West Asiatic Architecture - Comparative Analysis

A. Plans.
The Assyrians, who throughout this comparative table are taken to include
Babylonians, erected temples and palaces on artificial platforms, reached by
flights of steps, 30 to 50 ft. above the plain, for defence and protection
against malaria (p. 48 A). Halls and rooms grouped round open
quadrangles were long and narrow, so as to be easy to vault(p. 48 H).
Ziggurats, (pp. 47 A, 55 A), which rose tower-like in diminishing terraces to the
temple observatory at the top, had their angles to the cardinal points, thus
differing from Egyptian pyramids whose sides were so placed. Assyrian buildings
were designed for both internal and external effect, in contrast with Egyptian
temples which, behind the massive entrance pylons, were enclosed by a plain
and forbidding girdle wall which gradually decreased in height from front to back.
The Persians, like the Assyrians, placed their palaces on lofty platforms, often
partly rock-cut and partly built-up, but the style of palaces at Susa and Persepolis
(p. 56 A, C) was influenced by that of Egyptian temples, and the vast halls had
widely spaced columns which suggest timber roofs, in contrast to the corridorlike, vaulted apartments of Assyrian palaces.

B. Walls.
Assyrian walls were composite structures of sun-dried bricks faced with kiln-dried
bricks, which contrast with the massive stone walls of the Egyptians and the solid
marble walls of the Greeks. Palace walls were frequently sheathed internally with
alabaster bas-reliefs which record military and sporting exploits. External walls
were plainly treated, sometimes with alternating vertical projections and reoesses
or with half-cylinders, and the top was often finished with battlemented cresting,
while towers flanked palace entrances and occurred at short intervals along the
walls (p. 48 A, B, D, F). The Persians built their walls of brick, which as at
Persepolis have crumbled away, but the massive stone blocks of door and
window architraves and the broad stone stair-ways have in many instances
withstood the ravages of time and weather. The highly glazed and coloured
brickwork, as found at Susa and Persepolis (p. 56 F, G), was applied to give that
surface finish to the walls which in Greece was obtained by polishing the surface
of the marble to great brilliancy.

C. Openings.
Assyrian doorways were spanned by semicircular arches, here first met with as
ornamental features, suitable to the nature of brick construction. At palace
entrances the arches were enhanced by decorative archivolts of coloured bricks
(pp. 47 D, F, 48 n, D). It is to be noted that the pointed arch was employed as
early as B.C. 722 in the drains under the great palace at Khorsabad (p. 47 C),
and indeed Assyria seems to have been the original home of this feature.
Windows were not in use, but light was admitted through doors and probably
through pipe-holes in walls and vaults (p. 48 .0). The Persians used horizontal
stone lintels for doors and windows, in contrast to the arches of the Assyrians,
and some may still be seen among the ruins at Persepolis where large doorways
are surmounted by cornices similar to the Egyptian gorge (p. 56 A).

D. Roofs.
Assyrian roofs, supported on brick vaults over the halls, were externally flat and
were probably rendered waterproof by means of bitumen (p. 48 A). As is still
usual in the unchanging East, they were used as a resort in the cool of the
evening and were concealed behind battlemented cresting. Strabo states that the
houses of Babylon were vaulted, as at Khorsabad (p. 48j), and the dome was
probably employed over small compartments, as represented on wall slabs from
Nineveh, and it is indeed a traditional Eastern form, owing to its suitability for clay
and brick construction (p. 47 B). Persian roofs, of which, however, none remain,
were, it is believed, also flat and probably of timber ; for at Susa and Persepolis
they appear to have been supported on comparatively slender and widely spaced
columns (pp. 55 C, 56 A).

E. Columns.
The Assyrians could not have used columns, as in all the excavations no columns
or even bases have been found; indeed in Assyrian architecture the brick-built
tower, and not the column, is the outstanding feature. Columns may, however,
have been used in smaller buildings, such as the little fishing pavilion which, as
represented on a slab from Khorsabad, has columns with an early form of the
Ionic scroll (p. 47 H). The Persians on the contrary used columns, widely
spaced and comparatively slender, as they had only to support the weight
of timber and clay roofs, instead of ponderous stone slabs, as in Egypt (pp.

55 C, 56 A, B, D). The Persians invented a most distinctive type of column,

probably founded on those they had seen in Thebes, but with high moulded
bases, fluted shafts, and capitals of reourring vertical scrolls, perhaps derived
from Asiatic Greek buildings, such as the Temple of Artemis, Ephesus (B.C. 550)
(p. 101). Sometimes these columns were surmounted by twin bulls, unicorns,
horses, or griffins, on the backs of which were placed the cross-beams of the
roof. This peculiar and somewhat grotesque treatment has been supposed to
have had a timber origin in which the capital was formed either of a long beam or
of a fork which was the simplest type of bracket capitals.

F. Mouldings:
Assyrians, like Egyptians, had no general use for mouldings, as their architecture
was on too vast a scale for such treatment, and moreover the glazed tiles and
marble slabs which protected the perishable brick walls were sufficient decoration
without mouldings (pp. 47 G, 48 G). It is noticeable too that mouldings only came
into general use after they had been evolved and standardised by the Greeks.
Persians were susceptible to the influence both of Egyptian and Greek models,
and allowed themselves much latitude in adapting and combining various motifs,
and the conglomerate character of the style is nowhere more conspicuous than in
their use and application of mouldings. There is at Persepolis a curious melange
attributable to this dual source in which carved bases, moulded capitals, and
Ionic-like volutes are combined with the Egyptian " gorge " cornice over doorways
(p. 56 B, D).

