INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



In the British Museum is a model of an Egyptian 

 house consisting of a first floor with pantries and 

 chambers built around a central court, and a stair- 

 case; this staircase leads to a chamber above, of 

 which the second story consists. It is not difficult to 

 see the analogy between this structure and the rect- 

 angular cattle shed. The Egyptian house possessed 

 a portico with massive columns; its doors were mul- 

 tiplied and stained fantastically; the intercolumnar 

 panels which were its walls were decorated; mottoes 

 were painted over lintel and impost; balconies were 

 thrown out; its window-facings were carved. But all 

 this developed logically from a simple court with cham- 

 bers facing inward. 



T}ie Assyrians disguised the same primitive plan 

 by building on terraces as a protection against floods, 

 whence came the first motif of Assyrian architecture. 

 The ruins of the palace of Persepolis, which show 

 the Persian adaptation of the Assyrian style, rise on 

 platforms of rock along the foot of a mountain, and 

 each terrace is surrounded by huge, irregular blocks 

 of marble. A balustraded staircase, twenty- two feet 

 wide and containing one hundred and four steps to 

 the first terrace, gives entrance to the western end of 

 the building. At the summit rise two great pillars 

 with colossal low reliefs. A court with four columns 

 leads to a second portico. At the right of this is a cis- 

 tern hollowed out of the solid rock, into which water 

 was brought by subterranean ducts. Then the stair- 

 case continues, and the terraces repeat themselves in 

 variation of design. 



