Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/99

 FUNEREAL ARCHITECTURE. 83 back to the eighth century B.C., whilst the more recent may be coeval with Alexander and his immediate successors. The monument deserving of this high place of honour may be described as a sculptured frontispiece cut in the face of a vertical wall of tufa 20 m. high, bounded on one side by an immense chasm where the road passes, and on the other by rocky masses which close the ravine called Doghanlou Deresi (Hawk Valley). It is a rectangular table, n m. 74 c. by 12 m. 50 c., separated from the rough portions of the rock by a shallow groove, the crowning member being a very low triangular pediment. A device composed of a double volute, the centre of which has disappeared, appears above the tympanum. The remaining parts, including the ornament and the inscriptions, are in a marvellous state of preservation. The lettering on the left describes an oblique line on the virgin rock, almost parallel to the slope of the frontal ; that to the right runs from top to bottom in a vertical line on the outer edge of the upright. Finally, pierced in the face of the slab, is a false door or niche, framed by triple jambs with a slight inward slope, and in retreat one from the other, the effect of which is to deepen and narrow the opening towards the top a contrivance taken up again by the builders of the Romanesque and Gothic style of architecture. The second lintel or architrave rests upon rectangular saliences or bracket-like shapes (Fig. 49). 1 If from the main and more striking lines we pass on to details, we shall find that the fagade is wholly covered with geometrical forms, either graven or in relief, be it on the flat pilasters, the horizontal fascia, under the coping of the roof, and even the field of the tympanum. A star-like pattern, composed of four lozenges whose centre is marked by a smaller lozenge, surrounds the frontispiece. Under the gable are, first a row of squares of larger calibre, then other two rows of smaller ones, placed edge-wise so 1 We have intentionally had the false door drawn on a larger scale than the rest of the monument, because it was inadequately figured in Texier's book, and from him reproduced in many works. The plate in question, however, is on the whole better than the vast majority to be found in his volume, and has but two inexactitudes : one is his having placed the vertical inscription on the virgin rock, when it should be on the outer edge of the jamb ; whilst his shadows are all too strong, giving a depth to the niche which it does not possess in reality. Again, there never was here a funereal bed, as shown in his sketch ; whilst the meander pattern right and left of the door widely differs from that traced by his pencil.