G. Ornament.
The Assyrians used as their chief architectural ornament chiselled alabaster
slabs which show an extraordinary refinement of line and detail far superior to
Egyptian carvings, and these, both in treatment and colouring, undoubtedly
influenced Greek bas-reliefs (p. 62). These slabs, some of which are in the British
Museum, form an illustrated record of Assyrian pursuits (p. 62 A, G, J). The wellknown pavement slab from Nineveh (p. 62 C), with rosettes, palmettes, and
border of lotus buds and flowers, shows a decorative art, doubtless derived from
Egyptian sources, but tempered by the art of Greece. The Assyrians displayed
their skilled craftsmanship not only in stone carving, but also in bronze working,
as shown in the gates of Shalmaneser II (B.C. 860825) which are in the British
Museum. The external ornament of Assyrian palaces appears to have been

concentrated around the main entrance (p. 48 B), in the sculptured

monsters which guarded the kingly threshold, and in the brilliantly glazed
and coloured archivolt of the archway (pp. 47 D, E, F, 48 E, 62 E). The
Persians continued the use of flanking monsters to doorways, as in the Propylaea
at Persepolis, and of carved dadoes to stairway walls. The outstanding feature of
ornament as developed by the Persians is their mastery in the preparation and
application of pure colour to glazed bricks, as in the " Archer " and " Lion " friezes
from Susa, now in the Louvre Museum, Paris (p. 56 F, G), or as in the bas-relief
from Persepolis (p. 56 E). Persians, like Assyrians, reserved ornament for special
positions ; whereas the Egyptians spread it broadcast over their unbroken wall
surfaces. The Greeks, as we shall see, followed the Assyrian method in
concentrating ornament, allocated it to entablature, frieze, and pediment, and
standardised it in the " Orders of Architecture," which, as regards the variation of
detail, must be regarded from the point of view of ornament, though their raison
d'etre is essentially constructive.

West Asiatic Architecture - Influences

I. INFLUENCES
I. Geographical.The earliest civilisation of Western Asia flourished in the
fertile plains of the twin rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, and to this district tradition
assigns the Garden of Eden and the four rivers of the Book of Genesis.
Inundation of the country, with destruction of crops and flocks, was an everpresent danger to the dwellers in the river plains, and this condition is set forth in
the account of the building of the Ark by Noah before the time when a system of
irrigation gave security to agriculturists. Here, too, in Ur of the Chaldees, was the
home of Abraham before he set out on his travels to escape from the constant
strife in his own country. Vigorous in its youth and growth, and complete in its
decline and decay, this region has been both cradle and tomb of nations and
empires. The plain of Mesopotamia (Gk. mesos = middle + potamos = river) was
irrigated by canals from river to river, and thus the land became fertile enough to
support the immense populations round Nineveh and Babylon. Geographically
speaking, Babylonia and Assyria were one country which ancient writers called
Assyria, and in Kings, Book II, Chap. xviii, Sennacherib describes it in glowing
terms to the children of Israel as " a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and
vine-yards, a land of oil, olive, and honey," and all this abundance was the result

of elaborate irrigation. But in the thirteenth century the barbarous Tartar invasion
finally wiped out this ancient civilisation, with its architectural glories, its triumphs
of irrigation and its agricultural prosperity, and reduced the country, which once
blossomed as the rose, to a dismal tract of dreary desert alternating with miasmic
marsh. Irrigation has been recently started again, and the Euphrates Dam,
completed A.D. 19 13, is the great modern wonder of Babylon, designed to
restore cultivation to this sterile district, while the Bagdad Railway opens up
intercourse with the Western world. Meanwhile the Great War intervened, and
once again Mesopotamia became a battle-ground till British supremacy was
established, and now the British spirit of enterprise may breathe new life and
prosperity into this long-stricken district after peace has succeeded the barren
years of devastating war. Just as the pyramids and early monuments of Egypt
clustered first round the delta of the Nile, so in Chaldaea the earliest buildings
appear to have been at the mouth of the two famous rivers of Western Asia. In
Egypt civilisation spread southwards from Memphis to Phil, whereas in Western
Asia it advanced northwards from Babylon to Nineveh, and thus in both countries
it followed the natural course, inland from the sea.
On the east of Babylonia and Assyria was ancient Persia, which, under Cyrus
and Darius, extended over the high plateau of Iran from the Tigris to the Indus.

II. Geological.Chaldaea or Lower Mesopotamia is an alluvial district of thick

mud and clay deposited by the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. Such soil,
in which no stone was found and no trees would grow, was eminently suitable for
the making of bricks, which thus became the usual building material in Babylonia.
The walls were constructed of crude, sun-dried bricks faced with kiln-burnt and
glazed bricks of different colours. There were bitumen springs at It on the
Euphrates and elsewhere, and in early times hot bitumen or pitch was used as a
cementing material, and mortar of calcareous earth in later periods. In Assyria
there was plenty of stone in the mountains to the north, but the Assyrians
followed the Babylonians in the use of brick ; though they generally faced the
walls internally and externally, not with glazed bricks, but with alabaster or
limestone slabs carved with low bas-reliefs and inscriptions, which are of great
historic importance. In Persia there were hard, coloured limestones which were
used in the building of Susa and Persepolis, and roof-timbers were obtained from
Elam on the west, while Persian tiles have always been world-famous for their
beauty of texture and colour.

