Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/152

 72 OFF TO DERBENT

backed by a curtain of stone, springs up a dozen feet behind it, filling the other side of the doorway and completing the double masking. The cross stones, which support this curtain and discharge their thrust upon imposts on either side, are locked firmly in position by a curiously notched block which does service as a keystone. The fact that well-curved arches are used in the construction of both the inner and the outer door- way, as in the case of the other great gateway, in the northern wall, a picture of which I also reproduce, is significant, as is explained in the footnote below. ^ The span of the main arch is about seventeen feet between the two columns that support its sides. 2 The shafts of these piers are round, and they are topped by carved capitals ; while on either side there opens inward a narrower arch or niche surmounted by a slightly honeycombed design, a later development of which is found in the familiar honeycomb capping that occurs as a decorative finish of arches in all Muhammadan-Persian architecture. The bow of the great arch, which is slightly pointed, shows, fur- thermore, an artistic rim with a square framing, and is set off above by an arc of stones whose graceful sweep attracts the eye to the loophole slits in the parapet, through which the warriors cast their missiles in ancient days, while an easy flight of steps in the rear still allows one to mount to the sentinel top. The doors that close the portal are of heavy beams, ten inches thick,

yard is characteristic also of the other line of ramparts, as contrasted with

gateways found in the wall that runs the vaulted arches dans les partes de

back into the Caucasus from Derbent, Derbend ; owing to this absence of

as we learn from Bestuchef-Marlinsky, vaulted arches and the lowness of the

whose description, written in 1832, is towers, he is probably right in surmis-

quoted by Dumas, Le Caucase^ 1. 302. ing that the wall as a whole may be

See also the next footnote. anterior in date to the sixth century of

iThe Russian officer Bestuchef- our era ; see Dumas, op. crt. 1. 302. Marlinsky, who inspected the con- 2 jn rough figures the measure-

struction of the wall far back into the ments of the entire gate are approxi-

mountains, in 1832, as stated in the mately : height, 48 ft. ; breadth, 29 ft.,

preceding footnote, draws attention to or 17 between the pillars, which are

the absence complete d^ arches in the about 2 ft. thick, with niches 4 ft.

gates found in the extension of the wide on each side.

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