APPENDIX. 



431 



use of both arches and vaults appears, however, to have existed in Greece 

 previous to the Roman conquest, though not to have been in general 

 practice. And the former made use of a contrivance, even before the Tro- 

 jan war, by which they were enabled to gain all the advantages of our 

 archway in making corridors or hollow galleries, and which, in appear- 

 ance, resembled the pointed arch, such as is now termed Gothic. This 

 was effected by cutting away the superincumbent stones at an angle of 

 about 45° with the horizon. 



Of the different forms and curves of arches now in use, the only one 

 adopted by the Romans was the semicircle ; and the use of this constitutes 

 one leading distinction between Greek and Roman architecture, for by its 

 application the Romans were enabled to execute works of far bolder con- 

 struction than those of the Greeks : to erect bridges and aquaeducts, and 

 the most durable and massive structures of brick. On the antiquity of 

 the arch among the Egyptians, Mr. Wilkinson has the following remarks: 

 " There is reason to believe that some of the chambers in the pavilion of 

 Remeses III., at Medeenet Haboo, were arched with stone, since the de- 

 vices on the upper part of their walls show that the fallen roofs had this 

 form. At Saggara, a stone arch still exists of the time of the second Psa- 

 maticus, and, consequently, erected six hundred years before our era ; nor 

 can any one, who sees the style of its construction, for one moment doubt 

 that the Egyptians had been long accustomed to the erection of stone 

 vaults. It is highly probable that the small quantity of wood in Egypt, 

 and the consequent expense of this kind of roofing, led to the invention of 

 the arch. It was evidently used in their tombs as early as the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth dynasty, or about the year 1540 B.C. ; and, judging 

 Irom some of the drawings at Beni Hassan, it seems to have been known 

 in the time of the first Osirtasen, whom I suppose to have been contempo- 

 rary with Joseph." — Manners and Customs of the Anc. Egyptians, vol. ii., p. 

 116, 117, 1st series. 



The entrance to the great Pyramid at Gizeh is somewhat similar in form 

 to the arches found in Yucatan ; it consists of two immense granite stones 

 of immense size, meeting in a point and forming a sharp angle. 



Of the accompanying plates, No. 2 represents the arches in the walls of Ti- 

 ryns, copied from Sir W. Gell's Argolis; No. 3, an arch (called Cyclo- 



