Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/295

 Bk. III. Ch. II MODE OF LIGHTING TEMPLES. 263 Egyptian temples,^ but externally requiring such a change of arrange- ment as was necessary to adapt it to a sloping instead of a flat roof. This seems to have been effected by countersinking it into the roof, so as to make it in fact 3 ridges in those parts where the light was admitted, though the regular slope of the roof was retained between these openings, so that neither the ridge nor the continuity of the lines of the roof was interfered with. This would effect all that was required, and in the most beautiful manner ; it moreover agrees with all the remains of Greek temples that now exist, as well as with all the descriptions that have been handed down to us from antiquity. This arrangement will be understood from the section of the Par- thenon (Woodcut No. 150), restored in ac- cordance with the above explanation, w h i c h agrees perfectly with all that remains on the spot, as well as with all the accounts we have of that celebrated tem- I'le. The same svstem, , , .,-,.,■ ' _ - 150. Section of the Parthenon. Scale 30 ft. to 1 in. applies even more easily to the great hexastyle at Pa?stum and to the beautiful little 151. Part Section, part K:ievatioii, of Gieat leiuple at Af^riyenluiu. Scale 5U ft. to 1 in. Twenty-five years is probably not long enough time to allow of a new theory being adopted; but as my proposal cer- tainly does meet both the artistic and literary exigencies of the case better than any other that has been put for- ward, in another quarter of a eentury it may probably timl its way into books on architectiu-e, or earlier if I die in the meanwhile. 1 See Woodcuts Nos. 21, 23, 26.