Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/360

 338 HISTORY OF ART IN PIUKNICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. retained by scarps ; one of these is shown in our woodcut, which represents the part of the wall abutting on the north-western gate. The present height of the wall itself, varies between 16 and 35 feet ; it is built of roughly squared blocks of grey limestone ; of these the largest are about 40 inches long and 30 high. They are fixed without cement, but the wider joints are filled up with small stones. There is not the slightest sign of mortar. The most remarkable thing about this rampart as a piece of masonry, is the pains taken by the builder to preserve his horizontal courses in spite of the roughness of his units. In other respects the setting of the stones is not good ; the vertical joints often FIG. 238. The Phoenician wall near Banias. coincide. The thickness of the wall varies between i6and 27 feet, so that it would afford standing room for a strong force of defenders, in case of an attempt at an escalade. Even where the wall seems to have lost none of its original heights there is no sign of a parapet of any kind. It must have been built at a time when military engineering was still in its infancy. The only siege machine whose antiquity might equal that of this rampart, is the battering ram, which, as we have seen, appeared in Assyria as early as the eighth century, 1 and against its blows a wall would have to trust only to its mass. The main attack would be directed against the gates, in the hope of forcing them from their hinges. 1 See Art in Chaldaa and Assyria, Vol. I. Fig. 26.