LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, 18Q4. 
 Accessions No. HTf tf (c Class No. J? i.hr.Q.fi ** 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLTMPIUS 
 
 See page 140. 
 
THE 
 
 Efo 
 
 imms, 
 
 Of THE 
 
 AMD THEIR 
 
 ILLATIONS 
 

 jfguIl 
 
THE 
 
 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 THEIR ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CARLTON ik PHILLIPS. 
 
 SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 200 MULBEBRY-STBEET. 
 
 1854. 
 
iS 
 
 *-f\ 
 
 h'JMo 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Around us moves this magic world 
 With all appeals of blended power ; 
 
 And o'er our heads unfurl'd 
 The heavens, which change each hour. 
 
 Above, beneath, where'er we gaze, 
 
 On sky, or soil, or living sea, 
 Some chord is touch'd that plays 
 
 And thrills, God ! from thee. 
 
 Montgomery's Christian Life. 
 
 The Seven Wonders of the World are among 
 the traditions of our childhood; and yet, it is a 
 remarkable fact, that ninety-nine persons out of a 
 hundred who might be asked the question, could not 
 name them. These marvels of the ancients had, 
 from being familiar, become forgotten, and treated 
 as myths known to us through traditions collected 
 by the Greeks, so replete with absurdities that it 
 was difficult to select the true from the fabulous. 
 
 The chief object of the compiler of this volume is 
 to present such particulars of these marvels of distant 
 centuries as could be gathered from the writers of 
 the ages in which they existed, or those nearest the 
 time, upon whom reliance may be placed, in a narra- 
 tive form ; corroborating those statements by the 
 
b INTRODUCTION. 
 
 accounts of modern travelers : and to illustrate the 
 relation by some explanations of public ceremonies 
 immediately brought into connection with them ; 
 such, for instance, as J;he Olympic Games allied to 
 the worship of Jupiter, and the Pythian Games with 
 that of Apollo ; besides notices of the more celebra- 
 ted temples raised to those deities ; the worship of 
 Diana, with her noted temple, and reference to the 
 various oracles attached to each. 
 
 The association of ideas that will necessarily arise 
 in contemplating these wondrous works of past ages, 
 leads to the notice of other fabrics of a similar kind 
 of after-times, as well as to those of our own day ; as 
 the more remarkable mausoleums or memorials of 
 the great and the brave the Pyramids of India and 
 Mexico and those vast mounds of similar form in 
 other parts of the globe ; and in connection with the 
 Pharos that originated a name for such structures, 
 the Pharos of the Emperor Claudius at Ostia ; among 
 others of modern date, the superb one at Cordouan ; 
 and especially, we may refer with pride to those 
 paragons of engineering triumph over natural obsta- 
 cles, the light-houses on the Eddystone, and the 
 Bell Kock. 
 
 Time has not been able to erase these wonders of 
 the ancients from the page of history. Marvels 
 they have continued ; and from being the first of 
 their kind, have remained the examples and proto- 
 types to those which followed. 
 
 The Pyramids, we may be justly allowed to con- 
 sider as the preludial types for raising vast architec- 
 tural structures ; and their form must be attributed 
 to a knowledge of the regular solid figures, since 
 their duration satisfactorily proves that prescience 
 
 k 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 devised a shape calculated to accomplish that end ; 
 and, setting aside the theory that these piles had 
 any astronomical utility, we think it cannot be 
 questioned that their form or position was alike in- 
 tentional, though with what object we are unable to 
 discover. We are certain they were tombs, and in- 
 tended for mortal eternity ; the casing exists, but 
 the dust of the mighty potentates who were there 
 entombed has been abstracted and scattered to the 
 winds. We know that the crumbling bones even 
 the head that devised one of the monumental piles 
 and the hand that wielded the scepter of sovereign 
 command to call together the millions of his subjects 
 to construct it, are now exposed to vulgar gaze in 
 the city of London. 
 
 So fade the transitory glories of this world. 
 
 Sacred and profane history inform us, that some six 
 hundred years before our era, Nebuchadnezzar, the 
 greatest monarch that then reigned on the earth, the 
 despotic master of a vast empire, after surveying the 
 monuments of his genius and grandeur, and elated 
 with the intoxication of his state, exclaimed, " Is not 
 this the great Babylon that I have built ? " The fever- 
 ish flush of pride subsiding, he mused on what should 
 come to pass hereafter, knowing that a mightier 
 conqueror than he, even Death, would come, and 
 level all his greatness. A vision was vouchsafed to 
 him, which the learned of his own people failing to 
 expound, he had recourse to one of his Hebrew cap- 
 tives for its solution. The Prophet Daniel showed 
 the mighty monarch that in his dream he had seen 
 a great image, " whose brightness was excellent, 
 whose form was terrible ; " that the head of this 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 image was of fine gold, his breast and arms of silver, 
 and his body and thighs of brass, his legs of iron, 
 and feet of clay mingled with iron ; that a stone cut 
 without hands smote the image on the feet, and that 
 the whole image broke, and became like chaff before 
 the wind and then the stone became a mountain, 
 and filled the whole earth. This the prophet thus 
 expounded : the king himself was the head of gold ; 
 that after him should come another kingdom, typified 
 by the silver ; and then, a third should follow, repre- 
 sented by the brass, which should bear rule over the 
 whole earth. Thus, we have seen the Persian over- 
 throw the Babylonian monarchy, and the Macedonian 
 subvert the Persian ; the Roman empire was shad- 
 owed out in its strength, and its decline, and fall ; 
 the various kingdoms that arose out of the ruins 
 of iron-handed Rome are exhibited by the emblems 
 clay and iron. The last empire, figured by the stone 
 that had destroyed the image, is the kingdom of 
 Christ. Christianity came not with might and 
 power to establish a kingdom or overthrow a dynasty ; 
 but its whole influence, spiritual in its nature, worked 
 silently and unseen, and its spirit has spread abroad 
 over the earth, nor will it rest till it occupies all 
 space in the moral universe of man. This mar- 
 velous dream, that looked through such a long 
 period of history, and indicated events with a dis- 
 tinctness not to be mistaken, is one of the numerous 
 convincing proofs that the Bible is too miraculous a 
 book to be other than it pretends to be, and that our 
 holy religion, after its long night of trial, becoming 
 better understood, and more devoutly received, will 
 pour down its richest blessings on the world in times 
 to come. 
 
 I 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 The costly workmanship and lavish expenditure 
 bestowed by the Greeks on the images of their gods 
 are matters of wonders in our days. At what period 
 the worship of idols was introduced it is not possible 
 to ascertain ; but there is every reason to induce a 
 belief that idolatry was common after the deluge ; 
 for it is certain that the forefathers of Abraham, as 
 also himself, were engaged in its practice. The 
 Hebrews, who do not appear ever to have had a 
 form of idolatry of themselves, adopted the deities 
 of other lands; thus, in Egypt they worshiped 
 Egyptian deities ; in Judea, those of the neighbor- 
 ing nations. In all these, as far as we can judge, 
 the deities were representatives of the elements. 
 From the elementary worship, the Greeks, in their 
 refinement of art, adopted their beau-ideal of the 
 human form in male or female strength and beauty : 
 as the sun at Khodes was personified in the form of 
 Apollo, the most celebrated specimen of manly 
 elegance. Of these sculptured representations gal- 
 leries and museums of statuary afford abundant 
 specimens. 
 
 Besides this mode of honoring these deities, the 
 most splendid elaborations of architecture were de- 
 voted to the temples in which their gods were in- 
 voked : and among the more renowned were those 
 to Jupiter and Diana. These temples and the idols 
 were swept away by the besom of time, wielded by 
 the violent hands of Goth and Vandal. The cross 
 was in the earlier ages of Christianity elevated in 
 these ruined temples ; to this has succeeded another 
 age of darkness, and the crescent been reared in its 
 stead ; Mohammedan misrule will ere long again give 
 place to that faith which must overspread the globe, 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 when the march of mind and intellect shall enlighten 
 these lands of gloom with the knowledge of that 
 volume in which God shows that in the clearest 
 manifestation of his will, he would deal with us as 
 rational and responsible creatures. 
 
 The refinement of the Greeks led them to im- 
 prove on the vast mounds and pyramidal tombs of 
 earlier people, and they perpetuated the memory of 
 the loved and honored in life with costly fabrics in 
 which their ashes were entombed. The Mausoleum, 
 from its excessive magnificence, as well as for its l 
 architectural beauty and sculptural adornment, be- 
 came the first to give a name to superb monu- 
 ments to the dead in after-ages. 
 
 Of the triumphal exploits of Alexander of Mace- 
 don, which now but 
 
 " Point a moral and adorn a tale," 
 
 the name given to a city he founded at the mouth 
 of the Nile, alone exists. The ruins of its extent and 
 magnificence can with difficulty be traced; and of 
 the far-famed Pharos not one stone stands above 
 another, but the site has become a point of in- 
 terest, in rising from th"e~ slumber of ages to be 
 again one of the great cities of transit on the high- 
 way of nations from the western to the eastern 
 world. A modern Pharos of smaller dimensions, 
 certainly, has been erected on the opposite point ; 
 for wherever the march of commerce requires, the 
 prototypes of this first of light-houses spread them- 
 selves on every coast, to guide the mariner to his 
 destined haven. 
 
 The commercial spirit that leads the Anglo-Saxon 
 race to penetrate the wilds of the New World, may 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 light upon other buried cities of which written history 
 gives no record. The astounding discoveries of gold 
 deposits in different parts of the globe, and the 
 abundant supplies of which are now being obtained, 
 induce us to cease wondering at the extensive use 
 of gold by the ancient nations we have been led to 
 notice in course of this volume, which has often 
 heretofore been treated as fabulous exaggeration. 
 
 The recent discoveries of Fellowes and Layard 
 have satisfactorily proved that the statements of 
 certain Greek authors were not exaggerations; and 
 the vast remains of architectural wonders that are 
 scattered throughout, not only in the East, but also 
 buried in the wilds of America, would almost seem 
 to corroborate the traditions that they were the 
 works of past generations of giants. 
 
 Above thirty years ago, the eminent historian 
 Niebuhr offered an opinion, which Mr. Layard's 
 discoveries confirm, as far as one nation is concerned, 
 for which his countrymen may well claim for him 
 the gift of prophecy. 
 
 " There is no doubt but that Egypt must become 
 the possession of a civilized European power; it 
 must sooner or later becofaie the connecting link 
 between England and the East Indies. European 
 dominion naturally supports science and literature, 
 together with the rights of humanity ; and to prevent 
 the destruction of a barbarous power would be an 
 act of high treason against intellectual culture and 
 humanity. When that shall have been accomplished, 
 new treasures will be brought to light, and Egyptian 
 antiquity will be laid open before our eyes : we stand 
 at the very threshold of a new era in the history of 
 antiquity. In Nineveh, Babylonia, and Persia, cen- 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 turies long past will come to light again, and the 
 ancient times will present themselves clearly and 
 distinctly in all their detail. It is true that all those 
 nations are deficient in individuality, and in that 
 which constitutes the idea of humanity, and which 
 we find among the Greeks, Romans, and moderns ; 
 biit their conditions and changes will become clear. 
 In all its details, the ancient world will acquire a 
 fresh reality, and fifty years hence essays will ap- 
 pear on the history of those nations, compared with 
 which our present knowledge is like chemistry as 
 it was a hundred years before the time of Berzelius." 
 
 As some of these almost superhuman fabrics are 
 constantly brought before our mind's eye in connec- 
 tion with Biblical history, and our imagination 
 every hour of our existence raises some fresh topic 
 which awakens a rational curiosity to discuss and 
 master it, the compiler hopes the time of the 
 reader will not be idly employed in receiving all the 
 information that he has here gathered respecting 
 these mightiest of the ancient works of man. 
 
 From the records of the grandeur and wealth of 
 the cities and palaces here noticed, we may turn to 
 the accounts of the barbarous hordes who, from the 
 North, were permitted by Divine Providence to 
 ravage and destroy all these works of the most 
 civilized countries, and like some sad pestilence sent 
 on earth as a punishment and a warning for their 
 crimes. These " scourges of God," as they have 
 been justly termed, everywhere marked their prog- 
 ress by ruin and desolation ; and the sites of 
 populous cities are now only recognized by blackened 
 ruins and solitary columns. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Pyramids , 19 
 
 The Temple, the Walls, and Hanging Gardens op Babylon 69 
 
 The Chryselephantine Statue op Jupiter Olympius 137 
 
 ^' The Temple of Diana at Ephesus 179 
 
 * 
 
 . ^he Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 209 
 
 The Pharos at Alexandria 243 
 
 The Colossus o^Rhodes 265 
 
illustrations. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Statue of Jupiter Olympius 2 
 
 Engraved Title-page 3 
 
 Pyramids of Egypt 32 
 
 Babylon < 73 
 
 Temple of Diana.. '. 185 
 
 Mausoleum 213 
 
 Pharos at Alexandria 245 
 
 Colossus of Rhodes 268 
 
\t f aramiis of (fcgapt. 
 
 Beside the eternal Nile 
 
 The Pyramids have riseu : 
 Nile shall pursue his changeless way ; 
 
 Those Pyramids shall fall ; 
 Yea, not a stone shall stand to tell 
 
 The spot whereon they stood ; 
 Their very site shall be forgotten ; 
 
 As is the builder's name. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Herodotus's Account of the Pyramids. 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 The Approach from Cairo. 
 
 The Interior of the Great Pyramid. 
 
 Captain Caviglia's Investigation. 
 
 The Ascent. 
 
 The Second Pyramid, and its Ascent by Mi:. Wilde. 
 
 The Third and Fourth Pyramids. 
 
 The Pyramids of Sakkarrah and Dashour. 
 
 Graves's Pyramidographia. 
 
 The Mexican Pyramids. 
 
 Other Pyramujal Buildings. 
 
 Suggestions for the Origin of the Name. 
 
T li E 
 
 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 
 
 Those mighty piles the Pyramids have over-lived 
 
 The feeble generations of mankind. 
 
