Pliny says that Babylon was sixty miles in circumference, that its walls were two hundred feet high and fifty thick ;* which height and thickness seem improbable; but its length may be correct, as Herodotus assures us that it was four hundred and eighty furlongs in circumference, that it was fuli of magnificent structures, and that it had a hundred gates of brass,† which proves that the fusion and mixture of metals were known, and that various arts dependent on design were even practised.+ All ancient historians agree that a splendid palace was erected at Babylon, by Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, in which she caused the images of all kinds of animals to be sculptured in bold relief on the walls, and which were coloured after nature. These figures they say were more than four cubits high. In the middle appeared Semiramis, piercing a tiger with her dart, and near her, her husband Ninus, slaying a lion with his lance. In another part of the same palace were the statues of Jupiter Belus, Ninus, Semiramis, and her principal officers of state.|| From this statement, it appears that splendid architecture and the arts were early known and practised among the * Plin. lib. v. c. 26. + Herodotus's description of Babylon shows that it consisted of an exterior wall with turrets, and a second wall within of less width; houses of three or four stories high, forming streets straight and parallel. The temple of Jupiter Belus wes a square pyramidal structure within the enclosure and solid tower, measuring a stadium both in width and height, upon which was a second, then a third, then a fourth, and so on to the number of eight; the ascent being by an inclined path on the outside of the tower, with resting stairs midway, and the summit crowned by a large temple to Belus.-(Diod. 178. 180.) Diod. lib. ii. p. 114. 120. § Friezes of cornices containing birds and animals, depicted in various colours, have been discovered in Egypt, where the colours are as fresh as if just done, though no doubt upwards of two thousand years old; they have been brought to this country and are now to be seen in the British Museum.-(B.) It was Nebuchadnezzar who improved and aggrandized Babylon, until it became that great and magnificent city which the ancient world regarded with equal wonder and admiration; though the Greek writers attribute this wonderful rise to two queens, Semiramis, who lived before him, and Nitocris, who reigned after him. But the native historian Berosus, together with Megasthenes and Abydenus, expressly attribute it to this great monarch. Indeed, these could only have been accomplished after the fall of Nineveh, and when Babylon had become the seat of a great empire, neither of which events happened till the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Of this golden city in its palmy state, we observe that the Euphrates passed through it, dividing it into two parts, of which that on the western side of the river exceeded in magnificence, and comprehended most of the new improvements. According to Herodotus, the city, as a whole, was a perfect square, each side of which was equal to one hundred and twenty stadia, and consequently its circuit to four hundred and eighty, which (Greek stadia being of course intended) would make not much less than fifty miles. This extent may seem enormous, but when we see how our own metropolis is spreading around, and may be expected at no very remote period to reach the same dimensions, and still more, when we are told that the city was very scantily built, and much of the ground enclosed by the walls was left vacant or laid out in cultivated fields and gardens, it may very well be doubted whether it contained a population equal to that of the present London, or comprehended as large a number of buildings. However surprising therefore the account may seem in the first instance, it is much less incredible than has sometimes been supposed. A deep ditch, lined with brick-work and full of water, surrounded the city; and as the soil dug out from it furnished the bricks with which the wall was built, some idea of its capacity may be formed from the alleged dimensions of the wall, which was two hundred royal cubits high by fifty in thickness. These bricks were baked in a furnace, and cemented with hot bitumen. In the wall there were a hundred gates, twenty-five on each side; all these gates were of solid brass, and of prodigious size and strength; besides which there were in the wall lining the river, smaller gates of the same metal, from which steps conducted down to the stream. Between every two of the great gates there were three watch-towers, ten feet higher than the walls, with four such towers at each of the four angles of the wall, and three more between each of these angles, and the next adjoining gate on either side. There were, however, but two hundred and fifty towers in all, as there were none on that side next the morasses, rendered unnecessary by the protection which they afforded. This grand square was divided into twenty-five grand streets, which intersected each other, dividing the city into six hundred and twenty-six squares. Each of these streets passed quite across the city in a straight line, extending from a principal gate on one side to another on the opposite side. The vast squares, formed in so extensive a plot by the intersection of the streets, were not built upon but left void, and laid out in fields, gardens, and pleasure-grounds; and besides this, the houses which lined at the same time the streets and the squares, stood much apart from each other, which serves to show how thinly the city was built. The houses are noticed by Diodorus Siculus, Herodotus, and Strabo as being three or four stories high, and adorned with all the splendour and magnificence of oriental taste. But what is all this sumptuous magnificence! Babylon, in consequence of her idolatry, and her king Nebuchadnezzar plundering the temple of Jerusalem of its golden vessels, and leading the ten tribes into captivity, was doomed to fall. Thus saith the Scriptures: (see Jeremiah, 1. 