III. Climatic.Chaldaea was, by reason of its situation round the river deltas,
a region of swamps and floods, besides which torrents of rain fell for weeks at a
time, and these conditions were aggravated during the long summer by
unhealthy, miasmic exhalations and by swarms of aggressive and venomous
insects. Therefore elevated platforms, on which to build towns and palaces, were
not only desirable, but essential. Assyria, nearer the mountains and farther from
the river mouths than Chaldaea, had a similar climate, although with fewer
swamps and less miasma, but any climatic difference had little effect on
architecture, as the Assyrians followed the Babylonian style. The dry, hot climate
of the high table-land of Persia was in striking contrast to the damp of the lowlying plains of Mesopotamia, and it accounts for the innovation of open columned
halls in the palaces at Susa and Persepolis. Persia has been described as a
country of sunshine, gardens, and deserts, with a climate ranging between
extremes of heat and cold. The astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam,
though writing in the eleventh century of our era, indicates the national love of
beauty as developed under the influence of climatic environment.

IV. Religious.The polytheism of Babylonia and Assyria was variously

expressed, in the worship of heavenly bodies, divisions of the universe, and local
deities. The priests, as depositories of Chaldaean wisdom, arrogated to
themselves the power of reading the stars, of divination, and of interpreting the
will of the gods, and for these astrologer-priests the towering ziggurats were
erected. Here, as in Egypt, the system of triads of deities was in force, and
among Assyrian gods grouped in triads were Anu, god of heaven, Baal, god of
earth, and Ea, god of water the triad of the universe ; while another triad,
Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar, personified the sun, moon, and the life-giving power.
There was also a vague tendency to group gods in pairs, while the ethical side is
indicated in attributes, such as justice or mercy, given to the various deities. The
god, Ashur, in the north was exalted by Assyrians to the chief place in their
pantheon, while the same position was accorded in Babylonia to Marduk, but
there was a continuous struggle to make Babylon the religious centre with
Marduk as chief god. Omen tablets and texts survive from about B.C. 3800 and
to them we owe our knowledge of Babylonian methods of divination. Superstition
and symbolism everywhere prevailed and it is evidenced in the man-headed
bulls, placed as beneficent genii at palace entrances to ward off evil spirits. The
Assyrians, in striking contrast to the Egyptians, were not great tomb-builders, as
they had not the same strong belief in a future life. The primitive religion of

Persia, which betrays the influence of Babylon and became incorporated in the
religion of Zoroaster as far back as B.C. z000, was a system of ethical forces and
represented good and evil at war from the beginning of time. The two
protagonists were Ormazd, the creator of good, with his supporting gods, of
whom Mithras became the most famous, and opposed to Ormazd was Ahriman,
the destructive spirit, or power of evil. There appears to have been a tendency
towards monotheism and to a belief in the final triumph of good. Fire was held by
Zoroaster to be the manifestation of good, and fire worship needed no temples,
but only altars for the sacrificial flame, and thus in Persia we must not look for
temple remains, nor expect religion to have exercised much influence on
architecture.

V. Social.In Babylon a powerful priestly class arrogated to itself all the

learning known as " Chaldaean wisdom," and " medicine men " or physicians
were included in the priestly ranks. The Babylonians, settling at the mouth of the
Euphrates, were traders in origin and traders they remained, and they employed
slaves, not only for the building of palaces and their platforms, but also for that
wonderful system of irrigation, and for the agriculture that was dependent on it,
while in commerce they had hired men for transport trade by caravans and
canals. Cuneiform or wedge-shaped characters on clay tablets or cylinders have
proved more lasting than the Egyptian records on perishable papyrus, and
among them are accounts of the proceedings in Babylonian law courts and
endless business documents. The deciphering of the Babylonian " Code of Laws
" of Khammurabi (c. B.C. 2250) has supplied a wonderful insight into habits,
customs, and private life from the earliest times the family idea prevailed, women
were free and respected, cities had rights and charters, there were feudal
holdings, a system of police, and even a postal service. This " code " gives
amazing pictures of an elaborate legal system, complete commercial life,
landlord's responsibilities, and city dues. The people were divided into nobles
with hereditary estates, a landless class of freemen, and lastly slavesa social
system not only Mediaeval, but almost modern in some aspects.
In Assyria a military autocracy with a conscript army was the dominating class,
and Assyrians were fighters and sportsmen rather than traders. Irrigation and
agriculture also occupied the Assyrians, and they built palaces on raised
platforms by the work of captive slaves. Rawlinson calculated that 10,000 men
worked for twelve years on the platform of Kouyunjik (Nineveh). Assyrian wall

sculptures portray social conditions and form an illustrated history of the battles
and exploits of monarchs ; there is little reference to religion, with its sacrificial
rites, on the delicately incised slabs, which are devoted to war and the chase, and
the trail of cruelty is over them all. The social economy of these ancient
civilisations included carpenters, masons, smiths, makers of musical
instruments, engineers,. scientists, mathematicians, poets, and musicians.
Houses were doubtless of the primitive form still prevailing in the East, and
wall tablets depict the simplest furniture in the way of chairs, couches, and
tables.
The Persian domination was due to the military superiority of this hardy, upland
race, which gradually imposed Persian civilisation on Western Asia under the rule
of the Satraps. They were soldiers all ; land-owners as horsemen, and people as
infantry. The traditions were now modified by Egyptian and Greek craftsmen who
migrated to this new world-empire, of which Babylon continued the winter
residence of the Kings ; while Susa was the capital, because Persepolis was too
remote for government. The erection of royal palaces gave ample opportunity for
the development of Persian architecture and decorative art.