 What though unmoved they bore the deluge weight, 
 
 Survivors of the ruin'd world ? 
 
 What though their founder fill'd with miracles 
 
 And wealth miraculous their ample vaults ? 
 
 The eternal Pyramids the mystery of the past 
 the enigma of the present and the enduring for the 
 future ages of this world, standing at the head of a 
 long reach in the river Nile, directly in front of the 
 traveler, darkening the horizon, solitary, grand, and 
 gloomy, the only objects to be seen in the great 
 desert before him, are the more impressive as being 
 not unfrequently the aim and end of his journey to 
 the land of Egypt. 
 
 - The Pyramids of Jizeh are the most stupendous 
 masses of building in stone that human labor has ever 
 been known 1 1 > acc< maplish, and they arc still standing 
 there to tell us, that more than two thousand years 
 before the Christian era the Egyptians had learned 
 
 2 
 
20 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 to transport the heaviest blocks of granite ever moved 
 out of the quarry from Syene to the Delta of the 
 Nile, a land journey of six hundred, or a voyage of 
 near seven hundred miles ; to cut and polish them 
 with a precision and nicety we cannot even now sur- 
 pass, and to use them constructively with a degree of 
 science unequalled from that day to this ; besides 
 this, we know from the contemporary tombs, that at 
 that age these remarkable people had fixed institutions 
 in civil society, which all tell of a long anterior life, 
 which alone could have led to such maturity. We 
 are indebted to .Herodotus , properly styled " The 
 Father of History," for the first written account of 
 tl lose wondrous works of art. Herodotus in his thirty- 
 ninth year, B. C. 445, now within three years of 
 twenty-three centuries ago, composed his great and 
 only work that has come down to us : This work, 
 which is a history of the wars of the Greeks and Per- 
 sians from the time of Cyrus to the battle of Mycale, 
 in the reign of Xerxes, also gives an account of the 
 most celebrated nations of the world, as well as the 
 results of his travels over Italy, Greece, and Egypt. 
 His style abounds with elegance and ease, and he 
 candidly states what he saw and what he relates on 
 the narration of others. 
 
 He was informed by the priests of Memphis, that 
 the Great Pyramid was built by Cheops, a King of 
 Egypt; that one hundred thousand men were em- 
 ployed twenty years in building it ; and that the 
 body of Cheops was placed in a room beneath the 
 bottom of the pyramid ; that the chamber was sur- 
 rounded by a vault, to which the waters of the Nile 
 were conveyed by a subterranean tunnel. The 
 second pyramid was built by Cephren, the brother 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 21 
 
 and successor of Cheops ; and the third was erected 
 by Mycerinus, the son of Cheops. 
 
 Herodotus goes on to say, " that each face of it 
 measures eight plethra, (eight hundred Greek feet,) it 
 being quadrangular; and the height is the same. 
 It is made of polished stones, fitted together with 
 the greatest nicety, none of the stones being less 
 than thirty feet long. The pyramid was made in the 
 following manner, in the form of steps, which some 
 call crosses, (battlements,) and others bomides, (little 
 altars.) "When they had built it in this fashion, they 
 raised the remaining stones by machines or con- 
 trivances of short pieces of wood. They raised them 
 from the ground to the first tier of steps, and when 
 the stone had ascended to this tier, it was placed on 
 the first machine standing on the first row, and from 
 this row it was dragged upon the second row on 
 another machine. As many tiers of stones as there 
 were, so many machines also there were ; but accord- 
 ing to another account (for I think it right to give 
 both accounts as they were given to me) they 
 transferred the same machine, it being easily moved, 
 from step to step, as they raised each stone. The 
 highest parts were accordingly finished first, then 
 the parts next to the highest, and last of all the parts 
 near the ground, and the very bottom. It is worked 
 in Egyptian characters on the pyramid, how much 
 was spent in furnishing the workmen with purges, 
 leeks, and onions ; and as I well recollect what the 
 interpreter said who explained the characters to me, 
 it was one thousand six hundred talents of silver," 
 
 We arc told by Herodotus, that when the Great 
 Pyramid was designed, they began by making a 
 causeway, along which to convey the stone. This 
 
1 '' 
 
 22 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 causeway, he states, was three thousand Greek feet 
 in length, sixty in breadth, and forty-eight high, at 
 its greatest elevation ; it was made of highly-polished 
 stone, covered with sculptures, and in his opinion 
 was as wonderful a work as the pyramid itself. 
 When we consider the length and height of this 
 causeway, it is evident it was an inclined plane, 
 rising from the level below toward that on which 
 the pyramids stood, and forming the most magnifi- 
 cent approach that ever was made to the most won- 
 derful work of human labor. It seems also prob- 
 able, as the causeway commenced on the west side 
 of the canal, already alluded to, that the heavy 
 blocks (if we adopt the supposition of their being 
 brought from the east side of the Nile) were brought 
 by water to the bottom of this inclined plane, and 
 carried up it to the level above. There are still 
 existing remains of these causeways in several places, 
 particularly one leading to the third pyramid, eight 
 hundred yards in length. 
 
 Egypt was one of the countries earliest civilized, 
 and brought into a fixed social and political system. 
 The first king mentioned as having reigned over the 
 country is Menes, whose era is supposed with 
 tolerable correctness to have been 2200 years B. C. 
 From this time something like a chronological series 
 has been made out by Wilkinson, in his " General 
 Yiew of Egypt." The immediate successors of 
 Menes are unknown, until we come to Suphis and 
 his brother or brothers, to whom the Great Pyramid 
 is attributed, and who are supposed to be the 
 same as the Cheops and Cephren of Herodotus. 
 Abraham visited Egypt about 1920 B. C, and 
 we have the testimony of Scripture as to the 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 23 
 
 lrigli and flourishing state of the country at that 
 period. 
 
 Egypt is in every point of view one of the most 
 interesting regions in the world. Its remains of art 
 are of the most curious and impressive character ; 
 for the most part they are unique, carrying us back 
 for their origin to the earliest annals of history. Its 
 geography is connected with both sacred and classic 
 writings. It may be said that Egypt was the parent 
 of Grecian wisdom, the inventress of science, the 
 oracle of nations, the fountain-head of philosophy, 
 in whose schools we may be allowed to suppose 
 Moses, Pythagoras, and Plato exhausted the treasures 
 of human learning. Its ancient monuments, its 
 physical features, its geographical position, its pro- 
 verbial fertility, and its commercial importance, com- 
 Tnne to render the land of Egypt, in the eyes of the 
 scientific traveler, the statesman, and the philanthro- 
 pist, one of the most attractive parts of the world. 
 The name by which the country is known to the 
 European, comes to us from the Greeks, who derive 
 it from a certain King ^Egyptus, the son of Belus. 
 In the Hebrew Scriptures it is denominated the land 
 of Mizraim or Mitsraim, and the Arabians and other 
 eastern people still know it by Mesr or Misr ; the 
 Coptic name of Old Cairo is now Mistraim. 
 
 Taking, therefore, the Holy Scriptures for our 
 guide, we must be led to believe the ancient Egyp- 
 tians were the Mizraimites, and the posterity of Ham. 
 We conclude that Egypt was peopled by a branch 
 of the Caucasian race, as the chronology of the 
 Egyptian figures on the most ancient tombs testifies. 
 The first settlement of their race was the country 
 nearest to Asia, as the oldest vestiges are at Thebes, 
 
24 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 and from thence they wandered down the Nilotic 
 valley. 
 
 The same holy annals, and tradition likewise, assert 
 that the first parents of mankind were placed in Asia, 
 and from thence, in process of time, increasing num- 
 bers required new lands ; their progress was need- 
 fully slow, such as we may suppose, with a pastoral 
 people, incumbered with wives and children, flocks 
 and herds, it would necessarily be. Whether this 
 migration was anterior or posterior to the dispersion, 
 is of no import ; we may recognize the all- wise hand 
 of Providence, accomplishing by natural instru- 
 ments, and according to immutable organic laws, 
 the object of man's creation. Whether or not the 
 first settlers in the valley of the Nile brought with 
 them any knowledge of the arts of civil life, to pre- 
 serve our confidence in Scripture chronology, their 
 progress must have been amazingly rapid, for within 
 a few generations of Mizraim we find monuments 
 that attest a skill in the arts, an acquaintance with 
 practical science, a profound knowledge of political 
 economy and principles of government, and an ex- 
 tent of civilization equal to that existing in Egypt 
 at any after-period of history. Of their high social 
 condition we have incontestable evidence, that the 
 female sex was honored and educated, and free as 
 among ourselves ; and this is a most unanswerable 
 proof of the advanced civilization of this ancient 
 people. 
 
 Among the ruin'd temples there, 
 Stupendous columns, and wild images 
 Of more than man, whei'e marble demons watch 
 The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men 
 Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around, 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYTT. 25 
 
 The philosopher linger'd, poring on memorials 
 Of the world's youth ; through the long burning day 
 Gazed on those speechless shapes, nor, when the moon 
 Fill'd the mysterious halls with floating shades 
 Suspended he that task, but ever gazed, 
 And gazed, till morning on his vacant mind 
 Flash'd like strong inspiration, and he saw 
 The thrilling secrets of the birth of Time. 
 
 The land of Egypt may be described as an immense 
 valley, terminating in a delta, or triangular plain 
 of alluvial formation, being, from Syene to the shores 
 of the Mediterranean, about six hundred miles in 
 length, and of various widths. From Syene to Cairo, 
 a distance of about five hundred miles, the valley is 
 about eight miles broad, hemmed in by two moun- 
 tain ridges, the one extending eastward to the Red 
 Sea, and the other terminating westward in the 
 Libyan deserts. 
 
 The mountains which form the natural boundaries 
 of the Egyptian valley are, on many accounts, highly 
 deserving of attention. From them, under the 
 Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Antonines, were 
 drawn the materials, not only of the stupendous 
 monuments which still make Egypt a land of wonders, 
 but also for many of the public buildings in Italy, 
 the remains of which attest the genius of the Roman 
 artists and the munificence of the emperors. About 
 the 24th degree of N. latitude, a granitic chain closes 
 in on each side of the river, so as to wear the ap- 
 pearance of having been rent by the stream, which 
 forces its way through fragments of rock. Hence, 
 the almost innumerable islands to the north of Philse, 
 as far as Aswan, (Assouan.) The cataracts a little to 
 the south of that town are nothing more than rapids, 
 which might arise from a contraction of the bed of 
 
26 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the stream; there is, however, most probably, in 
 that tract of country, a considerable change in the 
 level of the soil. The bold, but wild and gloomy 
 precipices which here overhang the stream, as well 
 as the roar of its waters rushing through a multitude 
 of channels, (for, even when the inundation is at its 
 height, there are twenty large islands in the midst 
 of the river,) were well calculated to work upon the 
 imagination of the early inhabitants; and their be- 
 lief that Osiris remained buried in those abysses as 
 long as the stream was confined within its banks, 
 but rose from the grave to scatter his blessings over 
 the land as soon as the accumulated waters were 
 poured forth on all sides, was fostered, if not created, 
 by the physical peculiarities of this overawing 
 though desolate region. The granite, or southern 
 district, extends from Philse to Aswan, (in lat. 
 24 8' 6" K ; long. 33 4' E.,) and is formed, for the 
 most part, by rocks of Syenite or oriental granite, 
 in which the quarries may yet be seen, from which 
 the ancients drew the stupendous masses required 
 for their colossal statues and obelisks. Between 
 Aswan and Esne (in lat. 25 19' 39" N.) is the sand- 
 stone, or middle district, which supplied slabs for 
 most of the temples ; and beyond it the northern, or 
 calcareous district, stretches to the southern angle 
 of the Delta. This last chain of hills furnished not 
 only the solid part of the pyramids, but materials 
 also for many public buildings, long since destroyed, 
 because they proved excellent stores of lime and 
 stone for the Arabs and other barbarians by whom 
 Egypt had been desolated for so many centuries. The 
 steep, perpendicular cliffs of this calcareous rock 
 give a monotonous and unpicturesque aspect to this 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 27 
 
 part of Egypt; while the boldness and grotesque 
 forms of the mountains in the south offer new points 
 of view in continual succession, even when the in- 
 undation is its greatest height. 
 
 On each side of the river below Aswan, very 
 steep, abrupt sandstone cliffs, presenting a continued 
 line of ancient quarries, hem in the stream ; and the 
 valley, which opens gradually, closes again at the 
 distance of twelve leagues, (about thirty-six geo- 
 graphical miles,) where it is reduced to one-fourth of 
 its former width ; and lofty walls of rock on each side 
 barely leave a passage for the water. This is now 
 called Jehel-el-jSilsileh, (Mountain of the Chain ;) 
 and from its quarries the materials used in the 
 temples at Thebes were drawn. Below these narrows 
 the valley gradually widens, but the eastern bank 
 continues to present one uninterrupted perpendicular 
 wall, while, on the west, there is a gradual, and 
 generally an easy ascent to the desert. Another 
 contraction of the valley occurs about fifty-six geo- 
 graphical miles lower down, ten miles to the north 
 of Esne, where the rock does not leave even a 
 footpath near the river, and the traveler by land 
 must make a considerable circuit in order to reach 
 the place where the hills, for the third time, recede. 
 This passage, called Jehelein, (the two hills,) leads to 
 the plains of Ermont and Thebes, (in lat. 25 44' ~N. ;) 
 for here the land on each side of the river spreads 
 out into so wide a level as really to form a plain, in 
 comparison with the rugged banks of the stream 
 higher up. It is at this place that the sandstone 
 terminates, and the freestone begins. The banks 
 are no longer straight and parallel, but diverge in 
 various directions, forming many bays and creeks ; 
 
28 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 while the country, rising on each side almost im- 
 perceptibly toward the hills, presents a nearly even 
 surface of cultivable soil about two leagues in width. 
 This, which is the first level of any extent below the 
 cataracts, is the site of the most ancient and cele- 
 brated capital of Egypt, Thebes ; the ruins of which 
 cover a large proportion of the valley. It is remark- 
 able, that the distance from Thebes to the cataracts, 
 one extremity of the country, is exactly the same as 
 that between Memphis, the subsequent capital, and 
 the sea, the other extremity ; namely, forty leagues, 
 or one hundred and twenty geographical miles. 
 The calcareous chain continues from this point, on 
 each side of the valley, to the head of the Delta, 
 where the hills open to the east and west, uniting 
 with the Libyan chain on one side, and bending 
 toward the mountains of Arabia Petrsea on the 
 other. This chain, though generally calcareous, is 
 occasionally, especially near the desert, broken by 
 isolated rocks of sandstone. 
 