44. 53): "I will punish Bel in Babylon, Though Babylon should mount up to heaven," (alluding, perhaps, to the tower of Babel,)" and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord." Thus we see its doom was settled and afterwards fulfilled by the Medes and Babylonians, Chaldæans, and Assyrians; the latter even disputed the palm of antiquity with the Egyptians, their formidable rivals in the glory of erecting stupendous edifices.* The Babylonish buildings, which were discovered by the most early travellers, Herodotus and Strabo both assert that they were in the Egyptian character, particularly their sculptures. Those people were compelled to use bricks,† as their country possessed no stone, and of which material the walls of Babylon were built, a work which has been chronicled among the seven wonders of the world: its equal was Nineveh.‡ But what is the result of those works of human greatness? The Assyrian empire has fallen, Babylon and Nineveh are no more; the materials of those structures being fragile, they are crumbled into dust, and the latter city entirely swept away by the besom of time. Babylon is infested with dangerous reptiles, and the thistle and the rank grass have sprung up and now wave over its prostrate walls.§ Persians under Cyrus, while Belshazzar was king of Babylon. It was besieged for two years, and at last taken by stratagem. Cyrus had been informed by one of the natives that the river passed through the city, and that it might be turned off from its course by sluices, and that there was to be a great annual festival kept in the city at a certain time, when the inhabitants were accustomed to spend the night in all manner of debauchery and drunkenness. He thought this offered a good opportunity: he therefore addressed his troops before he turned the river from its course, by which he was enabled to enter the city at each end, in which he alluded to their principal danger: he said that if the inhabitants retired to the house-tops, the best course would be to spoil their doors by setting them on fire, as their porches were very combustible, being made of palm-wood and coated with bitumen. Towards evening he opened the stream-dam of the trenches communicating with the river, by which means the stream was diverted from its proper course, and the channel soon became fordable. The Persians entered at each end, and the city was taken by surprise. (Herodotus, Clio, 191; Xenophon, Cyrop. vii. 5.) The Tower of Babel, a stage structure, still exists in ruins, although its architectural features are entirely obliterated. —(Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia.) + Genesis, xi. 3. The Babylonish bricks were usually twelve inches square by three inches in thickness, and on them were portrayed characters and animals: see Ezekiel, iv. i. As to the history of Nineveh, it appears to have been founded by Assher and enlarged by Ninus II., B.C. 1250, when it became the greatest city in the world, and wealthiest in the East. The best account which we possess is that furnished by Diodorus, who states, that Ninus having surpassed all his ancestors in the glory and success of his arms, resolved to build a city of such state and grandeur; that it should not only be the greatest then in the world, but such as no sovereign coming after him should be easily able to exceed. Accordingly, having brought a vast number of his forces together, and provided the necessary treasure and everything which his design required, he built near the Tigris a city very famous for its walls and fortifications. It was on the plan of a parallelogram, its length being one hundred and fifty stadia, its breadth ninety, and the circumference four hundred and eighty. Diodorus says that the founder was not deceived in his expectations, for no one ever after built a city equal to it for the extent of its circumference, and the stateliness of its walls. These were one hundred feet high, serrated or with zig-zag battlements, and so wide, that three chariots might be driven upon them abreast. There were one thousand five hundred towers upon the walls, all of them two hundred feet high. Ninus appointed the city to be chiefly inhabited by the richest of the Assyrians, but freely allowed people from all nations to dwell there. He also granted to the citizens a large surrounding territory, and gave his own name, Ninus, to the city. (Diod. ii. 1.) It may be added, that Strabo and other ancient writers say, that Nineveh was more extensive than even Babylon. If we compare the