Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/587

 CHAP. III. DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, 483 second example, also in white marble, with nine arches, in Pekin, and a third at Pusilanghi across the Hun-ho river, of immense length, having a balustrade of vertical slabs between posts or piers, with lions carved on each, the whole structure being in white marble. Their most remarkable engineering work is certainly the Great Wall, which defends the whole northern frontier of the country, extending over hill and dale for more than 1200 miles as the crow flies. It is, however, of very varying strength in different places, and seems to be strongest and highest in the neighbourhood of Pekin, where it has generally been seen. by Europeans. There it is 20 ft. in height, and its average thick- ness is 25 ft. at the base, tapering to 15 ft. at the summit. There are also towers at short distances whose dimensions are generally about double those just quoted for the wall. 1 However absurd such a wall may be as a defensive expedient, it proves that at least in 200 B.C. the Chinese were capable of conceiving and executing works on as great a scale as any ever undertaken in Egypt. The wonder is, that a people who 2000 years ago were competent to such undertakings should have attempted nothing on the same scale since that time. With their increasing population and accumulating wealth we might have expected their subsequent works to have far surpassed those of the Egyptians. It, however, remains a problem to be solved, why nothing on so grand a scale was ever afterwards attempted. In the rear of the Great Wall, in the Nan-kau Pass, there is an archway of some architectural pretension, and which is interesting as having a well-ascertained date, A.D. 1345.2 Its dimensions are considerable, and it is erected in a bold style of masonry (Woodcut No. 508). The upper part is a true arch, though it was thought necessary to disguise this by converting its form into that of a semi-octagon, or three-sided arch. On the keystone is a figure of Garuda, and on either side of him a Naga figure, with a seven-headed snake hood, and beyond that a class of flowing tracery we are very familiar with in India about the period of its erection. Its similarity to the Nepalese gateway at Bhatgaon (Woodcut No. 160) has already been remarked upon, and altogether it is interesting, as exemplifying a class of Indian ornamentation that came into China from the north. If we had a few specimens of art penetrating from the south, we might find out the secret of the history of Buddhist art in China. 1 An interesting series of photographs of the Great Wall have been reproduced in Dr. Wm. Edgar Geil's work, 'The Great Wall of China,' 1909. 2 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. vii. p. 331 ; N.S. vol. v. pp. 14, et seqq.