Architecture. D'Anvers N.
only a marvel of constructive skill, but is by many authorities considered to be a most accurately designed astronomical observatory.
The Pyramids consist of masses of admirably squared and polished stones, in certain cases supplemented with bricks piled up in the form of a rectangle around a sepulchral chamber, the entrance to which was most carefully concealed. When the body of the monarch had been placed in it the tapering mound above it was finished off with huge facing blocks, that were skilfully worked into the angle required and finally levelled to a smooth surface.
Near the Pyramids of the kings are the tombs, known as Mastabas, of their wives and children and of the great officers of state. They are constructed of stone, are square or oblong in form, and their walls are adorned with paintings of scenes from contemporary life, the whole reminiscent of earlier timber structures. Later tombs are those hewn out of the living rock at Beni Hassan and elsewhere, dating from about 2500 B.C., with porticoes upheld by columns resembling those of Greek temples and flat or curved roofs, the latter suggestive of the principle of the arch having been known to those who excavated them.
It was between 1600 B.C. and 1110 B.C. that the Egyptians reached their highest point of civilisation, and it was during that period that were erected the magnificent Theban temples, of which those at Karnak and Luxor, which were connected by an avenue of colossal sphinxes, are the finest still remaining. The plan of all Egyptian temples of whatever size was the same: a horizontal gateway flanked on either side by masses of masonry of considerably greater height than it, known as pylons, their surfaces enriched with symbolic carvings, giving access to a square space open to the sky, and partly surrounded with cloisters, leading into a noble hall of huge dimensions, its flat roof upheld by columns, some with capitals resembling lotus buds, others representing the head of the goddess Isis. Beyond this hall were a number of small dark rooms, the use of which has never been ascertained, enclosing within them the nucleus of the whole, the low narrow mysterious cell or sanctuary in which was enshrined the image of the god to whom the temple was dedicated. Outside these noble buildings were ranged obelisks, or four-sided tapering-pillars of great height, covered with hieroglyphics commemorating the triumphs of the kings, and colossal figures, few of which remain in situ, which added greatly to the dignity of the appearance of the whole.
To the same period as the temples of Thebes belong those of very similar general design hewn out of the sides of the mountains of Nubia, of which the best example is the larger of the two at Ipsambul, specially noteworthy for the huge seated figure of the monarch for whom it was built, the great Rameses II, guarding the entrance to it. The tombs of the Theban rulers, like the Nubian temples, were hewn out of the living rock, and are many of them, notably those known as the Tombs of the Kings and the Tombs of the Queens in the plains watered by the Nile, of vast extent, labyrinths of passages, alternating with large rooms, leading to the actual sepulchral chamber.
Of considerably later date than any of the buildings referred to above are the temples of Denderah, Edfou, and Philæ, erected after the conquest of Egypt by the Greeks, but they all resemble those of the Theban dynasty in general style, whilst that at Esneh is a good example of the results of Roman influence.
Very great is the contrast to Egyptian architecture presented by the Asiatic buildings that have been preserved to the present day. In the former stone was the usual material employed, and the mode of construction was as a general rule that known as the post and lintel, whilst in the latter brick was almost exclusively used, and the arch was a distinctive feature. The so-called Babylonian or Chaldean, Assyrian, and Persian styles resemble each other so greatly that they may justly be said to belong to one type, evolved by the inhabitants of the extensive region watered by the Euphrates and Tigris, who like the Egyptians attained to a very advanced civilisation at a remote period. Of the temples not a single one has been preserved, but the remains have recently been excavated, in the mounds on the site of Babylon, of four that consisted of numerous chambers enclosing a large court with towered gateways, whilst at Assur another has been uncovered of a somewhat similar design. To atone for the lack of temples many Asiatic palaces have been to some extent reconstructed, the most remarkable being those unearthed near the villages of Nimrod, Khorsabad, and Koyunjik, all supposed to be relics of Nineveh. They originally consisted of lofty many-roomed structures raised on high platforms, and entered from arched gateways flanked by colossal winged bulls of stone. The brick walls were encased in alabaster slabs carved with figure subjects in low relief, some of which are in the British Museum, and galleries, rising from columns with capitals that foreshadowed Greek forms, admitted air and light freely. The Palace of Nebuchadnezzar has also recently been identified, and must when uninjured have been an immense castle-like pile with a vast number of courts and halls to which a paved way led up.
Tombs and palaces are the chief relics of Persian architecture. Many of the former, notably that near Murghab, supposed to have been the sepulchre of Cyrus, resemble Greek temples in general style, whilst others are rock-cut and recall the Mastabas of Egypt. Of the palaces those at Persepolis were the most remarkable, for in them Persian architecture reached its fullest development. Their ruins, that rise from a platform some forty feet high hewn out of the surface of the living rock, to which long flights of steps led up, consist of vast columned halls entered from detached porticoes known as propylæa. When intact the largest of these halls, named after Xerxes, must have exceeded in size the cathedrals of Canterbury or Winchester.
Other noteworthy relics of early Asiatic architecture are the tombs of Lycia, Phrygia, and Lydia. The first named—of which the so-called tomb of the Harpies now in the British Museum is a typical example—are all either cut in the living rock or carved out of detached masses of stone, in either case recalling in their general appearance the log-huts of prehistoric times. More ornate than those of Lycia, the Phrygian sepulchral monuments, of which the grave of Midas at Doganlu is the finest, are also rock hewn, but their shape and decoration are more suggestive of the tent than the wooden dwelling, whilst those in Lydia are comparatively primitive, being in some cases, notably in the Tumulus of Tantalus on the Gulf of Smyrna, mere masses of stone heaped up above a huge mound.
The most ancient examples of Indian architecture are the Stambhas or Lâts, the earliest dating from the time of Asoka (272-236 B.C.), that are pillars bearing inscriptions and surmounted by a symbolic animal such as an elephant or a lion, of which there is a good specimen at Allahabad, and the Stupas or Topes, mounds encased in masonry, crowned by a reliquary containing memorials of Buddha or of his chief disciples, and enclosed within a stone railing elaborately carved with scenes from the life of the founder of Buddhism, with an even more ornate gateway at each of the four corners, of which the finest is the larger of two at Sanchi in Central India. Even more interesting than the Lâts and Stupas are the Viharas or Buddhist monasteries, of which there is a specially good example at Nigope near Behar, and the Chaityas or temples, of which those at Karli, Ellora, Ajunta, and Elephanta are amongst the finest. All alike hewn out of the living rock, the former consist of a square central hall with or without columns, surrounded by cells for the monks, whilst the latter, of more complicated design, resemble in general plan a Roman basilica. A wide nave with rows of massive pillars upholding a slightly domed roof is flanked by lateral aisles, and at the eastern end rises a semicircular sanctuary containing a seated figure of Buddha.