VI. Historical.There are three main periods of West Asiatic

architecture :
(a) Babylonian period (c. B.C. 4000-1275). An early Sumerian king,
Eannatum, seems to have brought about the first union of Babylonian cities, while
the earliest Babylonian king of whom we hear is Sargon of Akkad (c. B.C. 3800),
but little is known till about B.C. 2500, when rivalry existed between cities, until
the great king Khammurabi in B.C. 2250 established the domination of Babylon,
and formulated his " Code of Laws." The Babylonian power declined later under
the attacks of Hittites and Kassites, until in B.C. 1700 Assyria became a separate
kingdom.

(b) Assyrian period (B.C. 1275-538). The Assyrians next conquered

Babylonia in B.C. 1275, and remained the great military power of Western Asia
until the destruction of Nineveh about B.C. 6o6. Kings, like Tiglath-Pileser I (B.C.
1100) carried on campaigns to the north-west, and in northern Syria. Ashur-nasirpal (B.C. 885-86o) waged war on every side, and removed the government from
Ashur to Calah (Nimroud), where he built a palace and patronised art. His son

Shalmaneser II (B.C. 86o-825) made himself master of Western Asia from Media
to the Mediterranean, and from Armenia to the Persian Gulf, and then the
Assyrians first came into conflict with the Israelites. It was during the campaign
mentioned in I Kings xix. that Jehu, King of Israel, sent tribute to the King of
Assyria. Tiglath-Pileser III (B.C. 745-727), referred to in 2 Kings xv. as Pul,
extended his empire to the borders of Egypt and, as ally of Ahaz, King of Judah,
made Hoshea, King of Israel, his vassal. Sargon (B.C. 722-705), most famous of
Assyrian kings, was the first to defeat the army of the Egyptians, and like many a
conqueror, ancient and modern, he was also a great builder, as is testified by his
magnificent palace at Khorsabad (p. 54), and by his buildings at Calah and
Nineveh. Sennacherib (B.C. 705681), the famous son of Sargon, invaded Syria,
defeated the Egyptian army, entered Judaea, laid siege to Jerusalem and forced
King Hezekiah to pay tribute taken from the treasure of the Temple. In 2 Kings
xix. there is a graphic record of the destruction of Sennacherib's army, probably
by the plague, during his second campaign in Palestine. We read that the " Angel
of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians . and behold they
were all dead corpses." A wiser and a sadder man, King Sennacherib retreated
to wage wars nearer home, and having destroyed Babylon in B.C. 689, and
defeated the Greeks in Cilicia, he settled in Nineveh to worship his gods and to
build a mighty palace, and was there assassinated by his sons. Esarhaddon, his
son (B.C. 681668), fought against Arabs and Medes, invaded Phcenicia, Edom,
and Cilicia, and conquered Lower Egypt in B.C. 672. He too built great palaces at
Calah (Nimroud) and Nineveh, and also temples to the gods. Ashur-banipal (B.C.
6686z6) fought three campaigns in Egypt and sacked Thebes (B.C. 666). He
extended the boundaries of his kingdom on the north and south, and the records
of his last campaign were sculptured on the wall slabs of his palace at Nineveh,
which are now in the British Museum. The Empire was then at the height of its
power, but in B.C. 634, with the incursions of the Medes, decline set in until in
B.C. 606 Nineveh was captured and destroyed, and the Assyrian Empire divided.
The new Babylonian Empire only lasted for seventy years. Nebuchadnezzar II
(B.C. 605562) is famous for the destruction of Jerusalem and for the Babylonian
captivity (B.C. 597538), and is lastingly associated with the wonders of Babylon,
its palaces, hanging gardens, and towered walls. After a short series of weak
rulers, Babylon itself, under Belshazzar, to whom the prophet Daniel interpreted
the writing on the wall (Dan. v.), was captured by the Persian King Cyrus in B.C.
538.

(c) Persian period (B.C. 538333). The domination of Persia over

Western Asia, and her struggles for a further extension of power, record her
contact with Greece and Egypt. After the capture of Babylon (B.C. 538), Cyrus
made war on Croesus, King of Lydia, and then the Greek colonists in Asia Minor
fell under the rule of Persia. Cambyses (B.C. 5295z1), his son, extended the
Persian conquests to Egypt, and there seems no doubt that the impression
produced by the marvellous buildings of Memphis and Thebes caused the
introduction of the column into Persian architecture, though in the somewhat
grotesque form seen in the halls of Susa and Persepolis. Next came Darius (B.C.
521485), who carried Persian arms into Europe as far as the Danube. He also
hankered after Greece, and in B.C. 494 captured Miletus, destroying the famous
Ionic temple (p. 102). He defeated the allied Greeks at Ephesus, but was him-self
defeated at Marathon (B.C. 490). Xerxes (B.C. 485465), who pursued the same
ambition, met with defeat by the Greeks, not only in the sea battle of Salamis
(B.C. 480), but also in the land battle at Plata (B.C. 479). Under Alexander the
Great (B.C. 333323) Western Asia became a Greek province. Persia, however,
after Alexander's death, passed under the Seleucid (B.C. 312280) and
Sassanian (A.D. 226642) dynasties, and after the Arab conquest in A.D. 642
there arose various Perso-Mahometan dynasties which made Bagdad a new
capital of great magnificence. All this intercourse and intermingling of nations and
races, which in the earliest times was generally warlike in character, naturally had
its effect in an intermingling of architectural features in the different countries (pp.
58, 832).
The ancient architecture of Western Asia of the historical period was being
developed from about B.C. 4000 to the conquest of the country by Alexander the
Great in the fourth century before Christ.
In the alluvial plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, stone and timber suitable for
building were rare. There was, however, abundance of clay which, compressed in
moulds and dried in the sun, was the material used for the palace platforms,
which were faced with either sun-dried or kiln-burnt bricks. The Babylonians
clothed their walls with a coat of glazed brickwork of many colours, whereas the
Assyrians generally used slabs of glowing alabaster, on which they displayed
those delicate carvings which are not only prized for their artistic qualities, but
also give much valuable information. In both cases rough brickwork formed the
core to which ornament was applied, in the same way that walls are covered with

