Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/99

 WESTERN ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE. 4I Ionic-like scrolls (No. 13 g), or of the double-bull or double-horse types (No. 13 a, c). The Hypostyle Hall of Xerxes (b.c. 485), probably used as a throne room, and having no enclosing walls, occupied an area larger than the Hypostyle Hall at Karnac, or any Gothic cathedral except Milan. Ic originally had seventy-two black marble columns, 67 feet in height, arranged in a somewhat novel manner supporting a flat roof. Of these only seventeen now exist, and have capitals either of brackets and volutes, or formed of a pair of unicorns or bulls ; the bases are bell-shaped (No. 13 A, c, g) and the shafts are fluted with fifty- two flutes. Susa has important remains in the palaces of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, from which splendid examples of colored and glazed brickwork have been excavated, especially the frieze of lions and the frieze of archers in which the figures, about 5 feet high, are now in the Louvre, Paris, and give a good idea of the glazed and colored work of the Persians. The Tomb of Darius, Naksh-i-Rustam, near Persepolis, has a rock cut facade, reproducing the Palace of Darius, and forming one of four rock-hewn sepulchres of the Akhaemenian kings. In this facjade the columns are of the double-bull type with cornice over, above which are two rows of figures supporting a prayer platform, upon which stood a statue of the king, about 7 feet high, with his arm uplifted towards an image of the god Ormuzd. Jewish Architecture. — The Hebrews apparently borrowed their architectural forms from Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Roman sources. Remains are unimportant, consisting principally of tombs in the valleys near Jerusalem. The only great attempt at a monumental structure was the Temple at Jerusalem. This was commenced by Solomon (b.c. 1012), and the biblical description (i Kings vi., vii., 2 Chronicles iii., iv.) is interesting, portraying entrance pylons, courts, cedar woodwork, metal work, and the isolated brazen columns Jachin and Boaz. The Temple was afterwards added to by Herod (b.c 18), and the site is now occupied by the Mosque of Omar. (Page 659.) 4. COMPARATIVE. A. Plan. — A special character was given to the temples of the early, and the palaces of the later period, by raising them on terraces or platforms some 30 feet to 50 feet in height (No. 12 g), and by grouping the buildings round quadrangles. Whereas the sides of the Egyptian pyramids face the cardinal points of the compass, the angles of the Assyrian ziggurats were so placed. Egyptian temples were designed mainly for internal effect, while Assyrian palaces were designed so as to be effective inter- nally and externally, being raised on the platforms mentioned above.