 At Denderah, (Tentyris,) twelve leagues K of 
 Thebes, the Nile, again hemmed in by the hills, 
 turns nearly at right angles, and runs directly from 
 east to west as far as the site of Abydus, (Medfun, 
 or El Birba,) where it resumes its northerly direc- 
 tion, and, entering another spacious and fertile val- 
 ley, passes by Jirjeh and Osyut, (or Siout.) Near 
 the latter place, the Libyan chain begins to bend 
 toward the west ; and the descent from the desert 
 becomes so gradual, that the country is on that side 
 much exposed to clouds of sand, by which it would 
 have been overwhelmed long since, but for the 
 canal called Bahr Ynsuf, (Joseph's Eiver,) which 
 secures the irrigation of the land between itself and 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 29 
 
 the Nile, and thus prevents the further encroach- 
 ment of the desert. Here the Said, or upper division 
 of Egypt, terminates, and the Wustani, or middle 
 region, extending as far as the fork of the Delta, 
 commences. The more the valley of the Nile gains 
 in width, and the western mountains lose in height, 
 the greater is the danger from its proximity to the 
 Libyan desert. That remarkable portion of Africa 
 (El Sahra) is, for the most part, covered with sand 
 or very fine gravel, the minuter particles of which 
 are, at certain seasons, carried by tempestuous gales 
 over a great extent of country. It is manifest, that 
 the less ground is cultivated, the fewer the trees and 
 shrubs it bears, and the more its irrigation is neglect- 
 ed, the more rapidly will the sand from the desert 
 encroach on the plains or valleys near the river. 
 The cultivable tracts, therefore, in the middle and 
 lower Egypt, have long been dayly decreasing ; and 
 were it not for the canal just mentioned, few spots 
 uncovered by sand would have remained on the 
 western bank of the Nile. 
 
 Beyond Beni-Suweif, (in lat. 29 9' 12" N.,) the 
 Libyan chain of hills again closes in toward the 
 N. E., and forms the northern boundary of the large 
 basin between Derut-el-Sherif and Atfih; but at 
 El llahun, to the N. W. of the former, it is broken 
 by one of the many transverse valleys, and thus 
 opens a passage into the province of Fayyum, (or 
 Fayoum.) Beyond that vale, which is merely a 
 large bay or sinuosity in the border of these moun- 
 tains, they approach the river with a steeper de- 
 clivity, and have a nearly level summit overlooking 
 the country below. This tableland, between the 
 Nile and Fayyum, was chosen for the site of the 
 
30 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 pyramids. On its north-western side, the hills shelve 
 off in that direction, and terminate in the cliffs and 
 promontories which mark the coast of ancient Cy- 
 renaica. The eastern or Arabian chain has generally 
 more transverse breaks and ravines, is more lofty 
 and rugged, and comes closer to the river, than the 
 hills on the opposite side. The northern part of it 
 is called El MoJcattam, (the hewn,) probably from 
 the quarries formed in its sides, and is conncted by 
 several inferior ranges with the mountains of Arabia 
 Petrsea. 
 
 Of the transverse valleys leading to the Red Sea, 
 the best known are, the Valley of Cosseir, and that 
 of the Wanderings of the Children of Israel : the 
 former is the most frequented road between the Up- 
 per Egypt and the sea, and the latter the route pro- 
 bably followed by the Israelites on their return to 
 the promised land. But, besides these, there are 
 five or six others at present known, and several, 
 probably, unexplored. ' Some were much frequented 
 anciently, which are now rarely if ever visited : such 
 have been the ruinous consequences of misgovern- 
 ment, by which the commerce of Egypt has dwindled 
 to almost nothing. Towns upon the Red Sea, once 
 flourishing emporiums, have ceased to exist; and 
 Berenice, anciently celebrated for its wealth and 
 commerce, is now so completely forgotten, that even 
 the road to it was unknown till traced a few years 
 ago by MM. Cailliaud and Belzoni. The narrow 
 ravines between the hills on the western side were, 
 till very lately, equally unknown, though the Oases, 
 and the roads leading to them, were described by 
 the Greeks and Arabs. Two lead from Jirjeh and 
 Esne into the greater Oasis, {EL Wah-el-kharijeh,) 
 
***Sk 
 
 ""Eft 
 
 5x1$ 
 
 * i 
 
 fcw I 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 33 
 
 and one from Fayyum into the smaller, {El Wah-el- 
 dal-hileh.) On the western side of the Delta, the 
 direction of the valleys is nearly from S. E. to N.W. ; 
 and Siyah, or Shantariyyeh, the Oasis of Ammon, 
 is connected with Egypt by branches which diverge 
 more toward the west, from the Bah?* Bilama, 
 (Waterless Sea,) i. e. the celebrated desert called 
 Scete, or the Valley of Natron. 
 
 The traveler, in general, first obtains a fair view 
 of the pyramids from the city of Grand Cairo, on the 
 east bank of the Nile, at a distance of about five 
 miles in a straight line. We are told that the first 
 view does not strike the traveler with the idea of 
 grandeur, any more than a hill of moderate dimen- 
 sions when seen -at a small distance : comparison 
 being essential for a proper conception of these 
 wondrous fabrics, we have no standard to measure 
 them ; and for this reason the pyramids do not equal 
 the expectations formed by any spectator who sees 
 them for the first time. The clearness of the atmos- 
 phere, which defines their angles so sharply, and 
 the want of some suitable measure of size, sufficiently 
 account for this. But still there are other impres- 
 sions that serve to give some idea of the enormous 
 mass of these objects; and at the distance of four 
 or five miles they seem close at hand ; and the tra- 
 veler, as he advances, has time to reflect on the 
 magnitude of the object which has given him so 
 erroneous an idea of distance. This impression is 
 caused partly by their magnitude, partly by their 
 forms. Being large undivided masses of four equal 
 sides, there are no small parts for the eye to dwell 
 upon, as in ordinary temples, where the indistinct- 
 ness of particular portions serves to correct false im- 
 
34 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOKLD. 
 
 pressions of distance, which it is the tendency of the 
 whole mass to produce. 
 
 When the inundation of the Nile is at its height, 
 a very circuitous route to the pyramids becomes 
 necessary, near twenty miles; but this journey is 
 described as a most agreeable one, leading at times 
 through woods of palm and date-trees, or over bar- 
 ren and sandy tracts, without a vestige of verdure 
 or population. The Nile in its overflow encompass- 
 es villages and their groups of trees, and amid the 
 waters rises occasionally a lonely palm. Here a 
 hamlet seems floating on the wave, above which 
 hangs the foliage and fruit of various trees, and 
 there are seen hills of sand, rocks, and ruins of 
 temples, looking as so many beacons in the watery 
 waste. 
 
 For want of some neighboring object with which 
 to compare this immense pile, no adequate idea is 
 formed of its real dimensions till the traveler, on 
 arriving at its base, measures its length by his steps, 
 and finds the first tier of stones even with his 
 chest. 
 
 The quantity of stone used in this pyramid is 
 estimated at six millions of tons, which is just three 
 times that of the vast breakwater thrown across 
 Plymouth Sound ; and, as we are told, one hundred 
 thousand men were for twenty years employed in 
 building this empty sepulcher, and the whole of the 
 material of the structure was brought from above 
 Thebes, in Upper Egypt. 
 
 In the hazy light of early morning, the first view 
 of the pyramids appears like a mountain of singular 
 shape, inclining on one side, as if its foundation had 
 partially given way. Approaching nearer, and the 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 35 
 
 objects become distinct, the three great pyramids, 
 and one smaller one, are in view, towering higher 
 and higher above the plain, and when the traveler 
 is above a mile distant, he is impressed with the 
 feeling that he can touch them; on nearer approach, 
 the gigantic dimensions grow upon him, and, looking 
 up their sloping sides to the lofty summits, he be- 
 comes sensible of the enormous magnitude of the 
 mass above him. 
 
 The severe simplicity of form, and the sublime 
 purity of design, combined with solidity of con- 
 struction, create a sensation of awe when the trav- 
 eler gazes on the mass, each side of the base of 
 which, measured round the stones let into the rock, 
 is seven hundred and sixty -five feet ; covering a sur- 
 face of about eleven acres. 
 
 Never can the impression made by their ap- 
 pearance on the mind of the traveler be obliterated. 
 When reflecting the sun's rays, they appear as white 
 as snow, and of such surprising magnitude, that 
 nothing he had previously conceived in imagination 
 can prepare him for the spectacle he beholds. The 
 sight instantly convinces him that no power of de- 
 scription, no delineation, can convey ideas adequate 
 to the effect produced in viewing these stupendous 
 monuments. The formality of their structure is lost 
 in their prodigious magnitude ; the mind, elevated 
 by wonder, feels at once the force of an axiom, 
 which, however disputed, experience confirms,- 
 that in vastness, whatever be its nature, there dwells 
 sublimity. Another proof of their indescribable 
 power is, that no one can approach them under 
 other emotions than those of terror, which is another 
 principle of the sublime. In certain instances of 
 
36 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 irritable feeling, the impression of awe and fear has 
 been so great as to cause pain rather than pleasure ; 
 hence, perhaps, have originated descriptions of the 
 pyramids which represent them as deformed and 
 gloomy masses, without taste or beauty. Persons 
 who have derived no satisfaction from the contem- 
 plation of these marvelous works of man's labor, 
 may not have been conscious that the uneasiness 
 they experienced was a result of their own sensibili- 
 ty ; others have acknowledged ideas widely different, 
 excited by every wonderful circumstance of charac- 
 ter and situation, ideas of duration, almost endless; 
 of power, inconceivable; of majesty, supreme; of 
 solitude, almost awful ; of grandeur, of desolation, 
 and repose. 
 
 When near the base of the great pyramid, the 
 effect of its prodigious magnitude, and the amaze- 
 ment caused in surveying the enormous masses of 
 stone used in its construction, create an impression 
 of awe and fear rather than of pleasure. It is im- 
 possible that persons susceptible of any feeling of 
 sublimity can behold them unmoved. The specta- 
 tor surveys with amazement the vast surface pre- 
 sented to his sight in this stupendous monument, 
 which seems to reach the clouds. The Arab guides 
 appear like pigmies scattered upon the immense 
 masses. Even walking round it and looking up 
 from its base, the spectator does not feel its immen- 
 sity till he has commenced the ascent; then stop- 
 ping to breathe, and looking down, he sees men 
 dwindled into insect size; and looking up at the 
 great distance between himself and the summit, he 
 then realizes in all their force the huge dimensions 
 of this giant work. It takes about twenty or thirty 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 37 
 
 minutes to ascend the great pyramid with the assist- 
 ance of the Arabs. 
 
 It is not what it once was to go to the pyramids. 
 They have become regular lions to multitudes of 
 travelers from all parts of the world ; but still, com- 
 mon as the journey is, no man can stand on the top 
 of the great pyramid of Cheops, and look out upon 
 the dark mountain of Mokattam, bordering the 
 Arabian desert, upon the ancient city of the 
 Pharaohs, its domes, its mosques, and minarets, glit- 
 tering in the light of a vertical sun, upon the rich 
 valley of the Nile and the river of Egypt rolling at 
 his feet, the long range of pyramids and tombs 
 extending along the edge of the desert to the ruined 
 city of Memphis, and the boundless and eternal 
 sands of Africa, without considering that moment 
 an epoch not to be forgotten ; thousands of years 
 roll through his mind, and thought recalls the men 
 who built them, their mysterious uses, the poets, 
 historians, philosophers, and warriors, who have 
 gazed upon them with a wonder like his own. 
 
 It is remarked, that he who has stood on the 
 summit of this most ancient, and yet most mighty 
 monument of man's, power and pride, and has looked 
 round to the far horizon where Libya and Arabia 
 lie silent, and has seen at his feet the land of 
 Egypt, dividing their dark solitude with a narrow 
 vale, beautiful and green, the mere enameled setting 
 of one solitary, shining river, must receive impres- 
 sions which he can never convey, for he can never 
 define them himself. Amid all the uncertainty 
 which hangs over the design, and date, and builders 
 of this vast pile, this one thing we know, that the \ 
 chief, and the philosopher, and the poet of times of ' 
 
 3 
 
38 SEVEN WONDEKS OP THE WOULD. 
 
 old, have certainly been here ; that Alexander has 
 spurred his war-horse to its base ; and Pythagoras, 
 with naked foot, has probably stood on its summit. 
 
 Belzoni, who ascended the great pyramid, says : 
 " We went there to sleep, that we might ascend the 
 first pyramid early enough in the morning to see 
 the rising of the sun ; and accordingly we were on 
 the top of it long before the dawn of day. The 
 scene here is majestic and grand far beyond de- 
 scription ; a mist over the plains of Egypt formed a 
 vail, which ascended and vanished gradually as the 
 sun rose and unvailed to the view the beautiful 
 land, once the site of Memphis. The distant view 
 of the smaller pyramids on the south marked the 
 extension of that vast capital; while the solemn, 
 endless spectacle of the desert on the west inspired 
 us with reverence for the all-powerful Creator. The 
 fertile lands on the north, with the serpentine course 
 of the Nile, descending toward the sea ; the rich 
 appearance of Cairo, and its numerous minarets, at 
 the foot of the Mokattam mountain on fhe east ; the 
 beautiful plain which extends from the pyramids 
 to that city; the Nile, which flows magnificently 
 through the center of the sacred valley; and the 
 thick groves of palm-trees under our eyes ; altogether 
 formed a scene of which very imperfect ideas can 
 be given by the most elaborate description." 
 