tapestry hangings. A form of wall ornament at Khorsabad was obtained by the

constant repetition of half-columns or gigantic reedings, like half-tree trunks
standing side by side, and it is tempting to refer this to a tree origin, were it not for
the scarcity of timber in Babylonia and Assyria (p. 47 F). The arch, formed by
corbelled horizontal courses or with radiating voussoirs (p. 47 C), was probably
hit upon accidentally, and it may indeed be assumed that the arch was first
resorted to by builders who, like the Chaldaeans, were compelled to employ
small units of materials, such as bricks, because, unlike that of Egypt and
Greece, the local geological formation did not supply stone in blocks of sufficient
size to span wide openings. Arches therefore, whether used for vaulted drains
under the platforms, or for palace entrances, were important features (p. 47 D).
Columns were not used, for want of suitable stone, and indeed neither
Babylonians nor Assyrians used stone constructively as did Egyptians, Persians,
Greeks, and Romans. The imposing effect produced by towering masses of
palace buildings and stepped ziggurats, planted on great platforms and
approached by broad stairways and ramps from the plains below, must be left to
the imagination ; but we can see, in the British Museum, not only colossal winged
bulls that once flanked a palace portal, but also carved alabaster slabs which
paved an audience chamber, and sculptured bas-reliefs from palace walls (p. 62).
Persia inherited many architectural forms from Assyria, and also borrowed some
from Egypt and Asiatic Greece. Stone, which was abundant in the rocky upland
country, was used in the many-columned palaces of Susa and Persepolis, and
the ornate stone capitals may have been elaborated from a primitive wooden post
and bracket supporting a cross beam (p. 56 B, D). These Persian palaces seem
to have rivalled all that preceded them ; and they were the outcome of that love of
beauty and luxurious surroundings that have been imaged in the later verses of
Omar Khayyam. The glamour of mystery lies over these vanished palaces, but
we can partly reconstruct them in imagination, for, though the bricks have
returned to the mud whence they came, we know some-thing of the stone
columns, window architraves, and monumental entrances of those light and airy
palaces. We know too how the lovely Persian rose had its place in delicate floral
design, while the gleaming blues and greens of antique Persian wall tiles make
us realise indeed that " a thing of beauty is a joy for ever." Little was known of
West Asiatic architecture till the nineteenth century, when excavations by Botta,
Place, Layard, Loftus, Rawlinson and others have given some idea of their extent
and character.

In Asia Minor there are remains of stone monuments of uncertain date with clear
indications of a timber origin, both in design and detail. This is specially true of
the two Lycian tombs in the British Museum (p. 18), one of which has a double
podium supporting a sarcophagus with an arched roof, and here the stonework
faithfully reproduces notched beams, tightening wedges and rafter ends of timber,
and indeed a timber origin seems more likely in this fertile land than it would be in
the alluvial swamps of Babylonia or of Assyria. A study of these Lycian tombs
suggests afresh that aspect of architectural character in relation to nature forms
which has already been traced in considering the temples of Egypt (p. 21). There
are also various theories as to the influence of timber forms on Greek
architecture, and it is significant that the reproduction of timber forms in stone
was practised by the Bactrian Greeks in India in the second century B.C. (p.
789). Timber may then have been the original material in general use for primitive
buildings, but it soon gave way to the more durable stone, and the nature of this
material eventually governed architectural character.

West Asiatic Architecture has been divided into three tolerably

distinct periods :
The Babylonian (Chaldaean) period (c. B.C. 4000-1275).
The Assyrian period (B.C. 1275-538).
The Persian period (B.C. 538-333).
THE BABYLONIAN PERIOD
Temples of the Babylonian period, of which such surprising discoveries have
recently been madeas of the plans of the Temples of Marduk, and Ashur on the
sites of ancient Babylon and Ashurseem to have formed the centre, not only of
religious, but of commercial and social life, and to have served as granaries,
storehouses, and even as money banks. We must exercise imagination as to
their appearance, as none exist ; but the " Code " of Khammurabi tells us that
numerous officials and vestal virgins were attached to them. Remarkable
pyramidal towers, known as ziggurats (holy mountains) were also erected (pp. 47

