A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present DayFergusson, James
History
A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- History
As before mentioned, p. 158, we have fortunately in the tomb of Cyrus at
Pasargadæ (Woodcuts Nos. 84-86) a stone copy of these temples; in this
instance, however, so small that it can hardly be considered as more
than a model, but not the less instructive on that account. Like the
Birs Nimroud, the pyramid consists of six storeys: the three upper of
equal height, in this instance 23½ inches; the next two are equal to
each other, and, as in the Birs Nimroud, in the ratio of 26 to 15, or 41
inches. The basement is equal to the three upper put together, or 5 ft.
9 in., making a total of 18 ft. 4 in.[75] The height of the cella is
equal to the height of the basement, but this may be owing to the small
size of the whole edifice, it being necessary to provide a chamber of a
given dimension for the sepulchre. In the larger temples, it may be
surmised that the height was divided into four nearly equal parts; one
being given to the basement, one to the two next storeys, one to the
three upper storeys, and the fourth to the chamber on the summit.
There is one other source from which we may hope to obtain information
regarding these temples, and that is, the bas-reliefs on the walls of
the Assyrian palaces. They drew architecture, however, so badly, that it
is necessary to be very guarded in considering such representations as
more than suggestions; but the annexed woodcut (No. 54) does seem to
represent a four-storeyed temple, placed on a mound, with very tolerable
correctness, and if the upper storey had not been broken away the
drawing might have given us a valuable hint as to the form and purposes
of the cella, which was the principal object of the erection. Its
colouring, too, is gone; but the certain remains of symbolical colours
at Borsippa and Khorsabad confirm so completely the Greek accounts of
the seven-coloured walls of Ecbatana that with the other indications of
the same sort extant that branch of the inquiry may be considered as
complete.
[Illustration: 54. Representation of a Temple. (From a Bas-relief from
Koyunjik.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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