DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0156
IMITATION ARCHES OF STONE.
188
(w. iou.)
Tlie oldest stone arches hitherto found in Egypt are of the
same date, or about 600 u c.; all those of earlier time being
false arches, cut in the
thickness of the overlapping
stones: a mode of construc-
tion common also in Italy,
and other countries at a
remote age.
"When they first began
to use stone for real arches
is uncertain; but it was
evidently brick that first led to the invention. And it is a
curious fact that those stone arches at the pyramids of Gebel
Bcrkel, in Ethiopia, imitate the old
system, the blocks being placed
lengthways, like the bricks of the
earliest Egyptian vaults.
To bricks, indeed, various styles
of building were indebted for their
origin; they exerted very great in-
fluence on many kinds of architec-
ture ; and they were the earliest
improvement on that primitive mode of construction, the mud
wall.
The Egyptians seem at first to have been afraid of roofing
large spaces with the arch ; and their vaulted tombs are seldom
more than seven or ten feet in breadth, until the time of the
twenty-sixth dynasty.
The same remark applies to the early pointed arches, built
by the Christians in Egypt, dating about the seventh century,
which are seldom more than two and a half feet in span. They
were only used for covering narrow spaces, as staircases or niches,
(W. 101.)
188
(w. iou.)
Tlie oldest stone arches hitherto found in Egypt are of the
same date, or about 600 u c.; all those of earlier time being
false arches, cut in the
thickness of the overlapping
stones: a mode of construc-
tion common also in Italy,
and other countries at a
remote age.
"When they first began
to use stone for real arches
is uncertain; but it was
evidently brick that first led to the invention. And it is a
curious fact that those stone arches at the pyramids of Gebel
Bcrkel, in Ethiopia, imitate the old
system, the blocks being placed
lengthways, like the bricks of the
earliest Egyptian vaults.
To bricks, indeed, various styles
of building were indebted for their
origin; they exerted very great in-
fluence on many kinds of architec-
ture ; and they were the earliest
improvement on that primitive mode of construction, the mud
wall.
The Egyptians seem at first to have been afraid of roofing
large spaces with the arch ; and their vaulted tombs are seldom
more than seven or ten feet in breadth, until the time of the
twenty-sixth dynasty.
The same remark applies to the early pointed arches, built
by the Christians in Egypt, dating about the seventh century,
which are seldom more than two and a half feet in span. They
were only used for covering narrow spaces, as staircases or niches,
(W. 101.)