A, 48 A, H, 55 A), from the summit of which the powerful class of astrologerpriests observed the heavenly bodies and formulated their prognostications.
Traces of ziggurats, which were of different types, have been found on most of
the Chaldaean city sites, such as Mugheir (Ur of the Chaldees), Nippur, Tello
(Eninnu), and Warka (Erech) and it is noticeable that, whereas in the pyramids
the sides were oriented, in the ziggurats the angles faced the cardinal points.
The Ziggurat, Birs-Nimroud (Borsippa), rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, when
excavated by Sir Henry Rawlinson was in a sufficiently recognisable condition to
be described as typical of others. It stood 272 ft. square, and was 160 ft. high,
crowned with a temple shrine to the god Nebo. Four receding stories have been
traced, round which a sloping terrace reached the top, but a cylinder record on
the site shows that there had been seven stories glowing in glazed bricks of
seven different colours and dedicated to the seven heavenly planets. We cannot
fail to connect these Babylonian ziggurats with the Bible story of the building of
the Tower of Babel. It is recorded in Genesis xi. 4 that the " children of men "
attempted to build a tower which should " reach to heaven," and it is worth noting
that in Egypt and Western Asia, both remarkable for their monotonous level
stretches of country, man should have sought to break the sameness of the
landscape by massive pyramids and terraced towers.
The City of Babylon (Babel = the gate of god) became the capital of the Empire
about B.C. 2000, and was as amazing in size as in construction ; for, according to
Herodotus, it occupied an area of 200 square miles an estimate which may
.well be exaggerated. The excavations of Professor L. W. King have revealed
parts of the older city which indicate that, as early as B.C. 2000, there was a
system of town-planning. Streets running parallel to the river were crossed by
others at right angles, thus making blocks of buildings as carefully laid out as
anything in the city of New York. Towers were the outstanding architectural
features, and Babylon is said to have had 250 towers besides too bronze gates in
its immense encircling city walls, on whose lofty crest, 300 ft. high, it is asserted
that a four-horse chariot could turn. Temples there were of vast dimensions, and
greatest of all was the Temple of Marduk (Baal), the city god, adjacent to a great
terraced tower often assumed to be the Tower of Babel. Old Herodotus states
that Babylon had its via sacra spanned by the Gate of Ishtar. The houses were
three or four storeys high, while the magnificence of the Palace of
Nebuchadnezzar has passed into fame, chiefly by reason of its so-called "
hanging gardens," which have fascinated succeeding generations by giving a

Peter-Pan touch of fairydom to this ancient city. These gardens were probably
raised on a series of supporting arches, some 75 ft. high, and thus carried out
the desire of the Babylonians to break the monotony of their featureless, level
country. The wonder of these flowering gardens was increased by the
engineering skill which, according to Strabo, raised water to fertilise them by a
screw pump from the Euphrates below. The great wonder-city of Babylon was
doomed to destruction, and it became a quarry for the building of other towns,
such as Ctesiphon and Bagdad. It had its day of pomp and power, and its name
has passed into a by-word by reason of the vice and luxury which are chronicled
as preceding its downfall. Whatever may have been the moral issues involved, it
is quite evident from a material point of view that the mud bricks of which the
whole city was built could notlike enduring stoneresist attacks of enemies,
ravages of fire, or decaying influences of time and weather, and thus Babylon
returned to the mud of which it was built, and only mounds now indicate its
ancient site. Legends are woven round the country where the cradle of man has
been located ; history emerges vaguely from chronicles, and archaeology has
only recently begun to elucidate the truth about the early days of man in
Mesopotamia ; but the wonders of Babylon have ever held their own with the
Tower of Babel. Both have been at times almost relegated to the region of myths,
but excavation and investigation have shown the reason for the Tower and the
reality of Babylon.

THE ASSYRIAN PERIOD

Palaces of warrior-kings were the chief buildings of Assyria, while temples sink in
importance compared with these great palaces.
Nineveh (Kouyunjik), the capital, 25o miles north of Babylon, has remains of
three palaces built by Sennacherib (B.C. 705-681), Esarhaddon (B.C. 681668),
and Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 668626) . They were discovered by Botta (A.D. 842)
and Layard (A.D. r845), and the bas-reliefs in the British Museum show not only
warlike pursuits, but building operations, while some still bear traces of the action
of the fire which destroyed Nineveh in B.C. 609 (pp. 47 B, 62 J).
Nimroud (Calah), the foundation of which is recorded in Gen. x. 11, twenty miles
south of Nineveh, had a palace built by Ashur-nasir-pal (B.C. 885-86o), from
which there are remarkable wall slabs in the British Museum (p. 62 A, E, F, G, H),
another by Shalmaneser II (B.C. 86o-825), and yet another by Esarhaddon, who

had built a more splendid palace at Nineveh. All these were explored by Layard in
A.D. 845, and latterly by Dr. Andraea.
The Palace of Sargon, Khorsabad (B.C. 722705) (pp. 47, 48), ten miles northeast of Nineveh, excavated in A.D. 1864 by Place, provides the best idea of
Assyrian palaces. It covers the greatest area of any so far explored ; for, with its
various courts, chambers, and corridors, it appears to have occupied 25 acres
and to have contained some 700 rooms. Like all Assyrian palaces it stood some
50 ft. above the plain, on a plat-form of sun-dried bricks faced with stone, and
was reached by broad stairways and sloping ramps for horses and chariots. The
three entrance portals to the principal court were flanked with great towers and
guarded by man-headed winged bulls or lions 12 ft. 6 ins. high, which supported
a bold semicircular arch decorated with brilliantly coloured glazed bricks. From
these massive monsters, which are now in the British Museum, it would seem
that the most impressive creations of Assyrian architecture were concentrated on
the palace portals, not only to inspire awe and wonder in the beholder, but to
ward off the approach of evil. The palace had three distinct groups of apartments
corresponding to the usual divisions of palatial residences in modern Persia,
Turkey, or India, viz.: (i) the Seraglio or palace proper, which included the king's
residence, state halls, men's apartments, and reception rooms, with ten courts,
sixty rooms, and numerous corridors ; (ii) the Harem with the private family
apartments ; and (iii) the Khan or service chambers, all arranged round the
principal court of about 21 acres. In the state rooms a sculptured and perhaps
coloured dado of alabaster, 9 ft. high, lined the lower portion of the walls, above
which they were probably left plain. There was also the usual temple observatory
or ziggurat on the west side of the platform. We conclude that, as in Egypt,
sufficient light reached the interiors without the use of windows ; for none have
been discovered, nor are they shown on bas-reliefs except in towers, but
numerous terra-cotta pipes have been found which were probably inserted in
domes, vaults, and walls to admit light and air, as they still are in the East. The
method of roofing was formerly much in dispute, due to the objective association
which assigned to Assyria the trabeated construction of Egypt. It will, however, be
seen from the plan (p. 48 H) that only open courts are planned in squares, while
covered-in rooms are long and narrow. Further, the immense thickness of walls
(28 ft.) was more than was required to keep out even the heat of the Assyrian
plains, and this strength was probably designed to support not timbers, but a
heavy vaulted roofa roof indeed of the same shape and structure as has been

