by 140 feet. In the centre of one of the sides is the entrance between two sloping towers, 100 feet in length by 32 feet in width, on the surface of which are represented some colossal figures; and above these are two rows of smaller ones, supposed to be the divinities of the temple, receiving the offerings of the Ptolemies. Within is a court, surrounded by a colonnade on three sides, and on the side facing the entrance is a beautiful pronaos or portico, of eighteen columns: beyond this is another of smaller dimensions; and further on are the walls which protect the sanctuary and its dependencies: these are so completely filled up with sand and soil, that it is nearly impossible to reach them. All the columns, friezes, and cornices, and the whole surfaces of the walls, inside as well as out, both of the pronaos and court, are covered with symbolical sculptures, hieroglyphical inscriptions, and representations of offerings to their divinities. Of all the works of the ancient Egyptians, those which have caused the greatest wonder to the world at large are the Pyramids of Gizeh, supposed by Sir Gardner Wilkinson to have been erected 2120 years B. C.* Herodotus dates the Great Pyramid about 900 years B.C., or about 450 years before he visited Egypt. Chevalier Bunsen places them about 2000 years before that period; and this is confirmed by the opinions of Champollion and Rosellini. The Great Pyramid, said to have been built by Cheops, † is 700 feet square at the base, and 470 feet in height; the second is 650 feet square, and 160 feet in height; the third, 400 feet square, and 160 feet in height. About 300 paces from the second pyramid stands the gigantic statue of the Sphinx, whose length, from the forepart to the tail, has been found to be 125 feet. Belzoni cleared away the sand, and found a temple between its legs, and another in one of its paws. The mechanical skill of the Egyptians is shown in their quarrying and working stone; and the means that must have And attributed by him to Suphis and Sen-suphis. been used to convey such immense blocks of stone as we find in their works, from quarries situated at a distance from them, naturally surprise us. The obelisks of Thebes and Heliopolis vary in size from 70 to 93 feet in length,* and are built of one stone. The largest in Egypt, which is at the great temple at Karnac, is calculated to weigh 297 tons, and was brought about 138 miles from the quarry. Those at Heliopolis passed over a space of 800 miles. The two colossal statues in a sitting attitude (one of which is the vocal Memnon), are each of a single block, 47 feet in height, and contain 11,500 cubic feet: they are carved from stone not known within several days' journey from the place where the statues are found; and at Memnonium is a colossal statue, which, when entire, weighed 887 tons. The raising of the obelisks is considered a far greater test of mechanical skill than the transport of these prodigious weights; but into the mode that was adopted we have no insight from any representations yet discovered. Of the taste, style, and character of Egyptian Architecture, little can be said beyond admiration at the immensity of the works, and the patience with which they must have been accomplished. The masses of material which the country produced measured their efforts and conceptions, and their invention was exhausted by a very restricted number of combinations. Their monuments are admirable for grandeur and solidity, and they have a truly imposing effect; but we can only consider them as part of the history of Architecture and Art, because the ornaments and sculpture, originating from a symbolical religion peculiar to the Egyptians, admit of no revival, even were art more immediately connected with them. The columns are evidently a representation of a bundle of reeds or lotus-stems, tied together at the top and base, the * Sir Gardner Wilkinson's "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians." leaves of which, as well as those of the palm, are chiefly used in ornamenting the capitals. CHAPTER II. Grecian Architecture. ARCHITECTURE and Art have been always progressive, and have not appeared at once in full perfection; yet, in our admiration of their perfection, we do not always consider the history of their progression, or the sources from whence they sprang. No style, with the exception of the Egyptian, was the spontaneous growth of the soil on which it flourished, or proceeded directly from the nations that practised it; the the germs of all other styles were borrowed from people whose habits and religious customs were totally dissimilar; and its advances or improvements were the natural results of civilization, caused by intercourse with other nations in times of peace, or by the adoption of all that was worthy of imitation in conquered states, during the incessant wars that were carried on in the eastern parts of the world. Thus was it with the much-admired Architecture