ARCHITECTURE. 30 
may once have contained a bas-relief similar to that of the Gate of the Lions, 
or perhaps was only introduced for the sake of ventilation, and with the 
intention to relieve the pressure on the lintel. The construction of the circular 
room is remarkable, consisting of many horizontal rows of stones placed 
above each other, in circles of gradually reduced diameters, whilst. their 
inner surfaces are smoothed off to form a parabolic line (pl. 8, fig.8). The 
diameter of the floor is 48 feet, the height 387 feet, 2 inches. The walls 
have probably been decorated with bronze panels, as there are numerous 
bronze nails among the rubbish, and here and there holes drilled in the 
walls, and in the joints between the stones. The rock-cut chamber is at the 
right hand side from the entrance ; it is rectangular, 27 feet, 10 inches long, 
23 feet, 6 inches wide, and a little over 12 feet high. Some fragments of 
marble ornaments found in the passage which leads to the main building 
have induced some persons to suppose them the decorations of the entrance 
door, and Donaldson has tried to put them together and restore them; but 
the style of these ornaments proves beyond doubt that they belong to a more 
‘recent period than the exquisite simplicity of style of the building itself. 
They therefore probably formed part of some other building in ancient 
Mycene. 
To the period of Pelasgian and Cyclopean structures belongs also a tem- 
ple on the island of Gozzo, known as the Giganteja, or the tower of the 
giants. It was first described in 1836 by Count de la Marmora, and is one 
of the most important structures of the numerous ones wrought by the 
Pheenicians when they introduced their religion into Greece, Sardinia, Malta, 
Spain, and the Balearic Islands. We have illustrated it on pl. 8, where 
jig. 10 represents the ground plan, jig. 9 a section corresponding to the 
line F c in fig. 10, and jig. 11 a section corresponding to the line ur 
in jig. 10. i 
The two temples, jig. 10, a and B, are surrounded by an immense wall 
constructed of irregular blocks of stone, partly upright, in part horizontal. 
Each temple is formed. by five somewhat irregular semicircles opening in 
a centre nave; both have only one elevation with the entrances = and p. 
The inside walls, as well as the floors, were covered with stone slabs, some of 
which are still in their places atx. Similar flagstones of elliptical shape are 
lying in front of the entrance o, at r. The depth of the larger temple, 
Fe, is 78 feet, its greatest width, ur, 70 feet, and in Kt, it is 49 feet wide. 
In the first hall of the temple, on the right hand side of the entrance, stand 
several upright stone blocks, which surround the sanctuary, to which a few 
steps lead, the first of which is semicircular, and has had a railing, of 
which traces are left. Between the two steps at a, is a vacant space which 
was occupied by the sacred threshold, which must not be troddenupon. The 
background of this hall is covered with large stone plates. Here ascends 
the sanctuary. b, composed of upright stones, surmounted by horizontal stone 
slabs, and containing in the centre a conical stone, the symbol of Venus of 
Paphos, to whom the temple was consecrated. The corner stone is intended 
to represent the creative power, Phallus, or Lingam of the Indians. The 
division of this hall at x, opposite the former, contains the ruins of a very 
35 
