DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25500#0055
WESTERN ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE.
25
hundred years after, the Turks, a barbarous people pour-
ing in from the east, settled in the country, which is at the
present moment in a desolate state owing to Turkish misrule.
2. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER.
The appearance of the monuments must be entirely left
to the imagination : one can only guess at the effect of the
towering masses of the palaces, planted on the great mounds,
and approached from the plains by broad stairways. The
colossal winged bulls of the portal led to an audience-
chamber paved with carved slabs of alabaster. Here a dado,
twelve feet high, of sculptured slabs, of a soft grey colour,
was surmounted by a wall lining of glazed and brightly
coloured brickwork, wrought in friezes of men and animals;
over all was probably a beamed roof of cedar, through which
small openings gave a sufficient illumination.
3. EXAMPLES.
WESTERN ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE
can be divided into three tolerably distinct periods. Of
these the first is the Babylonian period or Chaldsean
period (b.c. 2234-1520), which is essentially a temple-
building epoch.
THE FIRST OR BABYLONIAN PERIOD.
Principal remains :
Temple of Birs Nimroud near Babylon.
Temple at Khorsabad.
According to Colonel Rawlinson’s investigations the
temple of Birs-Nimroud was dedicated to the seven heavenly
spheres.
In Chaldaea every city had its temple, and attached was
the “ziggurat” (meaning holy mountain), which was a temple
observatory, with the temple on the top platform, from
which observations could be made.
25
hundred years after, the Turks, a barbarous people pour-
ing in from the east, settled in the country, which is at the
present moment in a desolate state owing to Turkish misrule.
2. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER.
The appearance of the monuments must be entirely left
to the imagination : one can only guess at the effect of the
towering masses of the palaces, planted on the great mounds,
and approached from the plains by broad stairways. The
colossal winged bulls of the portal led to an audience-
chamber paved with carved slabs of alabaster. Here a dado,
twelve feet high, of sculptured slabs, of a soft grey colour,
was surmounted by a wall lining of glazed and brightly
coloured brickwork, wrought in friezes of men and animals;
over all was probably a beamed roof of cedar, through which
small openings gave a sufficient illumination.
3. EXAMPLES.
WESTERN ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE
can be divided into three tolerably distinct periods. Of
these the first is the Babylonian period or Chaldsean
period (b.c. 2234-1520), which is essentially a temple-
building epoch.
THE FIRST OR BABYLONIAN PERIOD.
Principal remains :
Temple of Birs Nimroud near Babylon.
Temple at Khorsabad.
According to Colonel Rawlinson’s investigations the
temple of Birs-Nimroud was dedicated to the seven heavenly
spheres.
In Chaldaea every city had its temple, and attached was
the “ziggurat” (meaning holy mountain), which was a temple
observatory, with the temple on the top platform, from
which observations could be made.