and Arts of Greece and Rome, so that centuries elapsed ere any thing worthy of those terms was to be found in either empire. Greece was divided into a number of petty states, which, independent of each other, and, therefore, necessarily rivals, surrounded themselves, as a means of protection, with thick walls, long before they had learned the art of building temples, and when their huts or houses were of the rudest character. The first erections were their acropoles, invariably situated on eminences which were converted into citadels, and served for places of security when the population became too numerous to remain in them, and had spread themselves over the surrounding plains. The acropoles usually contained all things of the greatest value to the community, such as the public treasures, the archives, and the temples of the tutelary divinities; indeed, they were to the Greeks what the capitol was to the Romans. The oldest remains of walls and acropoles exist at Tiryns, or Tyrinthus, and Mycenae, near Argus, in the Morea, and are said to have been built by the Cyclopes, a tribe which is supposed to have arrived from Thrace or Phoenicia, and settled in Asia Minor. The date of the masonry is supposed to be coeval with the time of Abraham, who arrived in Canaan B. C. 1917.* Sir William Gell makes the date of the buildings B. C. 1379. All that at present exists of Tiryns consists of portions of the walls of the acropolis, which are from 21 to 25 feet in thickness, aud 45 feet in height, built of tremendous blocks of stone, from 10 to 13 feet long, and 4 feet 4 inches thick. In the thickness of these walls are two ranges of galleries, each 5 feet broad and about 12 feet high: the shape of these passages is triangular, the sides sloping upward until they meet. This form was obtained by making the horizontal courses of masonry project one beyond the other, the edge of each course being splayed off so as to give, from the interior, very much the apppearance of a kind of arch having been constructed. They probably conducted round the whole of the citadel, and were used as shelters for the garrison during the night or bad weather. Mr. Woods† says, that no tool seems to have been applied to the stone, but that the rude masses are merely heaped on one another, taking care in the position of each successive block to place it where it would most exactly fit intothe work, and most probably keeping the smoothest side outwards to form the face of the work. The workmanship of these walls is nothing more than that of the modern fencing without mortar, the interstices between the larger stones being filled up with others of smaller size, unworked, and merely heaped on one another. Pausanias informs us, that when the Argives attempted to destroy Tiryns, the walls were so strong that they could not throw them down: he also describes them * Fosbroke. +"Letters on Architecture," 2 vols. 4to. to be equally worthy of admiration with the Pyramids of Egypt.† The next city connected with Greece that demands our notice, on account of its early fortifications and acropolis, of which parts exist at the present time, is Mycenæ, near Argos, likewise built by the Cyclopes, or by Mycenæus, B. c. 1700, and considerably enlarged by Perseus about B. C. 1390. The walls of this city, like those of Tiryns, are in some places built of rough stones, from 8 to 9 feet in length: when entire, they must have been 60 feet high, although at present, in the most perfect part, their height is only 43 feet. The general thickness is 21 feet, but in some places 25 feet, and they are mostly constructed of welljointed polygonal stone. Some remains of towers are discernible. "The Gate of the Lions" owes its celebrity to the bassorelievo by which it is surmounted, the subject of which is two lions, with their fore-paws resting on a pedestal: from this the gateway takes its name. This sculpture (on a triangular stone over the architrave) is the most ancient specimen of this kind of Grecian art; it is 10 feet 6 inches wide at the base, and 9 feet in height: between the lions is a semi-circular pillar, bearing some resemblance to the Doric Order, although, contrary to the general usage, it increases in size from the bottom to the top. The date of this sculpture is supposed by some to be nearly coeval with the other part. Pausanias mentions, that in his day it was reported to be the work of the Cyclopes: however this may be, there can be little doubt but that it is the oldest specimen of Grecian sculpture now existing. The architrave over this gate is of one stone, 15 feet long, and 4 feet 4 inches in height, and in it are visible sockets of about 3 inches in diameter, which received the pivots upon which the gates turned. † Sir William Gell states, that on the centre of the architrave of the gates are holes, which leads him to suppose that the gates were hung from large central pivots, so that one side opened inwards, while the others advanced. |