 In order to convey some notion of the size and 
 extent of the great pyramid, it may be said that the 
 base is five hundred and fifty thousand square feet ; 
 and its height four hundred and seventy-four feet, 
 or one hundred and fourteen feet higher than the 
 top of the cross surmounting St. Paul's Cathedral at 
 London ; the height, in its complete state, was five 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 39 
 
 hundred and two feet. The pyramid consists of a 
 series of platforms, each of which' is smaller than 
 the one on which it rests, and consequently presents 
 the appearance of steps, which diminish in length 
 from the bottom to the top. Of these steps there 
 are two hundred and three, and the height of them 
 decreases, but not regularly, from the bottom to the 
 top, the greatest height being nearly four feet eight 
 inches, and the least rather more than one foot eight 
 inches. The horizontal lines of the platforms are 
 perfectly straight, and the stones are cut and fitted 
 to each other with the greatest nicety, and joined 
 by a cement of lime with but little sand in it. It 
 has been ascertained that a bed, eight inches deep, 
 has been cut in the rock to receive the lowest ex- 
 ternal course of stones. The vertical height, meas- 
 ured from this base in the rock to the top of the 
 highest platform now remaining, is four hundred 
 and fifty-six feet. This platform has an area of 
 about one thousand and sixty-seven square feet, each 
 side being thirty-two feet eight inches ; it consists of 
 six square blocks of stone, irregularly disposed, on 
 which the knives of visitors have been ambitiously 
 employed in sculpturing their names ; among which 
 there are some in Greek, a few in Arabic, many in 
 French, and two or three in English. It is supposed 
 that eight or nine of the layers of stone have been 
 thrown down, although there is now no trace of 
 cement on the surface of the highest tier; but 
 Gemelli, about one hundred and fifty years since, 
 gave the number of steps two hundred and eight, 
 the height five hundred and twenty-eight feet, and 
 the area of the summit sixteen feet eiffht inches 
 
 a* & 
 
 square. 
 
40 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The entrance of the great pyramid is on the north 
 face, forty-seven feet above the base ; it is nearly in 
 the center. The sands of the desert have encroached 
 upon it, and, with the fallen stones and rubbish, 
 have buried it to the sixteenth step. Climbing over 
 this rubbish, the entrance is reached, a narrow pas- 
 sage of three and a half feet square, lined with broad 
 blocks of polished granite, descending, in the inte- 
 rior, at an angle of twenty-seven degrees, for about 
 one hundred feet; then the passage turns to the 
 right, and winds up a steep ascent of eight or nine 
 feet, falling into a natural passage, five feet high 
 and one hundred feet long, forming a continued 
 ascent to a sort of landing-place ; in a small recess 
 of this is the orifice, or shaft, called the well ; it was 
 by this shaft that the workmen descended, after 
 they had closed the lower end of the upper passage, 
 which was done with blocks of granite ; and having 
 gone down by the well, and reached the lower pas- 
 sage, they followed it upward to the mouth, which 
 they also closed in the same manner. But those who 
 opened the pyramid, in order to avoid the granite 
 blocks at the junctions of the two passages, forced 
 a way through the side ; and it is by this you now 
 ascend in going to the great gallery. The quality 
 of the granite was carefully concealed by a triangu- 
 lar piece of limestone fitted into the ceiling of the 
 passage ; its falling betrayed the secret, by expos- 
 ing the granite. Moving onward through a long 
 passage, the explorer comes to what is called the 
 Queen's Chamber, seventeen feet long, seventeen 
 feet wide, and twelve feet high. From this cham- 
 ber, or crypt, there is, by another way, an entrance 
 to another opening, now cumbered with fallen 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 41 
 
 stones. Ascending above this, by a gallery or an 
 inclined plane, lined with highly-polished granite, 
 and about one hundred and twenty feet in length, 
 you enter the King's Chamber, thirty-seven feet 
 long, seventeen feet wide, and twenty feet in height. 
 The walls of this chamber are of red granite, highly 
 polished, each stone reaching from the floor to the 
 ceiling; and the ceiling is formed of nine large 
 slabs of polished granite, extending from wall to 
 wall. At one end of the chamber stands a sarcoph- 
 agus, also of red granite ; its length is seven feet 
 four inches by three feet, being only three inches 
 less than the doorway. Here is supposed to have 
 slept one of the great rulers of the earth, the king of 
 the then greatest kingdom of the world, the proud 
 mortal for whom this mighty structure was raised. 
 Where is he now ? even his dry bones are gone ! 
 torn away by rude hands, and scattered by the 
 winds of heaven. There is something curious about 
 this sarcophagus ; it being so near the size of the 
 orifice which forms the entrance of the pyramid, it 
 could hardly have been conveyed to its place by 
 any of the now known passages ; we must, con- 
 sequently, conclude it was deposited during the 
 building, or before the passage was finished in its 
 present state. 
 
 It is not the least interesting part of a visit to the 
 interior of the pyramids, as you are groping your 
 way after the Arab guide, to feel your hand run- 
 ning along the sides of an enormous shaft, smooth 
 and polished to the highest state of art, and to see 
 by the light of a flowing torch chambers of red 
 granite from the cataracts of the Nile, the enormous 
 blocks of which, prepared with so much care, were 
 
42 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 then carefully sealed up, so as not to be visited by- 
 mortal eyes. 
 
 In 1817, Captain Caviglia, an Italian, thoroughly 
 investigated the interior of the great pyramid, and 
 also some of the adjoining tombs. He describes the 
 shaft as being lined with masonry, both above and 
 below the grotto, " to support, as was supposed, one 
 of those insulated beds of gravel which are fre- 
 quently found in rock, and which the masons call 
 flaws." Mr. Caviglia was, however, by no means 
 satisfied with the result of his supposed discovery 
 of the bottom of the well. The ground was per- 
 ceived to give a hollow sound beneath his feet, and 
 he was persuaded that there must be some con- 
 cealed outlet. He therefore determined to set 
 about excavating the bottom of the well. The offer 
 of enormous wages, backed by an order from the 
 Kiayarbey, procured the reluctant assistance of the 
 Arabs in drawing up the rubbish ; but, after he had 
 succeeded so far in subduing their indolence and 
 their prejudices, the suffocating heat and impurity 
 of the air in so confined a place, where, after the 
 first hour, a light would not burn, rendered it im- 
 practicable to proceed in the excavation. The fur- 
 ther progress of his researches we give in the words 
 of a narrative drawn up from information communi- 
 cated by Mr. Salt, the British consul-general : 
 
 " Thus discouraged, Mr. Caviglia next turned his 
 attention to the clearing of the principal entrance 
 or passage of the pyramid, which, from time imme- 
 morial, had been so blocked up as to oblige those 
 who entered to creep on their hands and knees; 
 hoping by this to give a freer passage to the air. 
 He not only succeeded in carrying his purpose into 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 43 
 
 effect, but, in the course of his labors, made the 
 unexpected discovery, that the main passage, lead- 
 ing from the entrance, does not terminate in the 
 manner asserted by Maillet. Having removed 
 several large masses of calcareous stone and granite, 
 apparently placed there to obstruct the passage, he 
 found that it still continues in the same inclined 
 angle downward, is of the same dimensions, and 
 has its sides worked with the same care as in the 
 channel above, though filled up nearly to the top 
 with earth and fragments of stone. Having pro- 
 ceeded to the length of one hundred and fifty feet 
 in clearing out this passage, the air began to be so 
 impure, and the heat so suffocating, that he had the 
 same difficulties again to encounter with regard to 
 the working Arabs. Even his own health was at 
 this time visibly impaired, and he was attacked with 
 a spitting of blood ; nothing, however, could induce 
 him to desist from his researches. 
 
 " By the 14th of March, he had excavated as low 
 down as two hundred feet in the new passage with- 
 out anything particular occurring; when, shortly 
 afterward, a door on the right side was discovered, 
 from which, in the course of a few hours, a strong- 
 smell of sulphur was perceived to issue. Mr. Cavig- 
 lia now recollected, that when at the bottom of the 
 well, in his first enterprise, he had burned some 
 sulphur for the purpose of purifying the air, and he 
 conceived it probable that this doorway might com- 
 municate w r ith it ; an idea which, in a little time, he 
 had the gratification of seeing realized, by discover- 
 ing that the channel through the doorway opened 
 at once upon the bottom of the well, where he found 
 the baskets, cords, and other implements which had 
 
44 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 been left there on his recent attempt at a further 
 excavation." This discovery was so far valuable as 
 it afforded a complete circulation of air along the 
 new passage, and up the shaft of the well into the 
 chamber, so as to obviate all danger, for the future, 
 from the impurity of the atmosphere. Mr. Salt, 
 after this, made the tour of the long passage, and 
 up the shafts into the great gallery, without much 
 inconvenience. 
 
 "The new passage did not terminate at the door- 
 way which opened upon the bottom of the well. 
 Continuing to the distance of twenty-three feet be- 
 yond it, in the same angle of inclination, it became 
 narrower, and took a horizontal direction for about 
 twenty-eight feet further, where it opened into a spa- 
 cious chamber, immediately under the central point 
 of the pyramid. This new chamber is sixty-six feet 
 long by twenty-seven feet broad, with a flat roof, 
 and, when first discovered, was nearly filled with 
 loose stones and rubbish, which, with considerable 
 labor, Mr. Caviglia removed. The platform of the 
 floor, dug out of the rock, is irregular, nearly one 
 half of the length from the eastern or entrance end 
 being level, and about fifteen feet from the ceiling ; 
 while in the middle it descends five feet lower, in 
 which part there is a hollow space, bearing all the 
 appearance of the commencement of a well or shaft. 
 From hence it rises to the western end, so that at 
 this extremity there is scarcely room between the 
 floor and the ceiling to stand upright, the whole 
 chamber having the appearance of an unfinished ex- 
 cavation." This Mr. Salt thinks, after a careful 
 comparison of it with other subterranean chambers 
 which have been disfigured by the combined effects 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 45 
 
 of time and the rude hands of curious inquirers, may 
 once have been highly wrought, and used, perhaps, 
 for the performance of solemn and secret mysteries. 
 Some Roman characters, rudely formed, had been 
 marked with the flame of a candle on the rock, part 
 of which having moldered away, rendered the 
 words illegible. Mr. Salt says, he had flattered 
 himself that this chamber would turn out to be that 
 described by Herodotus as containing the tomb of 
 Cheops, which was insulated by a canal from the 
 Nile ; but the want of an inlet, and its elevation of 
 thirty feet above the level of the Nile, at its highest 
 point, put an end to this delusive idea. He thinks, 
 however, from an expression of Strabo, purporting 
 that the passage from the entrance leads directly 
 down to the chamber which contained the Ovia, 
 (the receptacle of the dead,) that this new chamber 
 was the only one known to that author. "Whatever 
 might have been the intention of this deeply- exca- 
 vated chamber, no vestige of a sarcophagus could 
 now be traced. 
 
 " On the south side of this irregularly -formed or 
 unfinished chamber is an excavated passage, just 
 wide and high enough for a man to creep along on 
 his hands and knees, continuing horizontally in the 
 rock for fifty-five feet, where it abruptly terminates. 
 Another passage at the east end of the chamber com- 
 mences with a kind of arch, and runs about forty 
 feet into the solid body of the pyramid." Mr. Salt 
 also mentions another passage noticed by Olivier, in 
 which the names of "Paisley" and "Munro" were 
 now found inscribed at its extremity. 
 
 These laborious exertions do not appear to have 
 been rewarded with any new discovery of antiqui- 
 
46 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 ties. Mr. Caviglia has, however, to a certain de- 
 gree, determined one long-disputed point, namely, 
 how far the living rock had been made available in 
 the construction of the pyramids. " This rock, which 
 shows itself externally at the north-eastern angle of 
 the great pyramid, appears in the main passage, 
 and again close to the mouth of the well ; the highest 
 projection into the body of the pyramid being about 
 eighty feet from the level of its external base." 
 
 Much more, however, there can be no doubt, re- 
 mains to be discovered within these "gloomy man- 
 sions of mystery and wonder." We have now, it is 
 remarked, the knowledge of three distinct chambers 
 in the great pyramid, all of which had evidently 
 been opened by the Saracens, and, perhaps, long 
 before by the Romans; but, for anything that is 
 known to the contrary, there may be three hundred, 
 and might be ten times three hundred such cham- 
 bers yet undiscovered. To assist the mind to form 
 a just idea of the immensity of the mass, let us take 
 the great chamber of the sarcophagus, whose di- 
 mensions (it being about thirty-five and a half feet 
 long, seventeen and one-quarter broad, and eight- 
 een and three-quarters high) are those of a tolerably 
 large-sized drawing-room ; which, as the solid con- 
 tents of the pyramid are found to exceed eighty-five 
 million cubic feet, forms nearly 73 V3 part of the 
 whole : so that, after leaving the contents of every 
 second chamber solid, by way of separation, there 
 might be three thousand seven hundred chambers, 
 each equal in size to the sarcophagus chamber within 
 the pyramid of Cheops. All the rooms at present 
 discovered are on the west of the general passage, 
 that is, in the north-west quarter of the pyramid, 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 47 
 
 with the exception of the one discovered by Mr. 
 Caviglia in the center of its base ; and till examina- 
 tion shall have ascertained the contrary, it may be 
 presumed that the other three-quarters have also 
 their chambers. The insulated tomb of Cheops, the 
 founder, if the statement furnished by Mr. Salt be 
 correct, must be an excavation far deeper than has 
 yet been discovered ; and the channel by which the 
 waters of the Nile could be brought into any part 
 of the pyramid, remains altogether concealed. Yet, 
 we can hardly bring ourselves to believe that no 
 such communication ever existed. The excavated 
 passage, which leads off from the great chamber, 
 and abruptly terminates at the end of fifty-five feet, 
 can never have ended, originally, in a cut de sac, 
 but must have had some design, and some outlet. 
 
