FORTIFICATION. 141 



ings must, of course, be very narrow, for the arch had not then been invented, 

 and the ways which were devised to widen these passages are shown in the 

 Spates at figs. 3 and 4, which, although they approach the shape of the arch, 

 have yet nothing of its peculiar principle of support. 



In process of time the stones came to be hewed rectangularly, and thus 

 the wall not only attained a more pleasing appearance, but gained very 

 much in strength and solidity. Fig. 1 shows the first beginning of such 

 walls and the advance made in the gate openings. The most ancient 

 example of bound masonry which has come down to us is in the walls of the 

 city of Mycenae, founded by Perseus (now the hamlet Charvati). These 

 walls were, like those of Tiryns, from twenty to twenty-four feet thick 

 (fig. 5). In these walls is found also the Gate of the Lions, with the oldest 

 example of stone-carving, brought to light in 1842 ; it is represented in 

 our view. The gate is five paces wide, and the large slabs of the floor 

 show wheel-marks ; above it is narrower, and behind it, as well as in 

 several places in the wall, passages are found, covered with blocks of stone 

 leaning gable-wise against each other. Upon the wall ai'e traces of 

 battlements. 



Very soon it was perceived that a long line of wall offered an inefficient 

 defence, and towers were added to this wall, which projected forwards from 

 it, and thus enabled its defenders to get at the enemy at its foot. The walls 

 of Mycenae, indeed, show a tower of this kind, but the arrangement is seen in 

 greater perfection in the walls of the city of Messene, founded by Epami- 

 nondas, 349 years before Christ. PI. 42, fig. 6, shows a portion of the city 

 wall with such a tower ; fig. 9 gives the ground plan of the same, and it is 

 seen that the walls were only faced with hewn stone and filled up within 

 with rubbish. This construction is shown still more plainly in the horizontal 

 section through the window of the tower (fig. 7). Semicircular towers, 

 also, supposed to be of this same period, are found ; fig. 8 gives the ground 

 plan of such a one, said to have been discovered at Sipylos. Fig. 12 gives 

 the ground plan of a portion of the walls of Babylon, showing a peculiar 

 construction of the hewn stone facing with loop holes, mid fig. 13 is the 

 elevation of a gate with its defensive towers. In all these constructions 

 the straight line alone prevails, while the walls of Assos in the ancient 

 Troas (now Bairam) present already traces of arch. Fig. 14 shows the 

 ground plan for part of these walls, with indications of their peculiar con- 

 struction, and exhibits also the manner in which the defence of the gate 

 was especially provided for, it being placed back between two towers, and 

 thus the approach to it narrowed. Fig. 15 gives the elevation of the gate 

 with its two towers. 



An already much improved construction is displayed in the walls which 

 connected the Acropolis of Athens with the harbor of the Piraeus. These 

 walls (pi. 4S,fig. 1, elevation,/^. 2, ground iplan, fig. 5, section of a tower, 

 fig. 3, ground-plan of the upper story of a tower, fig. 4, vertical section 

 through the wall) were laid out in straight lines, and received their flank 

 defence by means of the towers which were carried up above the wall. 

 The upper surface of the wall, 25 feet in breadth, had on the outside 



617 