found in the drains and water channels under the platforms, as well as in the
entrance arches of palaces and city gates. So far for hypothesis ; but now there
come the discoveries by Place of huge blocks of compressed clay with stuccocovered soffits, which would seem to have fallen from above and would definitely
suggest and enforce the conclusion that they were fragments of a roof vaulting,
and that these narrow rooms were vaulted with the clay of the country and not
covered with timber, which was very scarce. The internal construction was thus
evidently one of walls and vaults and not of columns and architraves ; for no
bases even of columns have been excavated. The vaulted nature of the roofing
supported on continuous walls, which was once a disputable matter, would
therefore now seem to be a proved certainty. A bas-relief found by Layard depicts
buildings with domes, both spherical and elliptical, and from this it would appear
that the dome, as well as the vault, was in use among the Assyrians, though to
what extent we have at present no evidence (p. 47 B).

THE PERSIAN PERIOD

Palaces and tombs at Susa and Persepolis suggest that the Persians adopted
certain features from the conquered Assyrians, such as raised platforms,
sculptured monsters, slabs of bas-relief, besides glazed and coloured brickwork
which it is their glory to have brought to perfection.
The Palace Platform, Persepolis (p. 56 A, C) is a remarkable structure, 1,500 ft.
by 1,000 ft. in extent and 40 ft. above the plain, partly hewn out of the solid rock
and partly built up of large blocks of local stone laid without mortar, but held
together by metal cramps. The approach on the north-west was by a magnificent
flight of steps, 22 ft. wide, shallow enough for horses to ascend. The Propylaea
(p. 56 C) built by Xerxes (B.C. 485465) formed a monumental entrance, flanked
by man-headed bulls and massive piers glowing in glazed bricks, and through
this gateway passed foreign ambassadors, subject princes, and royal retinues to
the palaces on the platform. Among these stood out the " Hall of the Hundred
Columns " (p. 55 C) built by Darius (B.C. 521-485), which, according to Plutarch,
was burnt by Alexander the Great. It was probably the audience hall or throne
room of the palace and was 225 ft. square, enclosed by a brick wall, I i ft. thick, in
which there were some 44 doorways and windows. The walls flanking the
entrance portico were enlivened with topical bas-reliefs representing the king with
his retinue receiving ambassadors. The flat cedar roof was supported upon 100
columns, 37 ft. high, of which only one remains in situ, and they recall the

hypostyle halls of Egyptian temples, but have a character all their own with
moulded bases, fluted shafts, and curious, complex capitals with vertical Ioniclike volutes and twin bulls supporting the roof-beams (p. 56 B, D). The Palace of
Darius (p. 56 C), the earliest built on the platform, was rectangular in plan with a
portico of sixteen columns. The stone lintels and jambs of doors and windows, as
well as the bases of the portico columns, still exist, though the rubble walls have
crumbled away. The Palace of Xerxes (B.C. 485) (p. 56 C), though it consisted
only of a central hall and three columned porticoes, was of great size, with an
area of some 24,000 square ft. The Palace was further raised on a podium 10 ft.
high, reached by four flights of steps. Columns of porticoes and hall, which
originally numbered seventy-two, though only seventeen remain, were 65 ft. high
with bell-shaped bases and fluted shafts. Those of the north portico and great
hall had elaborate capitals of Ionic volutes set on end and surmounted by double
bulls, while those of the east and west porticoes consisted only of double bulls or
griffins. Flower gardens, orange groves, and summer pavilions formed the
luxurious surroundings of all the palaces of Darius and Xerxes at Persepolis.
The Tomb of Darius, Naksh-i-Rustam (p. 55 B), eight miles north of Persepolis, is
one of four rock-hewn sepulchres of the great Achaemenian kings, and was
probably suggested to Darius (d. B.C. 485) by the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes,
which he saw when serving under Cambyses in Egypt. It reproduces the facade,
50 ft. wide, of the small palace of Darius at Persepolis, with four columns of the
double-bull type, central doorway with Egyptian-like cornice, and upper
compartment in which two rows of figures in relief support a prayer platform
surmounted by a bas-relief of the king (8 ft. high) before an altar, with uplifted arm
worshipping the sun-god whose image appears above him.
Susa, the administrative capital of the ancient Persian Empire, has remains of
great palaces of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, and here were found by M. Dieulafoy
those world-famous friezes of glazed brickwork in green, yellow, and blue, known
as the " Lion frieze " and the " Archer frieze," notable instances of the traditional
beauty of Persian decoration, and now the treasures of the Louvre Museum,
Paris (p. 56 F, G).
The Tomb of Cyrus, Pasargadae (B.C. 529), which that monarch made the
capital of Persia, is of unusual design, with its single chamber (10 ft. by 7 ft.)
perched on a high stylobate of six steps, not unlike the Lycian tombs or the small
Greek temples. This little tomb has been made famous by Strabo, Herodotus,

and Pliny, and was visited by Alexander the Great on his way to India, who then
saw the treasures, tapestries, and gilded sarcophagus of the king which, on his
return, had been desecrated and rifled.

