Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward : $b in MDCCCXXI. and MDCCCXXII., comprehending an account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica; and of the ancient cities composing the pentapolisBeechey, Frederick William
History
Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward : $b in MDCCCXXI. and MDCCCXXII., comprehending an account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica; and of the ancient cities composing the pentapolis
Beechey, Frederick William
Sidra, Gulf of (Libya); Tripoli (Libya) -- Antiquities; Tripoli (Libya) -- Discovery and exploration
[Footnote 4: The pycnostyle is the least intercolumniation allowed
by Vitruvius, and is one diameter and a half of the column at
the bottom of the shaft; but neither this proportion, nor that of
the systyle, which is equal to two diameters of the column, are
recommended by him for general adoption: since “the matrons (he
adds) who go to their supplications, mutually supporting each other,
cannot pass through the intercolumniations (those of the pycnostyle
and systyle dimensions are intended) unless they separate and walk
in ranks. The view of the entrance, and of the statues themselves,
is also obstructed when the columns are placed so little apart; and
the ambulatory, whose width is governed by the interval between the
columns, is inconvenient from its being so narrow.”—Wilkins’s
Vitruvius, vol. i. p. 11, 12.]
[Footnote 5: “The temples of the gods ought to be so placed that
the statue, which has its station in the cella, should, if there be
nothing to interfere with such a disposition, face the west; in order
that those who come to make oblations and offer sacrifices may face
the east, when their view is directed towards the statue: and those
who come to impose upon themselves the performance of vows, may have
the temple and the east immediately before them. Thus the statues
they regard will appear as if rising from the east and looking down
upon the suppliants.”—(Wilkins’s Vitruvius, vol. i. p. 79.)]
[Footnote 6: The most ancient position of temples appears to have
been east and west, with the entrance, or frontispiece, towards the
west; and the statue of the deity looking towards the same point;
so that they who worshipped should have their faces turned towards
the rising sun. The contrary aspect was, however, adopted at an
early period, and appears to have been universal in later ages
whenever local causes did not interfere with such an arrangement.]
[Footnote 7: The closely-drawn girdle of the ladies of antiquity,
like the snood of the Scottish maidens, was symbolical of an
unmarried state; and to loosen it was part of the nuptial ceremony.]
[Footnote 8: The height of the upper range from the level of
the sea, as obtained by Captain Smyth from a sea base, was 1575
feet.—The dip of the visible sea horizon, repeatedly measured
by us with a theodolite from the summit, was 42′ 00″, which,
adding ¹⁄₁₄ for terrestrial refraction, gives 2003 feet for
the height—the mean of these, which we have adopted, is 1805 feet.]
[Footnote 9: We may add, that the circumstance of being obliged to
reduce our drawing (which is a large one) to the size of a quarto
plate, has, at the same time, operated to its disadvantage, as
might naturally indeed have been expected.]
[Footnote 10: It must be recollected that these façades were merely
representations of porticoes, and that the columns did not project
farther from the surface than half their own diameter.]
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