 The pyramid of Cephren, the second in size, is, 
 according to Belzoni each side of the base six 
 hundred eighty-four feet, vertical height four hund- 
 red fifty-six feet. This pyramid does not rise from 
 the natural level of the plateau, but out of an ex- 
 cavation made in the solid rock all round. The rock 
 on which this pyramid stands is higher than that 
 on which the great pyramid stands; so that both 
 may appear to be on the same level. Belzoni, after 
 very considerable labor, succeeded in opening the 
 second pyramid, and after traversing passages similar 
 to those in the great pyramid, reached the main 
 chamber, which is cut out of the solid rock. It is 
 forty-six feet three inches long, sixteen feet three 
 inches wide, and twenty- three feet six inches high. 
 The covering is made of blocks of limestone, which, 
 meeting in an angular point, form a roof of the 
 same shape as the pyramid. The chamber con- 
 
48 SEVEN WONDEES OF THE WORLD. 
 
 tained a sarcophagus, formed of the finest granite, 
 but without a single hieroglyphic. Some bones 
 were found in it, which on examination proved to 
 be those of an ox. An inscription on the wall, in 
 Arabic, showed that this chamber had been entered 
 by some Arab ruler of Egypt, who had again closed 
 the pyramid. Belzoni also discovered another cham- 
 ber in this pyramid. The style of building of the 
 second pyramid is inferior to that of the first, and 
 the stones used in its construction were less carefully 
 selected, though united with nearly the same kind 
 of cement. A considerable portion of the outer 
 coat, or what may be termed the casing, still remains 
 on this pyramid, which appears to have been formed 
 by leveling or planing down the upper angle of 
 the projecting steps, and was, as Herodotus remarks, 
 consequently commenced from the summit. This 
 covering, which is of compact limestone, at a distance 
 appears to have a spotted appearance, partly pro- 
 duced by the dung of birds, and partly a reddish- 
 colored lichen, which has not been described. The 
 ascent of this pyramid is difficult, in consequence of 
 so much of the outer coat remaining, as there is no 
 doubt it was the intention of the architect that these 
 buildings, when finished, should neither be entered 
 nor ascended. 
 
 Mr. Wilde's description of his ascent of the second 
 pyramid in 1839 is so graphic in its detail, that we 
 prefer giving it in his own words : 
 
 " I engaged two Arabs to conduct me to the sum- 
 mit, one an old man, the other about forty, both of 
 a mold which, for combination of strength and 
 agility, I never saw surpassed. We soon turned to 
 the north, and finally that part where the outer 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 49 
 
 casing still remains on the west side. All this was 
 very laborious, though not very dangerous. But here 
 was an obstacle that I knew not how the guides 
 themselves could surmount, much less how I could 
 possibly master; for above our heads jutted out like 
 an eave or coping the lower stones of the coating, 
 which still remain, and retain a smooth polished sur- 
 face. As considerable precaution was necessary, 
 the guides made me take off my hat, coat, and shoes 
 at this place. The younger then placed his raised 
 and extended hands against the projecting edge of 
 the lower stone, which reached to above his chin ; 
 and the elder, taking me up in his arms as I would 
 a child, placed my feet on the other's shoulders, and 
 my body flat on the smooth surface of the stone. 
 In this position we formed an angle with each other, 
 and here I remained full two minutes, till the old 
 man went round, and by some other means con- 
 trived to get over the projection, when, creeping 
 along the line of the junction of the casing, he took 
 my hands, drew me up to where he was above me, 
 and then, letting down his girdle, assisted to mount 
 up the younger, but less active and less daring 
 climber of the two. We then proceeded much as 
 follows : one of them got on the shoulders of the 
 other, and so gained the joining of the stone above, 
 which was often five feet asunder ; the upper man 
 then helped me in a similar action, while the lower 
 pushed me up by the feet. Having gained this row, 
 we had often to creep for some way along the join- 
 ing to where another opportunity for ascending was 
 afforded. In this way we proceeded to the summit; 
 and some idea of my feelings may be formed, when 
 it is recollected that all these stones, of such a span, 
 
50 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 are highly polished, are set at an angle of forty-five 
 degrees, and that the places we had to grip with our 
 hands and feet were often not two inches wide, and 
 their height above the ground four hundred feet. 
 A single slip of the foot, and we must all three 
 have been dashed to atoms long before we reached 
 the ground. On gaining the top, my guides gave 
 vent to sundry demonstrations of satisfaction, clap- 
 ping me on the back, patting my head, and kissing 
 my hands. From all this I began to suspect some- 
 thing wonderful had been achieved ; and some idea 
 of my perilous situation broke upon me when I saw 
 my friends beneath waving their hats, and looking 
 up with astonishment, as we sat perched upon the 
 top, which is not more than six feet square. The 
 apex stone is off, and it now consists of four outer 
 slabs and one in the center, which is raised up on 
 its end, and leans to the eastward. I do not think 
 that human hands could have raised it thus from its 
 bed, on account of its size, and the confined space 
 they would have to work in. I am inclined to think 
 the top was struck by lightning, and the position 
 thus altered by it. The three of us had just room 
 to sit upon the place. The heat was intense, and the 
 stones so hot, that it was unpleasant to sit very long, 
 and it would be dangerous to attempt to stand. The 
 descent was, as might be expected, much more dan- 
 gerous, though not so difficult. The guides tied a 
 long sash under my arms, and so let me slide down 
 from course to course of these covering stones, which 
 are of yellowish limestone, somewhat different from 
 the material of which the steps are composed, and 
 totally distinct from the rock of the base or the 
 coating of the passages." 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 51 
 
 The discoveries made by the Prussian expedition, 
 under Dr. Lepsius, and which are but very recently 
 made known, are of a most astonishing character. 
 The tombs at the foot of the great pyramid, till this 
 investigation, were very imperfectly known, all pre- 
 ceding travelers having but slightly examined them. 
 Dr. Lepsius has examined forty-live out of eighty- 
 two he had marked for search, and of these, nearly all 
 were built either during or soon after the construc- 
 tion of the great pyramids, and of course afford a series 
 of dates of inestimable value for the knowledge of 
 the oldest determinable civilization of the human 
 race. The architecture of the time is developed, as 
 already mentioned ; sculptures of whole figures of 
 all sizes, in high and low relief, occur in surprising 
 abundance. The painting, on walls of the finest 
 lime coating, is often beautiful beyond conception, 
 and in some cases is perfect, and as fresh as if done 
 yesterday. The most magnificent of these tombs 
 were for the families of those kings near whose 
 pyramids they lie, and one buried in the sand is 
 devoted to the son of Cheops. The series of tombs 
 furnishes us with a pedigree of the distinguished 
 families of royalty and nobility of the land. Sir G. 
 "Wilkinson had previously expressed his belief, from 
 an examination of one of these tombs, that those 
 sculptures and buildings were the oldest in Egypt. 
 
 The pyramid of Mycerinus, or third in size, differs 
 from the other two, being built in almost perpendicu- 
 lar degrees, to which a sloping face has been after- 
 ward added. The outer coating was of red gran- 
 ite, much of which still remains. Pliny remarks, 
 that the third, though smaller than the other two, 
 was much more elegant, from the Ethiopian stone 
 
52 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 that clothed it. Blocks and fragments of this granite 
 coating lie scattered about its base. This pyramid 
 was opened by Col. Howard Yyse in 1838, and the 
 coffin and remains of Mycerinus may now be seen 
 in the British Museum, and the ghastly remnants 
 of the mortality of one of the great monarchs of this 
 earth are now exposed dropping away into dust, 
 after an entombment of thirty-nine centuries. Dio- 
 dorus says that the name of Mycerinus was written 
 on its north face. The height of this pyramid is 
 one hundred and seventy-four feet, the side of the 
 base three hundred and thirty feet. 
 
 A fourth pyramid stands south of the third : the 
 base of it is about one hundred and thirty feet. 
 When the French were in Egypt they attempted to 
 demolish it, but were unsuccessful. Two pyramids 
 to the west of this, similar to the Mexican pyramids, 
 consist each of four receding platforms, and are 
 ascended by high, narrow steps : on the summit is 
 a platform. There are three small pyramids on the 
 east side of the larger pyramid ; the center one of 
 these is that which Herodotus says was built by the 
 daughter of Cheops. 
 
 There are some large pyramids at Sakkara ; the 
 base of the largest is six hundred and fifty-six feet, 
 and three hundred and forty feet high. It is built 
 in degrees, or receding platforms ; it has a hollow 
 dome supported by wooden rafters. At the end of 
 the passage opposite to the entrance of this dome is 
 a small chamber, and on the doorway are some 
 hieroglyphics. The room is lined with blue slabs of 
 vitrified porcelain, similar to what we term Dutch 
 tiles. 
 
 Near to the eastward is a vaulted tomb of the 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 53 
 
 second Psammetichus, of hewn stone, the oldest 
 stone arch hitherto discovered, having been erected 
 600 B. C. 
 
 At Dashour, also, there are some large pyramids ; 
 the base of one on each side is seven hundred feet, 
 a perpendicular of three hundred and forty- three 
 feet, and one hundred and fifty-four steps. It has 
 some portion of the outer covering remaining on the 
 top. The entrance is on the northern side, and it 
 has a principal chamber and some smaller chambers 
 and passages, similar to those described in the great 
 pyramid, at Jizeh. Another pyramid has a base of 
 six hundred feet ; at a height of one hundred and 
 eighty-four feet the plane of the side is changed, 
 and a new plane of smaller inclination completes 
 the pyramid. The platform is thirty feet square. 
 This pyramid is built of a hard white stone ; its 
 sides face the cardinal points. It was entered in 
 1760 by a Mr. Melton, who found a single chamber 
 in it. Near these is a large pyramid built of sun- 
 dried bricks, made of loam and chopped straw. 
 
 There are some small pyramids at Thebes, in 
 which the central chambers have vaulted roofs. 
 From the style of the frescoes in these, Wilkinson 
 judges their date to be as far back as 1260 B. C. 
 
 In Nubia, there are at least eighty pyramids, but 
 
 they are generally of small dimensions. At Assur, 
 
 near the Nile, there are some of large size ; they 
 
 are built of sandstone, with a propyla, or porch, 
 
 adorned with sculptures. There is no account of 
 
 any of them having ever been entered. The sides 
 
 do not face the cardinal points. There are also 
 
 some pyramids at a place called Naurri, on the 
 
 eastern side of the Nile ; the largest of these is said 
 
 4 
 
54 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 to contain within it another pyramid of a different 
 stone and style of architecture. 
 
 John Greaves, an English antiquary, who was 
 Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in the year 1638, 
 visited Egypt for the purpose of surveying the 
 pyramids, of which structures there was then no 
 satisfactory account extant. He says, " Concerning 
 the pyramids, I shall put down that which is con- 
 fessed by the Arabian writers to be the most proba- 
 ble relation, as is reported by Ibn Abd Alhokm, 
 whose words out of the Arabic are these : ' The 
 greatest part of chronologers agree, that he which 
 built the pyramids was Saurid Ibn Salhouk, King 
 of Egypt, who lived three hundred years before the 
 Flood. The occasion of this was, because he saw, 
 in his sleep, that the whole earth was turned over 
 with the inhabitants of it, the men lying upon their 
 faces, and the stars falling down and striking one 
 another, with a terrible noise ; and being troubled, 
 he concealed it. After this he saw the fixed stars 
 falling to the earth, in the similitude of white fowl, 
 and they snatched up men, carrying them between 
 two great mountains; and these mountains closed 
 upon them, and the shining stars were made dark. 
 Awaking with great fear, he assembles the chief 
 priests of all the provinces of Egypt, one hundred 
 and thirty priests; the chief of them was called 
 Aclimum. Relating the whole matter to them, they 
 took the altitude of the stars, and, making their 
 prognostication, foretold of a deluge. The king 
 said, ' Will it come to our country V They answered, 
 ' Yea, and will destroy it.' And there remained a 
 certain number of years for to come, and he com- 
 manded in the mean space to build the pyramids, 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 55 
 
 and a vault to be made, into which the River Nilus 
 entering, should run into the countries of the west, 
 and into the land Al-Said. And he filled them with 
 amulets, and with strange things, and with riches 
 and treasures, and the like. He engraved in them 
 all things that were told him by wise men, as also 
 all profound sciences, the names of magic spells, the 
 uses and hurts of them ; the science of astrology and 
 arithmetic, and of geometry and of physic. All 
 this may be interpreted by him that knows their 
 characters and language. After he had given order 
 for this building, they cut out vast columns arid 
 wonderful stones. They fetched massy stones from 
 the Ethiopians, and made with these the foundation 
 of the three pyramids, fastening them together with 
 lead and iron. They built the gates of them forty 
 cubits under ground, and they made the height of 
 the pyramids one hundred royal cubits, which are 
 fifty of ours in these times ; he also made each side 
 of them one hundred royal cubits. The beginning 
 of this building was in a fortunate horoscope. After 
 that he had finished it, he covered it with colored 
 satin from top to the bottom ; and he appointed a 
 solemn festival, at which were present all the in- 
 habitants of his kingdom. Then he built in the 
 western pyramid thirty treasures, filled with stores 
 of riches, and utensils, and with signatures made of 
 precious stones, and with instruments of iron, and 
 vessels of earth, and with arms that rust not, and 
 with glass which might be bended and yet not 
 broken, and with several kinds of alakakirs, single 
 and double, and with deadly poisons, and with other 
 things besides. He made also in the east pyramid 
 divers celestial spheres and stars, and what they 
 
