Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/257



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HISTORY OF THE USEFUL AND POLITE ARTS. (Continued from page 136.)

and the arts were known in Egypt before they penetrated into the regions bordering on the Euphrates, where Babylon was the source and center of civilization. The ancient historians speak with admiration of several monuments of Babylonian architecture: Herodotus, in particular, extols, as an eye- witness, the prodigious size and magnificence of the temple of Belus. According to his account, it was built in the form of a pyramid of very great extent and height, containing a large temple below, and a smaller in the upper part. This form and disposition perfectly correspond with the style of architecture which was introduced subsequent to the period of subterraneous temples, for Indian pagodas, and which still prevails in those countries.

As the country round Babylon, to a great distance, has neither timber, limestone, nor quarries of any kind, the Babylonian edifices were constructed only of bricks cemented with bitumen, and therefore were tar inferior in durability and skill to those of the Egyptians: the columns too, in the former, were nothing but the trunks of palm-trees. But it was this very want of large stones for building that occasioned the invention, by the Babylonians, of the art of turning arches, which was unknown to the Egyptians. The principal decorations of the Babylonian edifices were cast of ''No. IV. Vol. I.'' Dd