DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.794#0014
'II
10
of the former has fallen in, but the portal is entire. A considerable part of it has been concealed by the subsequent
elevation of the soil, so that only six layers of stones (which arc of regular construction) can be discriminated above ground.
Of this still visible part, the entire height is seven feet and a half; the breadth of the door at top is eight feet; it widens
towards the base. Its height is probably at least twenty feet. The lintel is a single block, fifteen feet four inches in
length, six feet three inches in breadth, and three feet three inches in thickness: its weight consequently cannot be less
than twenty-four tons. The whole edifice is of white marble, which must have been conveyed from a considerable distance.
Several perforations for nails are seen at the sides of the entrance, as at the Treasury of Atre'us. I was enabled to obtain
an approximation to the diameter of the Minycian Treasury by means of the lintel of the gate, which, on the interior, being
the segment of a circle, gave, at this level, the diameter of sixty-five feet; but the soil having accumulated, and the building
being thereby increased in breadth at its base, its real diameter must be some feet more; which shows it to have been of
much larger dimensions than the Treasury of Atreus.—1st Vol. 8th Chap.
- No. XIV.
GATE OF THE ACROPOLIS OF ORCHOMENOS.
Three styles of early construction are visible in the walls that enclose the acropolis of Orchomenos. The rough
Tirynthian style is discerned only in a few places: the polygonal is predominant, and the walls appear to have experienced
at least two great overthrows. According to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, * Orchomenos was destroyed by Hercules.
A similar catastrophe awaited it in the war against the Thebans that happened about three hundred and sixty-four years
before Christ
The walls characterised by the earliest style were probably constructed before the time of Hercules; and those which
indicate the second style, or well-joined polygons, were erected after the early destruction of the citadel; and the more
regular restorations must have been subsequent to the demolition of the city by the Thebans, as they resemble those parts
of the walls of Plata; which we know to have been raised by Alexander.
The acropolis of Orchomenos appears to have possessed three gates: one was at its eastern base, near the lower town;
one on the northern side; and Urn other in the southern wall. Of the first there are no remains; the second is without its
lintel; and the third is represented in the present View: it diminishes upwards, and is covered by its lintel, composed of
two large blocks.—1st Vol. 8th Chap.
10
of the former has fallen in, but the portal is entire. A considerable part of it has been concealed by the subsequent
elevation of the soil, so that only six layers of stones (which arc of regular construction) can be discriminated above ground.
Of this still visible part, the entire height is seven feet and a half; the breadth of the door at top is eight feet; it widens
towards the base. Its height is probably at least twenty feet. The lintel is a single block, fifteen feet four inches in
length, six feet three inches in breadth, and three feet three inches in thickness: its weight consequently cannot be less
than twenty-four tons. The whole edifice is of white marble, which must have been conveyed from a considerable distance.
Several perforations for nails are seen at the sides of the entrance, as at the Treasury of Atre'us. I was enabled to obtain
an approximation to the diameter of the Minycian Treasury by means of the lintel of the gate, which, on the interior, being
the segment of a circle, gave, at this level, the diameter of sixty-five feet; but the soil having accumulated, and the building
being thereby increased in breadth at its base, its real diameter must be some feet more; which shows it to have been of
much larger dimensions than the Treasury of Atreus.—1st Vol. 8th Chap.
- No. XIV.
GATE OF THE ACROPOLIS OF ORCHOMENOS.
Three styles of early construction are visible in the walls that enclose the acropolis of Orchomenos. The rough
Tirynthian style is discerned only in a few places: the polygonal is predominant, and the walls appear to have experienced
at least two great overthrows. According to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, * Orchomenos was destroyed by Hercules.
A similar catastrophe awaited it in the war against the Thebans that happened about three hundred and sixty-four years
before Christ
The walls characterised by the earliest style were probably constructed before the time of Hercules; and those which
indicate the second style, or well-joined polygons, were erected after the early destruction of the citadel; and the more
regular restorations must have been subsequent to the demolition of the city by the Thebans, as they resemble those parts
of the walls of Plata; which we know to have been raised by Alexander.
The acropolis of Orchomenos appears to have possessed three gates: one was at its eastern base, near the lower town;
one on the northern side; and Urn other in the southern wall. Of the first there are no remains; the second is without its
lintel; and the third is represented in the present View: it diminishes upwards, and is covered by its lintel, composed of
two large blocks.—1st Vol. 8th Chap.