56 SEVEN WONDEES OF THE WORLD. 
 
 severally operate in their aspects, and the perfumes 
 which are to be used to them, and the books which 
 treat of these matters. He also put in the colored 
 pyramid the commentaries of the priests in chests 
 of black marble, and with every priest a book, in 
 which were the wonders of his profession, and of his 
 actions, and of his nature, and what was done in his 
 time, and what is, and what shall be, from the begin- 
 ning of time to the end of it. He placed in every pyra- 
 mid a treasure. The treasurer of the westerly pyramid 
 was a statue of marble stone, standing upright with 
 a 'lance, and upon his head a serpent wreathed. He 
 that came near it, and stood still, the serpent bit him 
 of one side, and wreathing round about his throat 
 and killing him, returned to his place. He made 
 the treasurer of the east pyramid an idol of black 
 agate, his eyes open and shining, sitting upon a 
 throne with a lance. "When any looked upon him, 
 he heard of one side of him a voice, which took away 
 his sense, so that he fell prostrate upon his face, and 
 ceased not till he died. He made the treasurer of 
 the colored pyramid a statue of stone, called Albut, 
 sitting : he which looked toward it was drawn by 
 the statue, till he stuck to it, and could not be 
 separated from it, till such time as he died. The 
 Coptites write in their books, that there is an inscrip- 
 tion engraven upon them, the exposition of which, 
 in Arabic, is this : ' I, King Saurid, built the pyra- 
 mids in such and such a time, and finished them in 
 six years : he that comes after me, and says that he 
 is equal to me, let him destroy them in six hundred 
 years ; and yet it is known that it is easier to pluck 
 down than to build up : I also covered them, when 
 I had finished them, with satin ; and let him cover 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 57 
 
 them with mats.' After that Almamon the Calif 
 entered Egypt, and saw the pyramids, he desired to 
 know what was within, and therefore would have 
 them opened. They told him it could not possibly 
 be done. He replied, 'I will have it certainly 
 done.' And that hole was opened for him, which 
 stands open to this day, with fire and vinegar. Two 
 smiths prepared and sharpened the iron and engines, 
 which they forced in, and there was a great expense 
 in the opening of it. The thickness of the walls 
 was found to be twenty cubits; and when they 
 came to the end of the wall, behind the place they 
 had digged, there was an ewer of green emerald ; in 
 it were a thousand dinars, very weighty, every 
 dinar was an ounce of our ounces ; they wondered 
 at it, but knew not the meaning of it. Then Al- 
 mamon said, ' Cast up the account how much hath 
 been spent in making the entrance.' They cast it 
 up, and lo! it was the same sum which they 
 found; it neither exceeded nor was defective. 
 Within they found a square well ; in the square of 
 it there were doors ; every door opened into a house, 
 (or vault,) in which there were dead bodies wrapped 
 up in linen. They found toward the top of the 
 pyramid a chamber, in which there was a hollow 
 stone : in it was a statue of stone like a man, and 
 within it a man, upon whom was a breast-plate of 
 gold set with jewels; upon his breast was a sword 
 of invaluable price, and at his head a carbuncle of 
 the bigness of an egg, shining like the light of the 
 day ; and upon him were characters written with a 
 pen : no man knows what they signify. After Al- 
 mamon had opened it, men entered into it for many 
 years, and descended by the slippery passage which 
 
58 (SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 is in it ; and some of them came out safe, and others 
 died." 
 
 The pyramidal form of building is not peculiar to 
 Egypt. Pyramids, not inferior to those we have 
 described, and some even of larger .dimensions in 
 their plane and base, exist in Mexico. The great 
 Teocalli, or pyramid of Choluta, has a base whose 
 side is one thousand four hundred and forty feet, 
 very nearly double that of the pyramid of Cheops ; 
 it stands on an extensive plain, at an elevation of 
 more than seven thousand feet above the sea. This 
 pyramid consists of four receding platforms of equal 
 elevation, and appears to have its sides opposite the 
 four cardinal points. The perpendicular height is, 
 according to Humboldt, only one hundred and 
 seventy-seven feet ; and as the receding terraces are 
 very wide, and the area of the upper platform or 
 terrace small in comparison with the base, the out- 
 line of the whole is not that of a continuous pyramid. 
 On the highest platform of the pyramid there was 
 an altar dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, the god of the 
 air. The pyramid being now covered with vegeta- 
 tion, it is difficult to determine how it was con- 
 structed. The early Spanish historians of Mexico 
 state that the whole is made of brick. Humboldt 
 found, in the lowest platform, where a broad way had 
 been cut through it, that it was composed of alter- 
 nate layers of clay and of brick, either sun-baked or 
 only slightly burnt. In cutting this road, a square 
 stone chamber, supported by posts of cypress, was 
 found in the interior of the pyramid. This chamber 
 contained two dead bodies, two basalt idols, and a 
 great number of vessels varnished and painted. 
 There was no apparent entrance to this chamber. 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 50 
 
 The west side of the pyramid is in the best state of 
 preservation, and when the monument is viewed 
 from this direction, the snow-covered volcano is seen 
 in the distance, rising to the height of seventeen 
 thousand three hundred and sixty feet. 
 
 This pyramidal tower resembles in no small de- 
 gree the Temple of Belus, as described by Herod- 
 otus, inasmuch as it consists of eight stories, each 
 forming a platform, on which stands the one above it. 
 
 At Teotihuacan, eight leagues north-east of the 
 city of Mexico, are two large pyramids, surrounded 
 by several hundred small ones, which are ranged in 
 files or lines, running due east and west, north and 
 south. The two large pyramids consist of four plat- 
 forms, each of which was formed into a number of 
 steps, the edges of which are yet distinguishable. 
 The great mass appears to be clay mixed with small 
 stones ; the casing is a thick covering of a porous 
 amygdaloid. On the summit of each of these two 
 pyramids was a colossal stone statue covered with 
 plates of gold ; the gold was carried off by Cortes's 
 soldiers, and a zealous Franciscan monk broke the 
 statues in pieces. The one is said to have been ded- 
 icated to the sun, and the other to the moon. In 
 a thick forest near to Teotihuacan, there is a pyra- 
 mid, which appears to have escaped the notice of 
 the Spaniards. It is entirely built of well-hewn stones 
 of a very large size ; three nights of steps lead to 
 the top ; it appears to have had seven platforms, 
 and the casing of the platforms is adorned with hie- 
 roglyphic sculptures. Its height is fifty-nine feet, 
 and each side of the base is eighty-two feet. 
 
 Besides the pyramids mentioned, there are in 
 Mexico other monuments and works of a most mag- 
 
60 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 nificent character, which, attest a high degree of 
 civilization attained by the aborigines of this part 
 of the world, showing how much the Toltecans, or 
 some more ancient people, resembled the ancient 
 Egyptians in their architecture and practice of the 
 fine arts. 
 
 In India, near Benares, are some temples in pyra- 
 midal form, all of which have their sides turned to 
 the four cardinal points ; they have a subterraneous 
 communication with the Eiver Ganges, which forms 
 a curious point of resemblance between the Hindoo 
 temple, and what Herodotus says about the cham- 
 ber of Cheops communicating with the Nile. 
 
 The prevalence of the pyramidal form throughout 
 all the older civilized nations is very striking, wheth- 
 er in sepultures, pagodas, or towers. We have cer- 
 tainly the best evidence of the Egyptian preceding 
 all others at present in existence. In the infancy of 
 art, it is probable that stones were rudely piled one 
 above another, converging to an apex, as being of 
 all forms the most stable, or else a huge fragment 
 of rock might be pared away, and thus form the 
 first advance to pyramid or obelisk. The Hindoo 
 structures, pagoda towers, as they are termed, are 
 pyramidal in form, but far more lofty in proportion : 
 the finest specimen is the great pagoda at Tanjore, 
 which is certainly a splendid work of ancient art. 
 
 The Temple of Belus, at Babylon, according to the 
 description of Herodotus, was of pyramidal form ; 
 the base was a square of six hundred Greek feet: it 
 consisted of eight receding platforms, on the highest 
 of which was a temple. 
 
 At Sarrest, near Benares, in Hindoostan, is a 
 Boodh monument of unknown antiquity ; it is of a 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGTPT. Gl 
 
 pyramidal form, and of the most solid construction, 
 one hundred and fifty feet in circumference, and 
 above one hundred feet high ; the lower part has a 
 casing of stone, the masses of which are of enormous 
 magnitude, all joined and polished with the great- 
 est nicety ; of its history and builders nothing can 
 be traced. 
 
 In the Island of Java stands the Borro Boedoor, 
 a Boodhist pyramidal building, constructed in five 
 terraces, all most gorgeously sculptured and adorned, 
 and, unlike all other Eastern structures, it has a 
 series of niches stretching along the edifice. The 
 interior is a chamber, in which is placed a colossal 
 statue of Boodh, in the usual contemplative charac- 
 ter in which he appears. 
 
 The tomb of Caius Cestius, which stands at the 
 gate of St. Paul, at Rome, is of pyramidal form ; 
 the height is one hundred twenty-one feet, the 
 breadth at the base nearly one hundred feet, and is 
 constructed of white marble. It contains a room 
 of twenty feet by sixteen, and seventeen feet high ; 
 on the walls are paintings representing two females 
 sitting and two standing, with a Victory between 
 them. It is also ornamented with vases and cande- 
 labra. By an inscription in the Museum Capitoli- 
 num, found near the monument, we learn that 
 Pontius Claudius Mela and Pothos erected this 
 tomb. 
 
 Of the tomb of the Emperor Alexander Severus, 
 which was also of pyramidal form, there is now only 
 a shapeless mass of ruin ; but it shows the two cham- 
 bers that contained sarcophagi, with the passages 
 that led to them. 
 
 There is at Autun, in France, a pyramidal erec- 
 
62 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 tion of about forty-five feet on each side the base, 
 and fifty feet high. The sides are to the cardinal 
 points. It is a solid mass of unhewn stones, joined 
 by a white hard cement. Tradition speaks of it as 
 being the monument of some illustrious Adean. It 
 stands in the midst of an extensive piece of land, 
 called "The Field of Urns," so named from the 
 quantity of funeral urns that have been found there. 
 It is now in a very decayed state. 
 
 The practice of raising a great mound over the 
 dead seems to have been almost universal. The 
 Persians raised a mound at Aconithus over Arta- 
 chies, the superintendent of the canal at Athos, 
 which still exists, a memorial of Persian usage and 
 of the fidelity of Herodotus as an historian. The 
 mound of earth we may suppose, among nations not 
 advanced in the mechanical arts, occupies the place 
 of the pyramids. In many parts of Europe and of 
 North America there still exist many of these most 
 enduring of all monuments, and which may survive 
 the massy stone-work of the pyramids. Such mounds 
 as these are the tombs of the Scythian kings on the 
 banks of the Borysthenes, and the great mound of 
 Alyattes, King of Lydia and father of Croesus, who 
 died about 600 B. C, near Sardis, in Asia Minor. 
 Herodotus says the circuit round the base was three 
 thousand eight hundred Greek feet. Modern writers 
 speak of it as the largest mound in the world. The 
 lower part was a substructure of stone, which is now 
 covered by the earth that has fallen down. It still 
 retains its conical form. Silbury Hill, in Wiltshire, 
 England, is in the form of a truncated cone ; the 
 circumference of its base is two thousand and twenty- 
 seven feet. This vast conical mound of earth is 
 
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 63 
 
 certainly the largest tumulns in Europe. It is con- 
 sidered by antiquarians to be the sepulchral monu- 
 ment of a British king or chief, who founded the 
 temple at Avebury. The labor of raising such a 
 mound must have been immense ; and some idea 
 may be entertained of its magnitude and of the 
 enormous quantity of earth required to raise so en- 
 during a monument, when we find it covers nearly 
 six acres of land. Its perpendicular height is one 
 hundred and seventy feet. 
 
 The meaning of the word pyramid has been 
 the subject of much discussion among the learned. 
 The word, according to the Coptic, is interpreted 
 to mean "the sun's rays," and "Bethshemesh, that 
 is in the land of Egypt," (Jeremiah xliii, 13,) which 
 our Bibles translate, " Temples of the Sun." Some 
 commentators render " a temple to the light reced- 
 ing;" and the usually adopted derivation is from 
 the Greek <pur, fire, which always ascends in a 
 conical form, or a pillar ending in a point. Pliny 
 says : " An obelisk is a representation of a ray of 
 the sun, and the Egyptian name of these obelisks 
 proves it; and thus the pyramidal or obelisk form 
 of these structures refers to the worship of fire." 
 The very careful surveys made by order of Napo- 
 leon, and conducted by Denon, show that the pyra- 
 mids of Jizeh all stand due north and south, which 
 strengthens the suggestion advanced by some 
 authors, that these stupendous monuments served 
 not only for tombs, but also for astronomical pur- 
 poses ; their obliquity is so adjusted as to make the 
 north side coincide exactly with the obliquity of the 
 sun's rays at the summer solstice. It is also to be 
 noticed, that the Egyptians connected astronomy 
 
64: SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 with all their religious ceremonies ; for zodiacs are 
 found sculptured even in their tombs. 
 
 The sacred use of the pyramids is, perhaps, best 
 indicated by the sarcophagi found in them, and 
 their position amid the extensive fields of mummy- 
 pits and tombs. But this explanation, so well in 
 accordance with the construction of the pyramids, 
 and all ancient historical tradition, has not generally 
 been considered sufficient. We, thinking that there 
 is no better, leave our readers to exercise their own 
 imaginations. "Why the Egyptians built some pyra- 
 mids so large, others being very small, is the same 
 kind of question as if one were to ask why St. Paul's 
 was made so large : those who can answer the latter 
 question can answer the other. The fact of the four 
 sides being turned to the four cardinal points may 
 be similarly explained. One certain conclusion 
 seems to follow, from the form of the pyramids, that 
 the people who built them must have already had 
 practical knowledge of geometrical figures, both 
 plane and solid. 
 
