Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/421

 SUBORDINATE TYPES OF THE TEMPLE. 393 second) with a square niche at one of its extremities (fin the first plan, d in the second). This niche was paved with a single slab of alabaster, of considerable size and covered upon both faces with a long inscription describing in detail the reign of the prince by whom the temple was consecrated. In the larger of the two buildings the slab in question was twenty-three feet four inches long and seventeen feet eight inches wide ; its thickness was twelve inches. Upon it stood, in all probability, the statue of the god. The niche must, in fact, have been the secos, or sanctuary properly speaking. The large oblong hall was the naos or cella. In the larger temple its length vas forty-six feet seven A FIG. 188. Plan of a. small temple at Nimroucl from Lay arc! . Fu;. 189. Plan of a small temple at Nimroucl; from Layarcl. inches. It was preceded by a pronaos or vestibule (Fig. 188, c). We have no evidence as to the purpose of the chamber marked g in our plan. It has a direct entrance of its own from the outside (k). The small temple is rather less complicated. Two door- ways (b and/) lead immediately into the principal hall or naos. A small chamber (e) behind the sanctuary was, perhaps, a kind of storeroom or sacristy. It should be noticed that in the little temple the doors into the naos were so placed that the image in the sanctuary could not be seen from without. 1 In both buildings 1 The doors are so arranged that in neither temple can the naos be seen by one standing outside the building. Ed.