DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4376#0202
184 RESTORATION OF THE MAUSOLEUM.
lowered in its groove, and the staircase filled np, so
as to preserve the tomb from desecration. This was
probably the chamber into which the Knights broke,
as related by Gkuchard (see ante, p. 76), for the
steps or perron which that author mentions must
have been those of the basement, and not of the
pyramid, as it is impossible that the surrounding
soil could have accumulated to the b eight of 60' or
70' round the tomb. G-uichard states that the
chamber was adorned with coloured friezes, pillars,
capitals, and bases. This description may have been
heightened by tbe excited imagination of the original
narrator, for the chamber could have been of no great
size, or there would have surely been found some
traces of this architectural magnificence.
In the centre of the cella there was probably a
circular chamber, covered by a domical construction,
on the principle of the Egyptian arch, as that would
afford tbe most efficient support to the pyramid.
Below, in the centre of ike podium, I have placed
a similar chamber.
This mode of vaulting was practised, as is well
known, by the Greeks, from the earliest times.
It was also adopted in the singular buildings in
Sardinia called Nur-hags, which are noticed in a
treatise attributed to Aristotle.1 They generally have
one or two vaulted chambers one above the other.
The ambulatory or platform upon which the
1 Pseud. Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. ed. Bekker, Oxon. 1837,
vi. p. 122, § 100. 'F,v tt\ 2aoSot rij vi](rif KaraoTOvaoyiara tyaoiv dvat .
Eie tov TLWiji'iKuv TpoTTOv SiaKelfieva tov ap^aiov, ciXXa re 7ro\Xa rat
mXa rat doXovc Trepuraole to~lq pvduoiQ Ka-aH,Eij[iivovQ. See Delia
Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, Paris, 1839, Ptie ii. pp. 36—159,-
Planches vii.—xiv.
lowered in its groove, and the staircase filled np, so
as to preserve the tomb from desecration. This was
probably the chamber into which the Knights broke,
as related by Gkuchard (see ante, p. 76), for the
steps or perron which that author mentions must
have been those of the basement, and not of the
pyramid, as it is impossible that the surrounding
soil could have accumulated to the b eight of 60' or
70' round the tomb. G-uichard states that the
chamber was adorned with coloured friezes, pillars,
capitals, and bases. This description may have been
heightened by tbe excited imagination of the original
narrator, for the chamber could have been of no great
size, or there would have surely been found some
traces of this architectural magnificence.
In the centre of the cella there was probably a
circular chamber, covered by a domical construction,
on the principle of the Egyptian arch, as that would
afford tbe most efficient support to the pyramid.
Below, in the centre of ike podium, I have placed
a similar chamber.
This mode of vaulting was practised, as is well
known, by the Greeks, from the earliest times.
It was also adopted in the singular buildings in
Sardinia called Nur-hags, which are noticed in a
treatise attributed to Aristotle.1 They generally have
one or two vaulted chambers one above the other.
The ambulatory or platform upon which the
1 Pseud. Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. ed. Bekker, Oxon. 1837,
vi. p. 122, § 100. 'F,v tt\ 2aoSot rij vi](rif KaraoTOvaoyiara tyaoiv dvat .
Eie tov TLWiji'iKuv TpoTTOv SiaKelfieva tov ap^aiov, ciXXa re 7ro\Xa rat
mXa rat doXovc Trepuraole to~lq pvduoiQ Ka-aH,Eij[iivovQ. See Delia
Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, Paris, 1839, Ptie ii. pp. 36—159,-
Planches vii.—xiv.