dimensions assigned by Diodorus to Nineveh, with those which Herodotus, and Pliny after him, gives to Babylon, this is not true; both have four hundred and eighty stadia of circumference. But if we take any other measurement of Babylon than that of Herodotus, its circuit becomes ten or twelve miles less than that which Diodorus gives to Nineveh; for Ctesias makes the circumference of Babylon but three hundred and sixty stadia; Clitarchus, three hundred and sixty-five; Clintis, three hundred and sixty-eight; and Strabo, three hundred and eighty-five. Its circuit therefore appears to have been between forty-eight and sixty miles, spreading over an area nearly six times the size of that of London. We are not to suppose that the whole of this vast enclosure of Nineveh was built upon, any more than that of Babylon. It was no doubt thinly built, with the houses much apart as at Babylon, and contained extensive plantations, parks, gardens, fields, and open grounds, as did the same city, and as the larger oriental towns still do. Moscow is built in this manner. FALL OF NINEVEH.-As to the fall of Nineveh, which city Jonah prophesied against, and which was afterwards accomplished, it was merely performed by the revolt of the Babylonians and Medes, who came up against it. We are told by Diodorus, that in the plans for the defence of the city, the king of Assyria was greatly encouraged by an ancient prophecy, that Nineveh should never be taken until the river became its enemy. But that after the allied revolters had besieged the city for two years, without effect, there occurred a prodigious inundation of the Tigris, when the stream overflowed its banks, and rose up to the city, and swept away about twenty furlongs of its great wall. When the king heard this unexpected fulfilment of the old prediction, he was filled with consternation and despair; he gave up all for lost, and that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies, he caused a large pile of wood to be raised in his palace, and heaping thereon all his gold, silver, and apparel, and collecting his eunuchs and concubines, caused the pile to be set on fire, whereby all these persons, with himself, his treasures, and his palace were utterly consumed. § See Isaiah, xiii. 19. : and an interesting work, Keith on the Prophesies. L ARCHITECTURE OF THE EGYPTIANS. This kingdom was founded by Menes, the son of Cham, and grandson of Noah, about the time the kingdom of Assyria was founded by Nimrod, which people have continued in a direct descent to this day. As Egypt is styled the cradle of the sciences, and as the Egyptians (whose works still remain) were supposed by some to have been the inventors of architecture, it is but justice to give them due credit for that sublime genius with which they were endowed-a genius that operated from the earliest period, when the present world was in its infancy—and to aim in all things, as they did, at the grand and sublime, and to be intent on real systems and beauties, without deviating in the least from that noble simplicity, in which the highest perfection of the art consists. Yet it cannot be supposed that we can trace the origin and progress of the domestic architecture of this people at this period of time from its source, without sufficient remains or authorities. Herodotus, the father of history, and who visited Egypt, has described their temples but not noticed their domestic structures; and Manetho, who is the only native Egyptian historian known to us, has not given us the least account of their form or plan, and the structures themselves are now all crumbled into dust, unless we can suppose those to have been primitive dwellings which Belzoni discovered buried in the sands, and which he says were flat on the top, and covered with layers of canes, bitumen, and brick, resting on joists of the palm-tree.* In those he also discovered staircases, which implied that they were more than one story high. Diodorus Siculus affirms that they were four and five stories as early as the times of their founder.+ That the houses in Egypt were generally built of brick material we have the authority of Scripture, for we find the Jews, in the time of Moses, were compelled to make bricks for Pharaoh under cruel taskmasters.+ * As the fishermen had brought their hatchets, I caused two or three of these houses to be uncovered, and then removing the layer of bricks we found a layer of clay, and then a layer of canes, which were nearly burnt, and, lastly, under the canes, some rafters of wood forming the ceiling. (Belzoni's Researches in Egypt, vol. ii. p. 159.) The roofs of the oriental houses were always flat, and as the people of the East walked on them, Moses gave to the Israelites orders to have them battlemented on the side towards the garden as well as towards the street, to prevent the loss of life. (See Deuteronomy, xxii. 8.) Those roofs, we are informed by travellers who have seen them, are generally composed of reeds, branches, and twigs, fixed over the rafters; the whole trodden into a somewhat compact mass, and covered externally with earth, clay, or plaster, more or less tempered in different countries, and sufficiently calculated, with proper care, to keep out the infrequent rains of climates naturally dry. As the roof is much resorted to by the