Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/220

 188 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE. Part I. CHAPTER IV. PERSIA. CHRONOLOGY. DATES. Cyrus founds Passargadse. ., . B. c. 560 Cambyses' l>uildings at ditto 525 Darius builils palace at Persepolls. . 521 Xerxes bui Ids halls at Persepolis and Susa 485 Artaxerxes Loiigimanus 465 DATES. Darius Nothus B. c. 424 Artaxerxes Mnemon repairs buildings at Persepolis and Susa 405 Dtstriction of Persian Empire by Alex- ander 331 THERE still remains a third chapter to write before the survey of the architecture of the central region of Asia is complete — before in- deed a great deal which has just been assumed can become capable of proof. By a fortunate accident the Persians used stone where the Assy- rians used only wood, and consequently many details of their architec- tuic have come down to our day which would otherwise have passed away had the more perishable materials of their predecessors been made use of. Whatever else the ancient world may owe to the learning of the Egyptians, it seems certain that they were the first to make use of stone as a constructive building material. As before mentioned, the Egyptians used a stone proto-Doric pillar at least 1000 years before the Greeks or the Etruscans, or any other ancient people we know of, dreamt of such a thing. The Babylonians and Assyrians never seem to have used stone constructively, except as the revetment of a terrace wall ; and it was not till after the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses that avc find any Asiatic nations using a pillar of stone in arcliitecture, or doing more than building a wall, or heaping mass on mass of this material without any constructive contrivance. The IiKliaiis first learned this art from the Bactrian Greeks, and many civilized Asiatic nations still prefer wood for their palaces and tem))les, as the Assyrians did, and only use stone as "a heap." It must have been difficult, however, for any intelligent people to visit the wonderful stone temples of Thebes and Memphis without being struck by their superior magnificence and durability ; and we con- s(.-<|uently find the Persians on their return, though reproducing their old forms, adopting the new material, which, fortunately for them and for our history, was found in abundance in the neighborhood of their capitals.