ; 