people on various occasions, particularly to enjoy the cool of the evenings, and to sleep in the open air during the summer nights, a parapet, to prevent the danger of a fall, is evidently necessary; in fact, most eastern houses have parapets built with brick or mud, and of various heights, from three to six feet, which not only prevents this danger, but serves, in some degree, of privacy to his open bedchamber. The houses of the ancient Greeks and Romans were also built with flat roofs, so that we read of their walking and taking the air upon them, and also standing there to see the show and public processions. Indeed, the custom of sleeping on the house-top was not unknown, or the danger from their being without parapets. The accident which happened to Elpenor, in Homer (Odyssey, x.) might easily occur in an oriental house wanting a proper defence on both sides of the roof. This person, + Diod. Sic. lib. i. s. 45. 66 Seeking cooler air, which, overcharged With wine, he needed, on the palace roof Newly arisen, he also sprang to rise, And in his haste, forgetful where to find The deep-descending stairs, plunged through the roof; That shock, his neck-bone parting at the joint, Sustain'd not, and his spirit sought the shades."-(Cowper's Translation.) There is a small model of an Egyptian house in the British Museum of three stories high; the walls inclined inwards, so that the house is narrower at the top than below; the walls are rusticated, to show alternate white and black stones, and the house has a flat roof. There are three windows on a side, latticed, and a door near the angle to each front.-(B.) + Exodus v. All the bricks in Egypt at this early period were burnt by the sun, or sun-baked; not in kilns or In the grand description by Denon, the French architect, who visited Egypt, are plans of private houses at Karnac, near Thebes ;* these, if original-which is hardly probable-appear to have been quadrangular like our colleges, with rooms on the four sides of the enclosed court. In the centre of the square, in one of them, are columns situated round a well or oblong cistern. At the present day, however, the Egyptian houses, or rather those of the Mamelukes, have windows in the groundfloors facing the highways, a custom by no means usual in the East; and in the quadrangular court there is a corridor all round, with windows over each door for lighting the rooms within. The upper part of the houses is generally set apart for pigeons, which are kept here by thousands. The Nubians and modern Egyptians, Wilkinson says, frequently imitated in their houses the inclined style or sloping sides, peculiar to the Egyptian temples which he saw in the sculptures at Thebes.‡ Thebes, the origin of which city is veiled in the obscurity of time, contained, perhaps, the most astonishing assemblage of edifices ever erected by the hands of men-although those ancient cities are more to be considered for their public buildings and the immense walls which surrounded them, than for their private dwelling-houses. The circumference of the walls round Thebes is said to have been thirty miles, and of immense thickness and height. Homer says it had also a hundred gates. "Thebes' unrivall'd walls contain The world's great empress § on the Egyptian plain, (Homer's Iliad, Book ix. 504.) When the French invaded this country during the late war, under Bonaparte, and were on their march round a mountain, the army, on first beholding the scattered ruins of Thebes, halted of its own accord, and the soldiers, with one spontaneous movement, clapped their hands.|| As to the palace which once existed at Thebes, in all its pomp, splendour, and glory, we may form a tolerable idea of its magnificence (says Mr. Wilkinson) from the sculptures in the ruins of clamps; nor were they the property of private individuals, as in England, but were the property of the Egyptian government, acting under Pharaoh, and which were a great source of profit to the revenue. They were always stamped with the king's or with a pontiff's name, (which people always composed his government,) and many of them had figures of animals and birds on them, and various creeping things, which were depicted in various colours.-(Wilkinson's Thebes.) * Denon's Egypt, vol. iii. pl. 16. + Belzoni's Researches in Egypt. Wilkinson's Egypt, p. 480. The greatest opponent to any deviation from the prescribed rules of Grecian art, (which we shall treat of after Phoenician architecture,) cannot fail to take a lively interest in the study of the Egyptian school, where it merely from the circumstance of its having been the supposed parent of that refined Academy where exquisite taste was once manifested, and which, at last, ennobled the name of Corinth and of Athens. Had superior talents been unrestrained by the shackles of superstitious regulations, forbidding the smallest deviation from prescribed rules in sculpture as unpardonable profanation, what might we not have further expected? According to Synosius, the profession of artist was not allowed to be exercised by any common or illiterate person, lest they should attempt anything contrary to the laws and regulations regarding the figure of the gods; and Plato (in this second book of Laws) says, "They never suffered any statuaries or painters to innovate anything in the art, or to invent any new subjects or new habits. Hence the art and the rules of it remain the same, but it rose to that perfection which the student of nature can alone attain. In spite of all the defect of Egyptian art, it has at least the great merit of originality. The character of the animals of their country, whether quadrupeds, birds, or fish, must be allowed by every one to be faithfully maintained; and if their statues, such as that of Memnon, with others of an earlier period, cannot be considered the result of refined taste, it will at least be admitted that the perfection they aimed at in engraving their hard porphyry-stone, intimates wonderful ingenuity as well as perseverance, and testifies the advanced state of Egyptian sculpture at a most remote period."