 It has generally been considered that pyramid 
 (nvpapig) must be an Egyptian word ; and this may 
 be true ; but let us see what consequences follow 
 from the supposition. The Greeks have native 
 names for the circle, the cone, the square, the 
 cube, &c. ; but, according to this notion of pyramis 
 being an Egyptian word, their name for the geo- 
 metrical figure of the pyramid came from Egypt ; 
 and as there is no other Greek name for this figure, 
 they did not know the pyramid till they learned 
 the form and the name from the Egyptians : for we 
 assume that if they had known the pyramid before 
 knowing the pyramids, they would have a native 
 
PYRAMIDS' OF EGYPT. 65 
 
 name for it, which would certainly have come down 
 to us among their mathematical terms, in place of a 
 foreign word, which would have been unnecessary. 
 Let us suppose, on the other hand, that pyramis is a 
 genuine Greek word, and then we find that all the 
 Greek names of the geometrical figures are native 
 terms. The form of the word pyramis (nvpapig) is 
 one of the very common forms of the Greek lan- 
 guage, which contains a very large class of words 
 in amos and amis, {a\iog, a^ig :) amos or amis -is one 
 of those terminations of which we now only deduce 
 the meaning by a comparison of a great number of 
 similar forms. Whether the radical part of pyr-amis 
 be the word pyr, fire, (irt)p,) (the pyramid being so 
 called from its general resemblance to a flame in its 
 pointed form,) we do not know. In no instance does 
 Herodotus call any Egyptian edifice by an Egyptian 
 word or name, except it may be Labyrinthus ; but 
 even this is, we believe, a Greek word, and is anal- 
 ogous to other similar forms. 
 
 The ages of the pyramids of Egypt, as fixed by 
 Herodotus, correspond to the reigns of Cheops, 
 Cephren, Mycerinus, and Asychis, who reigned, 
 according to him, in the order here enumerated. 
 After Asychis came Anysis, who was expelled by 
 Sabakos the Ethiopian, whose epoch is generally 
 fixed not earlier than B. C. 800. Herodotus does 
 not give the years of the reigns of Asychis and 
 Mycerinus, but he allows one hundred and six years 
 to the reigns of Cephren and Cheops a sum quite 
 sufficient for all four. According to him, then, the 
 great pyramid of Jizeh was built about nine hun- 
 dred years B. C, or about four hundred and fifty 
 years before Herodotus visited Egypt. Admitting 
 
66 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 them to be so comparatively modern, we may also 
 admit that the history of them must have been well 
 known in the time of Herodotus, which accords 
 very sufficiently with the minute information which 
 he gives about Cheops and Mycerinus. This evi- 
 dence is not very satisfactory to any critic, and still 
 less so to those who have a preconceived opinion of 
 the high antiquity of the pyramids ; but unsatisfac- 
 tory as the evidence is, it is all that we have, except 
 the authority of Manetho's Catalogue, which attrib- 
 utes the great pyramid to Suphis, (the Cheops of 
 Herodotus,) the second king of the fourth dynasty; 
 and the building of the third to Queen Nitocris, of 
 the sixth dynasty. If Herodotus has given us the 
 kings from Sesostris downward in their right order, 
 we have a reasonable probability that the age of the 
 pyramids, as assigned by him, is not very far wrong : 
 if he was deceived by the priests, or if he mistook 
 what was told him through an interpreter, his series 
 of kings prior to Psammetichus is of no value, and 
 the antiquity of the pyramids, so far as his authority 
 goes, must remain unsettled. 
 
 For the preceding observations on the name and 
 date of these remarkable works we are indebted to 
 Mr. Long's work on the Ancient Egyptians, con- 
 sidering them to be much better than any others 
 that have been offered. 
 
C|* oTcmplr, tljc avails, ani iJattgittg 
 (bartats of $aWott. 
 
 Yielding his soul, the Babylonian framed 
 For influence undefined a personal shape ; 
 And from the plain, with toil immense, uprear'd 
 Tower eight times planted on the top of tower; 
 That Belus nightly on his splendid couch 
 Descending, there might rest ; upon that height 
 Pure and serene, diffused to overlook 
 Winding Euphrates, and the city vast 
 Of his devoted worshipers, far-stretch'd, 
 With grove, and field, and garden interspersed ; 
 Their tower and fruitful region to support 
 Against the pressure of beleaguering war. 
 
 WORBSWORTIH. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 The City of Babylon. 
 
 The Temple of Belus. 
 
 The Walls. 
 
 The Hanging Gardens. 
 
 Gardens of the Eastern Nations. 
 
 Appearance of the Ruins. 
 
 Rich's Memoir. 
 
 Accomplishment of Prophecy in the entire Destruc- 
 tion and complete Desolation of " the Beauty of 
 the Chaldees' Excellency." 
 
THE TEMPLE, THE WALLS, AND HANGING 
 GARDENS OF BABYLON. 
 
 " Behold where grandeur frown'd ; 
 
 Behold where pleasure smiled ; 
 What now .remains? the memory 
 
 Of senselessness and shame. 
 
 What is immortal there ? 
 
 Nothing it stands to tell 
 
 A melancholy tale, to give 
 
 An awful warning : soon 
 Oblivion will steal silently ' 
 
 The remnant of its fame. 
 
 Monarchs and conquerors there 
 Proud o'er prostrate millions trod 
 The earthquakes of the human race ; 
 Like them, forgotten when the ruin 
 
 That marks their shock is past." 
 
 Moses, in the tenth chapter of the Book of Genesis, 
 tells us that Nimrod, one of the grandsons of Noah, 
 was a mighty hunter, and the beginning of his 
 kingdom was Babel, in the land of Shinar. 
 
 There is no doubt that this first postdiluvian city 
 of which we have any record, was the original of 
 that great city on the Euphrates, which afterward 
 acquired such fame as the capital of the Babylonian 
 enrpire. The name of Nimrod signifies a rebel, and 
 according to Armenian and European accounts, the 
 land where he erected his kingdom was in the allot- 
 ment to the sons of Shem ; and his revolt and violent 
 encroachment upon the territories of others form 
 
70 SEVEN WONDEES OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the basis on which we with good reason affix to him 
 the evil character he bears. Whatever consequence 
 this first city had acquired, there is no doubt it was 
 lost after the confusion of tongues. 
 
 The same sacred volume also informs us, that the 
 people began the building of " a mighty tower whose 
 top may reach unto heaven." Whether there was 
 any or what bad intention in this erection, has af- 
 forded much matter for discussion, into which it is 
 not necessary here to enter ; but we may inquire 
 what became of this famous tower in after-times. 
 There is no statement that this great work sustained 
 any damage at the confusion ; it is simply said that 
 the building of the city, and doubtless of the tower 
 also, was discontinued. It is generally admitted that 
 the fabric was in a considerable state of forwardness 
 at the confusion, and it is highly probable it could 
 have sustained no great damage at * the time when 
 the building of Babylon was commenced. 
 
 The city of Babylon, the capital of the Babylonian 
 empire, was situate on the River Euphrates, about 
 fifty miles south of Bagdad. Its origin is lost in the 
 obscurity of early times. It is rather remarkable 
 that Herodotus gives us no intimation respecting its 
 founder ; and from this we may fairly conclude that 
 its antiquity was so great, and ascended so high, that 
 he could not satisfy himself concerning it. We learn 
 from this generally accurate writer, that it was the 
 most celebrated city of Assyria, and that the kings 
 of that country made it their residence after the de- 
 struction of Nineveh, and he very clearly describes 
 the appearance of the city when he visited it. It 
 was situate in a great plain, and was in form of a 
 perfect square, each side one hundred twenty stadia 
 
BABYLON. 71 
 
 in length ; which would make its circuit not much 
 less than fifty miles. This extent seems so enormous, 
 that many writers of eminence consider there must 
 be either mistake or exaggeration ; but when we see 
 how the metropolis of the British empire is every 
 year increasing in all directions, it may be expected, 
 at no very remote period, to reach the same dimen- 
 sions as this wonder of the ancient world. Still 
 more, when we are told that the city was very loose- 
 ly built, and much of the ground inclosed by the 
 walls left vacant, or laid out in gardens, it may 
 reasonably be doubted whether it contained a pop- 
 ulation, or comprehended as large a number of 
 buildings as present London; therefore, however 
 surprising this account may in the first instance 
 seem, it is not so incredible as some suppose. 
 
 " Of Babylon's wondrous walls, within 
 Whose large inclosure the rude hind, or guides 
 His plow, or binds his sheaves, while shepherds guard 
 Their flocks, secure of ill : on the broad top 
 Six chariots rattle in extended front. 
 Each side in length, in height, in solid bulk, 
 Reflects its opposite a perfect square: 
 Scarce sixty thousand paces can mete out 
 The vast circumference. A hundred gates 
 Of polish'd brass led to that central point, 
 Where through the midst, bridged o'er with wondrous art, 
 Euphrates leads a navigable stream, 
 Branch'd from the current of his roaring flood." 
 
 It was encompassed by a wide and deep ditch, 
 lined with brick- work and full of water, and the soil 
 dug out was made into bricks, with which a wall 
 was built two hundred royal cubits high and fifty in 
 thickness, (a cubit is eighteen inches.) The bricks 
 were baked in furnaces, and hot bitumen was used 
 to cement them together ; at every thirty layers of 
 
72 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 bricks a layer of reeds was placed. The sides of 
 the ditch were first built in this manner, and then 
 the walls above them ; and upon the edges of the 
 wall they erected buildings with only one chamber, 
 each opposite the other, between which there was 
 space enough left for a chariot with four horses. In 
 the walls there were a hundred gates, twenty-five 
 on each side ; all these gates were made of solid 
 brass, and of prodigious size and strength. The 
 Euphrates ran through the city, dividing it in two 
 parts, and in the wall lining the river there were 
 smaller gates, also of brass, from which steps con- 
 ducted down to the stream. Between every two of 
 the ereat e;ates there were three watch-towers ten 
 feet higher than the walls, with four such towers at 
 each of the four angles of the wall, and three more 
 between each of those angles and the next adjoining 
 gate on either side. There were, however, but two 
 hundred and fifty towers in all, as they were omitted 
 on that side where the morasses rendered unnecessary 
 the protection they oifered. The grand square was 
 divided into twenty-five grand streets which inter- 
 sected each other, thus parting the city into six 
 hundred and twenty-six squares. Each of the streets 
 went quite across the city in a straight line, extending 
 from a principal gate on one side to another on the 
 opposite side. The vast squares formed by the in- 
 tersection of the streets were not built upon, but 
 were laid out in gardens and pleasure grounds, and 
 the houses that lined the streets stood much apart 
 from each other, and they were of three and four 
 stories high, and adorned with all the splendor and 
 gorgeousness of ancient oriental taste. 
 The wonders of Babylon which seem most to have 
 
^ 
 
 BABYLON 
 
* m 
 
 \Cj. 
 
 zm%0 
 
BABYLON. 75 
 
 attracted the attention of Herodotus and other an- 
 cient writers, were the Temple of Belus, the walls, 
 and the king's palace, with the hanging gardens. 
 
 The Temple of Belus, or rather the pile on which 
 it stood, from the descriptions given of it, most prob- 
 ably was the famous Tower of Confusion, which 
 may have been repaired, or the temple built thereon 
 by Nebuchadnezzar. The tower was in the midst 
 of a large inclosure, with gates of brass, which were 
 in existence when Herodotus wrote. The sacred 
 inclosure was a regular square, each side being two 
 stadia ; in the center rose the massive tower ; above 
 this tower rose another, above that others, until in 
 the whole there were eight. A winding stair went 
 round the towers on the outside; midway in the 
 ascent was a spacious place with seats, where those 
 who ascended might rest themselves. In the last 
 tower was a large chamber expressly sacred to Be- 
 lus, furnished with a huge magnificent couch, and 
 by it a table of solid gold ; but there was no image 
 of the god, as he was supposed to occupy it himself. 
 The temple was adorned by colossal statues of pure 
 gold, the value of which, according to Herodotus, 
 was five thousand talents, or one hundred million 
 dollars. Jewish writers no doubt exaggerate its 
 height, but Strabo's account makes it to have been 
 six hundred and sixty English feet. 
 
 "We have already stated that the Euphrates ran 
 through the city ; the banks of it were faced with 
 brick, and a continuous quay was formed the whole 
 length of the town. The river was crossed by a 
 bridge, which was more than a furlong in length, 
 and built on some admired principle, to supply the 
 defect in the bottom of the river, which was sandy. 
 
76 SEVEN "WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 At the western end of the bridge stood the palace 
 which Nebuchadnezzar is said to have built to su- 
 persede another which stood on the other side of the 
 stream. The palace was inclosed by a triple wall, 
 and with its parks and gardens was included in a 
 circle of little less than eight miles. 
 
 Bishop Prideaux, with considerable care and inge- 
 nuity, collected the statements of the different an- 
 cient writers into one narrative, which, affording a 
 complete view of the most extensive city the world 
 ever saw, we avail ourselves of it in the description 
 that follows : 
 
 " Nebuchadnezzar being now at rest from all Ins 
 wars, and in full peace at home, applied himself to 
 the finishing of his buildings at Babylon. Semiramis 
 is said by some, and Belus by others, to have first 
 fomided this city. But by whomsoever it was first 
 founded, it was Nebuchadnezzar that made it one of 
 the wonders of the world. The most famous works 
 therein were, the walls of the city ; the temple of 
 Belus ; his palace, and the hanging gardens in it ; 
 the banks of the river ; the artificial lake, and arti- 
 ficial canals made for the draining of that river, in 
 the magnificence and expense of which works, he 
 much exceeded all that had been done by any king 
 before him. 
 
