Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/385

 Bk. IV. Ch. V. TOMBS. 353 ^ "."^'^"'T TV' of which, had it been more important, or had it stood alone, would have been intelligible enough ; but what are the side turrets ? If one might hazard so bold a conjec- ture, I would suggest that the original from which this is de- rived was a five-turreted tomb, like that of Aruns (Woodcut No. 176), or that of Alyattes at Sardis, which in course of time became translated into so foreign a shape as this ; but where are the intermediate forms ? and by whom and when was this change effected ? Before forming any theories on this subject, it will be well to consider w:hether all these buildings really are tomlis. Most of them undoubtedly are so ; but may not the name el Deir, or the Convent, applied by the Arabs to one of the principal rock-cut monuments of Petra, be after all the true designation ? Are none of them, in short, cells for priests, like the viharas found in India ? All who have hitherto visited these spots have assumed at once that everything cut in the rock must be a tomb, but I am much mistaken if this is really the case with all. To return, however, to the Khasne. Though all the forms of the architecture are Roman, the details are so elegant and generally so well designed, as almost to lead to the suspicion that there must have been some Grecian influence brought to bear upon the work. The masses of rock left above the wings show how early a specimen of its class it is, and how little ]n"actice its designers could have had in copying in the rock the forms of their regular buildings. A little further within the city is found another very similar in design to this, but far inferior to it in detail and execution, and showing at least a century of degradation, though at the same time presenting an adaptation to rock-cut forms not found in the earlier examples. A third is that above alluded to, called el Deir. ' This is the' same in general outline as the two former — of an order neither Greek nor Roman, but with something like a Doi'ic frieze over a very jDlain Corinthian capital. In other respects it presents no new VOL. I. — 23 233. Section of Tomb at Khasn6. (From La- borde's "Blount Sinai," p. 175.)