Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/70

 12 COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE. 5. Peviod of Foreign Doiiiiiiaiioii (Dynasties XXI. -XXV.), B.C. 950-663. 6. The Late Egyptian Period (Dynasties XXVI.-XXX.), b.c. 663- 332. This period includes the Persian Domination. 7. The Grcrco-Roman Period, B.C. 332-a,d. 640 : i. Alexander the Great and Ptolemaic Period, b.c 332-30. ii. The Roman Period, b.c 30-A.D. 395. iii. The Bysantine Period, a.d. 395-640. 8. MedicFval Egypt (Mahometan Period), a.d. 640-1517. 9. Modern Egypt (Turkish Domination), a.d. 151 7 to the present time. This section of the book deals with the architecture comprised in periods 1-7. For periods 8 and 9 see pages 653, 659. The nineteenth dynasty, founded by Ramesesl. (b.c 1400- 1366), may be taken as the most brilliant epoch of Egyptian art. The evidence of his greatness, and that of his grandson, Rameses II. (b.c 1333-1300), as builders, is to be seen in the Temples of Thebes and elsewhere. During the twenty-sixth dynasty the country was conquered by the Persians in b.c 527, from whom it wasv/rested in b.c 332 by the Grecian general, Alexander the Great. On Alexander's death and the division of his empire, Egypt passed to Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, who founded a dynasty that ruled from b.c 323 to b.c 31. After the wars which ended in the death of Cleopatra, Egypt passed, as did nearly the whole of the then known world, into the hands of the conquering Romans, and became a Roman province. On the spread of Mahometanism, in a.d. 638, Egypt was conquered by the Arabs, who left important monuments (see Saracenic Architecture, page 659). In A.D. 1 51 7 it became a part of the Turkish dominions. 2. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER. In the valley of the Nile, the land which is the gift of a great river, and the seat of the most ancient civilization, a primitive architecture of mud or puddled clay and bundles of reeds changed in later times to a style of stone and granite. The primitive structure was composed of bundles of reeds bound together and placed vertically in the ground at intervals, the angle bundles being of greater strength. Joining these reeds, at the top, were laid horizcntally otlier bundles, which bound the heads of the uprights together. The origin of the characteristic cornice (No. 10 j), is held to be due to the pressure of the clay, of which the primitive roofs were constructed, on the upright reeds, which formed the framework of the walls. This formed the slightly projecting cornice, the reeds keeping the rammed clay in a projecting position and allowing the curve to be terminated by a Hal lillet which gave the level of the terrace. The jambs and