SELEUCID AND SASSANIAN ARCHITECTURE

(B.C. 312A.D. 642)
The architecture which succeeded that of the Persians is interesting, though not
of great importance, and most of our knowledge of the subject is derived from the
works by Dieulafoy and Perrot and Chipiez.
The Seleucid Dynasty (B.C. 312-280), which succeeded on the death of
Alexander, did not produce any noteworthy type, but during the Sassanian
Dynasty (A.D. 226-642), when the principal city was Ctesiphon, a number of
buildings were erected which form a connecting link between Assyrian
architecture on the one hand and Byzantine on the other.
The Palace, Sarvistan (A.D. 350) (p. 61) is an interesting Sassanian building, and
an idea of its general appearance may be obtained from the restored view (p. 61
G). The principal feature consisted of a triple-arched portico behind which rose a
beehive dome of brick with openings for light and ventilation, and a long barrel
vault over each side compartment, reminding one of Assyrian palaces. In this
building the central dome over the square hall is carried by means of roughly
corbelled angle semi-domes (p. 61 H), originally plastered over, while the side
compartments have curious stumpy columns, supporting lofty arches.
The Palace, Feruz-abad (A.D. 450) (p. 61) was a structure of some importance,
with an entrance leading into three domed halls, beyond which is a court. The
transverse section (p. 61 C) shows the arrangement of the domes, and the
roughly formed angular semi-domes which enable the circular domes to be
applied to square compartments; while the exterior restored (p. 61 A, B) gives an
idea of the general appearance of the building.
The Palace, Ctesiphon (A.D. 550) (p. 61) must have been an interesting
structure, built of coloured brickwork, but is now only a ruin, consisting of a great

central arched portal (p. 61 M), about 83 ft. wide, leading into a throne room, 160
ft. deep, flanked by side walls no less than 24 It. thick, and covered with a
remarkable vault, elliptical in form, and obviously founded on Assyrian
prototypes. The lower courses of this vault, and indeed of all Sassanian domes,
appear to have been built in horizontal layers to avoid the oblique pressure
resulting from radiating voussoirs. It is indeed considered probable that this great
vault of brick is a reproduction of the native architecture formed with bundles of
reeds and rammed earth, as built to this day in the valley of the Tigris and
Euphrates. The facade of this remnant of the palace (p. 61 L, m) consists of a
wall 112 ft. 6 ins. high, arranged with tiers of pilasters and arches divided by
string courses, not unlike Roman facades.
Discoveries of the remains of various Sassanian palaces have been made of
recent years. The Palace of Khosrau II, Dastagerd, was identified in A.D. 1840 by
Rawlinson, and recent visitors have told how the ruin of this and probably of
many other palaces has been completed by carrying off the bricks for use in
building modern villages. The ruins of Dastagerd consist of a narrow range of
substructures nearly 2,000 ft. in length, massively built of large bricks and hard
mortar, with rudely pointed arches, and protected at intervals by bastions on one
side and fronted by porches on the other.
The architecture of the Saracens in Persia is dealt with on p. 844.

JEWISH ARCHITECTURE
The chief characteristics of Hebrew architecture would seem to have been
derived from Babylon on the east and Egypt on the west, through the seafaring
and trading Phoenicians. The structural part of the style followed the Egyptian
and Phoenician practice of cutting out tombs in the rock, and to this succeeded
the use of huge, quarried blocks of stone, such as those in the arch which
Robinson discovered in Jerusalem. The Palace of David and the Temple of
Solomon, both at Jerusalem, were of the Phoenician type of architecture, a style
which had its origin in cutting piers in the living rock. They were placed on a
mighty natural platform partly built up on one side, like that at Persepolis. The
Temple at Jerusalem was the great monumental structure commenced by
Solomon (B.C. 1012), and the elaborate Biblical description of its parts (1 Kings
vivii, and 2 Chronicles, iiiiv) mentions entrance pylons, courts, and the
brazen twin columns of Jachin and Boaz. The Temple was added to by Herod

(B.C. 8) and its lofty site is now partly occupied by the Dome of the Rock or socalled Mosque of Omar (p. 837).
There is little left in Syria of ancient Jewish architecture, and all has been
obliterated or changed by Romans, Early Christians, Saracens, and Crusaders.
The chief monuments of antiquity are the rock-cut tombs round Jerusalem and
the remarkable series at the rock-cut city of Petra, numbering over 750, some of
which date back to the sixth century B.C. and show Egyptian influence in pylons
and cavetto cornices, while later tombs show Greek and Roman influence. These
Bible countries passed successively under the influence of Greece and the rule
of Rome, whose architecture, as in the group of temples at Baalbek and the
temples and colonnades at Samaria (Sebastieh) is distinct from native types. The
round towers of the Roman gate at Samaria have been found to have been
erected on older Greek towers which had taken the place of still older Hebrew
towers.
Source:
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