No better example of the oriental practice can be found than in the façade of Ctesiphon. The north wing and the face of the great central arch have fallen, but they are preserved in M. Dieulafoy’s photograph[325] (Plate 83). The façade is divided into three zones, but organic connexion between them is lacking. Each zone, in either wing, is subdivided into two horizontal registers. The lower register of the lowest zone consists of wide arches separated by pairs of engaged columns which are carried up to the top of the zone. The width of the intercolumniations bears no relation to the width of the wing; a space remains over at the outer end which is awkwardly filled by two small blind arched niches, placed one above the other. The upper register is occupied by groups of three niches; in each group the central niche is wider than the other two, and each niche is flanked by engaged colonnettes. At the outer end there is no room to complete the pattern, and the outer flanking niche is omitted. The lower zone breaks off abruptly here against a plain pylon-like wall, and at the inner end it is not organically connected with the great archway which forms the centre of the façade. Single engaged columns divide the middle zone into five compartments. They are not placed above the pairs of engaged columns of the lower zone, nor yet in the centre of the lower intercolumniations, but purely in accordance with the dictates of the pattern which covered the middle zone. It, too, is subdivided into two horizontal registers. In the lower register there are five pairs of niches, with three engaged colonnettes between. At the inner end the pair must have been incomplete owing to lack of space; at the outer end the engaged column is omitted for the same reason. In what relation the triple colonnettes stood to the niche arches is not clear. They were not regarded as necessary to the arch, for on the outer side of each pair they are absent, and the same applies to the colonnettes and arches in the upper register of this zone. These groups consist of three niches of equal size, with a pair of colonnettes between the central and the flanking niches. In the third zone the upper of the two registers has almost entirely disappeared; it is obvious, however, that the two registers were not welded together by engaged columns. In the lower register the arched niches, separated by engaged colonnettes, are conceived without any thought of the division of the wall below them, and, from the fragment of the upper register which remains, it would seem that the niches which adorned it were equally independent of the niches of the lower register. Into this confusion breaks the huge central arch, cutting short the pattern at the inner end of the wings just as the pylon wall cuts it short at the outer end. Yet the gigantic size of the façade and the even repetition of the arches in each register gives to the eye a sense of orderly grouping, and draws the