The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 565, September 8, 1832Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 565, September 8, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
The whole temple, with its attached buildings covers an area of
1,332 feet by 936, (according to others 1,230 feet by 960,) and is
surrounded with a brick wall[9] 30 feet high and 7 thick, round which
there is another wall furnished with bastions. The four entrances are
under as many pyramids, which, up to the top of the portal, 30 feet in
height, are formed of free-stone, ornamented with sculptured figures.
Above the portal, the pyramid is built of tiles or bricks, to the
height of 150 feet, with a coat of cement upon it, which is covered
with plates of copper, and ornaments of baked clay. On passing through
the chief portico of the western propylaea, we see on the left an
enormous hall with more than 1,000 pillars, which are above 36 feet
high, and covered over with slabs of stone; this hall might have
served as a gallery for the priests to walk about in, just like
the hypostyle halls of the Egyptian temples. In the midst of these
columns, and surrounded by them, is a temple called that of eternity.
On the right or south side, we see the chief temple, with halls of
several hundred pillars at the east and west end, also supporting a
flat roof of stone. The pagoda itself rests on a basis 360 feet long
and 260 broad, and rises to a surprising height. It is formed of
blocks of stone 40 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 5 thick, which must
have been brought, about 200[10] miles, as there are no stone quarries
in the neighbourhood. The temple has a peristyle round it; and
thirty-six of the pillars, which are placed in six rows, and form
the portico, support a roof of smooth blocks. The columns are 30 feet
high, and resemble the old Ionic pillar. The whole pyramid surpasses
in size St. Paul's church in London, the latter being only 474[11]
feet long and 207 wide. The roof of the pyramid has a copper casing
covered with reliefs referring to mythical subjects; the gilding which
was once on it is still visible. In the middle of the courtyard there
is a great tank, surrounded with a gallery of pillars and also an
enclosure round it of marble, well polished and ornamented with
sculptures and arabesques. In the eastern part there is still another
court surrounded with a wall, on the inside of which is a colonnade
covered with large slabs of stone. Here also there is a pagoda, which
is but little inferior in size to the larger one; but it contains only
large dark chambers covered with sculptures, which have reference
to the worship of certain deities, particularly Vishnu. The interior
ornaments are in harmony with the whole; from the nave of one of
the pyramids there hang, on the tops of four buttresses, festoons of
chains, in length altogether 548 feet, made of stone. Each garland,
consisting of twenty links, is made of one piece of stone 60
feet long; the links themselves are monstrous rings 32 inches in
circumference, and polished as smooth as glass. One chain is broken,
and hangs down from the pillar. In the neighbourhood of the pagodas
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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