-(Dr. Memes.) § Cleopatra. li Denon's Egypt. Although Thebes had greatly fallen from its former grandeur at the time of Cambyses, (the Persian general,) it was the fury of this merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur, about five hundred and twenty years before the Christian era. He pillaged its temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, and silver, and ivory, which were abundant. At this period no city in the world could be compared with it in size, beauty, and wealth.—(Volney's Ruins of Empires.) their great temple. In front it appears two lodges formed that part of the spacious entrance, before which was a raised platform, strengthened by masonry, and on an appropriate part was the name of the founder of the edifice. After passing the lodges, you arrived at a lofty building resembling a pyramidical tower on either hand, between which ran an oblong court, terminated by a pylon or gateway, which passed beneath the chambers of the inner or north side. At this gateway were ornamented balustrades, supporting four figures or African and northern barbarians; and the summit of the whole pavilion was crowned with a row of shields, which were the battlements of Egyptian architecture. A dromes of two hundred and ninety-five feet led to the main edifice, and the north-west, whose front was formed of two lofty pyramidical towers, or propylea with a pylon, or entrance doorway between them. The whole of this edifice constituted the pavilion of the king; and, in addition to several chambers of the inner or north side, which still remain, several others stood at the wings and in the upper part, which have been destroyed. The sculptures on the walls of their private apartments are the most interesting, as they are singular in stories of decorations, that adorn the interior of an Egyptian palace. Here the king is attended by his harem, some of whom present him with flowers, and wave before him fans and flabella; a favourite is caressed or invited to divert his leisure hours with a game similar to chess: but they are all obliged to stand in his presence, and the king alone is seated on an elegant fauteuil amidst his female attendants, a custom still prevalent throughout the East.* Lucian in describing the banqueting-hall of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, affords some interesting intimations of the diversity of the rich materials employed, of which ivory was the chief, in the interior decorations of the Egyptian houses: he also describes the practices of inlaying : "Rich as some fane by lavish zealots reared, (Pharsalia, x. 119 et seq.) * Wilkinson's Egypt. Among the most considerable and singular works which have ever been conceived by the Egyptians, must be reckoned their labyrinth, which the Greeks afterwards imitated in the well-known labyrinth of Crete, by Dædalus. Herodotus, lib. ii. p. 148, attributes the construction of the labyrinth at Egypt to the twelve kings whe reigned at the same time, about six hundred and eighty years before the Christian era. This edifice, which Herodotus had visited and examined very closely, he affirms to have surpassed everything that he could have imagined, and which he thus describes: "Within one and the same circuit of walls was contained twelve magnificent palaces, regularly disposed, and communicating with each other. These palaces contained three thousand halls, twelve of which were of a particular form and beauty. Half of the halls or chambers were interspersed with terraces, which ranged round the twelve principal halls, communicating with each other, but by so many turnings and windings, that without an experienced guide it was impossible to escape being lost and bewildered to discover an outlet. The other half were underground, cut out of the rock. Herodotus assures us that he visited all the apartments above ground, but those which were subterraneous they would not, from motives of superstition, permit him to enter, which some are of opinion contained the sacred mummies." (See Capt. Wilford's Asiatic Res. vol. iii. p. 425.) The halls of this dodecagon palace had an equal number of doors, six opening to the north and six to the south, and at each angle of the external walls was erected an immense pyramid for the sepulchre of its founders. The whole of the walls and ceilings of this labyrinth of buildings were of white marble, and exhibited a profusion of sculpture; and each of the before-mentioned galleries or terraces was supported on columns of the same marble.—(Herodotus' Hist.) |