 " The walls were every way prodigious, for they 
 were in thickness eighty-seven feet, in height three 
 hundred and fifty feet, and in compass four hundred 
 and eighty furlongs, which make sixty of our miles. 
 This is Herodotus's account of them, who was him- 
 self at Babylon, and is the most ancient author that 
 hath wrote of this matter. And although there are 
 others that differ from him herein, yet the most, 
 
BABYLON. 77 
 
 that agree in any measures of those walls, give us 
 the same or very near the same that he doth. Those 
 who lay the height of them at fifty cubits, speak of 
 them only as they were after the time of Darius 
 Hystaspes; for the Babylonians having revolted 
 from him, and in confidence of their strong walls 
 stood out against him in a long siege, after he had 
 taken the place, to prevent their rebellion for the 
 future he took away their gates, and beat down their 
 walls to the height last mentioned, and beyond 
 this tliev were never after raised. These walls were 
 drawn round the city in the form of an exact square, 
 each side of which was fifteen miles in length, and 
 all built of large bricks cemented together with 
 bitumen, a glutinous slime arising out of the earth 
 in that country, which binds in building much 
 stronger and firmer than lime, and soon grows 
 much harder than the bricks or stones themselves, 
 which they cement together. These walls were sur- 
 rounded on the outside with a vast ditch filled with 
 water, and lined with bricks on both sides, after the 
 manner of a scarp or counterscarp ; and the earth 
 which was dug out of it made the bricks wherewith 
 the walls were built ; and, therefore, from the vast 
 height and breadth of the walls may be inferred 
 the greatness of the ditch. In every side of this 
 great square were twenty-five gates, that is, a 
 hundred in all, which were all made of solid brass ; 
 and hence it is, that when God promised to Cyrus 
 the conquest of Babylon, he tells him that he would 
 break in pieces before him the gates of brass. Be- 
 tween every two of these gates were three towers, 
 and four more at the four corners of this great 
 square, and three between each of these corners and 
 
78 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the next gate on either side, and every one of these 
 towers was ten feet higher than the walls. But this 
 is to be understood only of those parts of the wall 
 where there was need of towers ; for some parts of 
 them lying against morasses always full of water, 
 where they could not be approached by an enemy, 
 they had no need of any towers at all for their de- 
 fense, and therefore in them were none built ; for 
 the whole number of them amounted to no more 
 than two hundred and fifty ; whereas had the same 
 uniform order been observed in their disposition all 
 round, there must have been many more. From 
 the twenty-five gates in each side of this great 
 square went twenty-five streets in straight lines to 
 the gates, which were directly over against them in 
 the other side opposite to it ; so that the whole num- 
 ber of the streets was fifty, each fifteen miles long, 
 whereof twenty-five went one way and twenty-five 
 the other, directly crossing each other at right angles. 
 And besides these there were also four half-streets, 
 which were built but of one side, as having the wall 
 on the other. These went round the four sides of 
 the city next the walls, and were each of them two 
 hundred feet broad, the rest were about one hun- 
 dred and fifty. By these streets thus crossing each 
 other, the whole city was cut out into six hundred 
 and seventy-six squares, each of which was four 
 furlongs and a half on every side, that is, two miles 
 and a quarter in compass. Round these squares on 
 every side toward the streets stood the houses, all 
 about three or four stories high, and beautified with 
 all manner of adornments toward the streets. The 
 space within the middle of each square was open 
 ground, employed for yards, gardens, and the like. 
 
BABYLON. 79 
 
 A branch of the river Euphrates did run quite 
 across the city, entering in on the north side and 
 going out on the south, over which, in the middle 
 of the city,- was a bridge of a furlong in length, and 
 thirty feet in breadth, built with wonderful art, to 
 supply the defect of a foundation in the bottom of 
 the river, which was all sandy. At the two ends 
 of the bridge were two palaces, the old palace on 
 the east side, and the new palace on the west side 
 of the river ; the former of these took up four of the 
 squares above mentioned, and the other nine of 
 them ; and the Temple of Belus, which stood next 
 the old palace, took up another of these squares. 
 The whole city stood on a large flat, or plain, in a 
 very fat and deep soil. .That part of it which was 
 on the east side of the river was the old city ; the 
 other, on the west side, was added by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar. Both together were included within that 
 vast square I have mentioned. The pattern hereof 
 seemeth to have been taken from Nineveh, that 
 having been exactly four hundred and eighty fur- 
 longs round, as this was. For Nebuchadnezzar hav- 
 ing in conjunction with his father destroyed that old 
 royal seat of the Assyrian empire, resolved to make 
 this, which he intended should succeed it in that 
 dignity, altogether as large ; only whereas Nineveh 
 was in the form of a parallelogram, he made Baby- 
 lon in that of an exact square, which figure ren- 
 dered it somewhat the larger of the two. To fill this 
 great and large city with inhabitants was the reason 
 that Nebuchadnezzar, out of Judea and other con- 
 quered countries, carried so great a number of cap- 
 tives thither. And could he have made it as popu- 
 lous as it was great, there was no country in all the 
 
80 SEVEN WONDERS OP TIIE WORLD. 
 
 East could, better than that in which it stood, have 
 maintained so great a number of people as must 
 then have been in it. For the fertility of this 
 province was so great, that it yielded to the Persian 
 kings, during their reign over Asia, half as much as 
 did all that large empire besides; the common 
 return of their tillage being between two and three 
 hundred fold every crop. But it never happened 
 to have been fully inhabited, it not having had time 
 enough to grow up thereto. For within twenty-five 
 years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar the royal 
 seat of the empire was removed from thence to Shu- 
 shan by Cyrus, which did put an end to the growing 
 glory of Babylon; for after that it never more 
 flourished. When Alexander came to Babylon, Cur- 
 tius tells us, no more than ninety furlongs of it was 
 then built, which can no otherwise be understood 
 than of so much in length, and if we allow the breadth 
 to be as much as the length, (which is the utmost 
 that can be allowed,) it will follow that no more 
 than eight thousand one hundred square furlongs 
 were then built upon ; but the whole space within 
 the walls contained fourteen thousand four hundred 
 square furlongs, and therefore there must have been 
 six thousand three hundred square furlongs that 
 were unbuilt, which Curtius tells us were ploughed 
 and sown. And besides this the houses were not 
 contiguous, but all built with a void space on each 
 side between house and house. And the same his- 
 torian tells us this was done because this way of 
 building seemed to them the safest. His words are : 
 "Ac ne totam quidem urbem tectis occupaverunt, 
 per nonaginta stadia habitatur, nee omnia continua 
 sunt, credo quia tutius visum est pluribus locis 
 
BABYLON. 81 
 
 spargi ;" i. e. " Neither was the whole city built 
 upon, for the space of ninety furlongs it was in- 
 habited, but the houses were not contiguous, because 
 they thought it safest to be dispersed in many places 
 distant from each other." Which words ("they 
 thought it safest") are to be understood, not as if 
 they did this for the better securing of their houses 
 from fire, as some interpret them, but chiefly for the 
 better preserving of health. For hereby, in cities 
 situated in such hot countries, those suffocations and 
 other inconveniences are avoided, which must neces- 
 sarily attend such as there dwell in houses closely 
 built together ; for which reason Delhi, the capital 
 of India, and several other cities in those warmer 
 parts of the world are thus built, the usage of those 
 places being, that such a stated piece of ground be left 
 void between every house and house that is built in 
 them. And old Rome was built after the same 
 manner. So that putting all this together, it will 
 appear that Babylon was so large a city rather in 
 scheme than in reality. For according to this 
 account it must be by much the larger part that 
 was never built, and therefore in this respect it 
 must give place to Nineveh, which was as many 
 furlongs in circuit as the other, and without any 
 void ground in it, that we are told of. And the 
 number of its infants at the same time, which could 
 not discern between their right hand and their left, 
 which the Scriptures tell us were one hundred and 
 twenty thousand in the time of Jonah, doth suffi- 
 ciently prove it was fully inhabited. It was in- 
 tended, indeed, that Babylon should have exceeded 
 it in everything. But Nebuchadnezzar did not 
 live long enough, nor the Babylonish empire last 
 
82 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 long enough to finish the scheme that was first 
 drawn of it. 
 
 "The next great work of Nebuchadnezzar at 
 Babylon was the Temple of Belus. But that which 
 was most remarkable in it was none of his work, but 
 was built many ages before. It was a wonderful 
 tower that stood in the middle of it. At the founda- 
 tion it was a square of a furlong on each side, that is, 
 a half of a mile in the whole compass, and consisted 
 of eight tpwers, one built over the other. And 
 Strabo, in his description of it, calling it a pyramid, 
 because of its decreasing or benching at every 
 tower, saith of the whole, that it was a furlong high, 
 and a furlong on every side. Taking it only as it 
 is described by Strabo, it was prodigious enough ; 
 for according to his dimensions only, without adding 
 anything further, it was one of the most wonderful 
 works in the world, and much exceeding the greatest 
 of the pyramids of Egypt, which hath been thought 
 to excel all other works in the world beside. For 
 although it fell short of that period at the base, 
 (where there was a square of seven hundred feet on 
 every side, and this but of six hundred,) yet it far 
 exceeded it in the height, the perpendicular measure 
 of the said pyramid being no more than four hun- 
 dred and eight-one feet, whereas that of the other 
 was full six hundred, and therefore it was higher 
 than that pyramid by one hundred and nineteen 
 feet, which is one quarter of the whole. And there- 
 fore it was not without reason, that Bochartus asserts 
 it to have been the very same tower which was there 
 built at the Confusion of Tongues ; for it was pro- 
 digious enough to answer the Scriptures' description 
 of it, and it is particularly attested by several authors 
 
BABYLON. 83 
 
 to have been all built of bricks and bitumen, as the 
 Scriptures tell us the tower of Babel was. Herodo- 
 tus saith, that the going up to it was by stairs on 
 the outside round it; from whence it seems most 
 likely that the whole ascent to it was by the bench- 
 ing-in drawn in a sloping line from the bottom to 
 the top eight times round it, and that this made the 
 appearance of eight towers one above another, in 
 the same manner as we have the Tower of Babel 
 commonly described in pictures, saving only, that 
 whereas that is usually pictured round, this was 
 square. For such a benching-in drawn in a slope 
 eight times round in manner as aforesaid, would 
 make the whole seem on every side as consisting of 
 eight towers, and the upper tower to be so much less 
 than that next below it, as the breadth of the bench- 
 ing-in amounted to. These eight towers being so 
 many stories one above another, were each of them 
 seventy-five feet high, and in them were many great 
 rooms with arched roofs supported by pillars; all 
 which were made parts of the temple, after the 
 tower became consecrated to that idolatrous use. 
 The uppermost story of all was that which was most 
 sacred, and where their chiefest devotions were per- 
 formed. Over the whole, on the top of the tower, w T as 
 an observatory, by the benefit of which it was that 
 the Babylonians advanced their skill in astronomy 
 beyond all other nations, and came to so early a 
 perfection in it, as is related. For when Alexander 
 took Babylon, Calisthenes the philosopher, who 
 accompanied him thither, found they had astronom- 
 ical observations for one thousand nine hundred and 
 three years backward from that time, which carrieth 
 up the account as high as one hundred and fifteen 
 
84 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 years after the Flood, which was within fifteen 
 years after the Tower of Babel was built. For the 
 Confusion of Tongues, which followed immediately 
 after the building of that tower, happened in the 
 year wherein Peleg was born, which was one hun- 
 dred and one years after the Flood, and fourteen 
 years after these observations began. This account 
 Calisthenes sent from Babylon into Greece, to his 
 master Aristotle, as Simplicius, from the authority 
 of Porphyry, delivers it unto us in his second 
 book De Coelo. Till the time of Nebuchadnezzar 
 the Temple of Belus contained no more than this 
 tower only, and the rooms in it served all the occa- 
 sions of that idolatrous worship ; but he enlarged it 
 by vast buildings erected round it in a square of 
 two furlongs on every side, and a mile in circum- 
 ference, which was one thousand eight hundred feet 
 more than the square of the Temple of Jerusalem. 
 For that was but three thousand feet round, whereas 
 this was according to this account four thousand 
 eight hundred. And on the outside of all these 
 buildings there was a wall inclosing the whole, 
 which may be supposed to have been of equal 
 extent with the square in which it stood, that is, two 
 miles and a half in compass, in which were several 
 gates leading into the temple, all of solid brass ; and 
 the brazen sea, the brazen pillars, and the other 
 brazen vessels which were carried to Babylon from 
 the Temple of Jerusalem, seem to have been em- 
 ployed to the making of them. For it is said that 
 Nebuchadnezzar did put all the sacred vessels, which 
 he carried from Jerusalem, into the house of his god 
 at Babylon, that is, into this house or temple of Bel. 
 For that was the name of the great god of the 
 
BABYLON. 85 
 
 Babylonians. He is supposed to have been the same 
 with Nimrod, and to have been called Bel from his 
 dominion, and Nimrod from his rebellion ; for Bel, 
 or Baal, which is the same name, signifieth Lord ; 
 and Nimrod, a rebel, in the Jewish and Chaldean 
 languages. The former was his Babylonish name 
 by reason of his empire in that place, and the latter 
 his Scripture name, by reason of his rebellion in 
 revolting from God to follow his own wicked de- 
 signs. This temple stood till the time of Xerxes ; 
 but he, on his return from his Grecian expedition, 
 demolished the whole of it, and laid it all in ruin, 
 having first plundered it of all its immense riches, 
 among which were several images or statues of 
 massive gold ; and one of them is said by Diodo- 
 rus Siculus to have been forty feet high, which 
 might, perchance, have been that which Nebuchad- 
 nezzar consecrated in the plains of Dura. Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's golden image is said indeed in Scripture to 
 have been sixty cubits, i. e. ninety feet high ; but 
 that must be understood of the image and pedestal 
 both together. For that image being said to have 
 been but six cubits broad or thick, it is impossible 
 that the image could have been sixty cubits high ; 
 for that makes its height to be ten times its breadth 
 or thickness, which exceeds all the proportions of a 
 man, no man's height being above six times his 
 thickness, measuring the slenderest man living at 
 his waist. But where the breadth of this image was 
 measured is not said, perchance it was from shoulder 
 to shoulder, and then the proportion of six cubits' 
 breadth will bring down the height exactly to the 
 measure .which Diodorus hath mentioned. For the 
 usual height of a man being four and a half of his 
 
86 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 breadth between the shoulders, if the image were 
 six cubits broad between the shoulders, it must 
 according to this proportion have been twenty-seven 
 cubits high, which is forty feet and a half. Besides, 
 Diodorus tells us that this image of forty feet high 
 contained a thousand Babylonish talents of gold, 
 which, according to Pollux, (who in his Onomasti- 
 con reckons a Babylonish talent to contain seven 
 thousand Attic drachmas, i. e., eight hundred and 
 seventy-five ounces,) amounts to three millions and 
 a half of our money. But if we advance the height 
 of the statue to ninety feet without the pedestal, it 
 will increase the value to a sum incredible, and 
 therefore it is necessary to take the pedestal also 
 into the height mentioned by Daniel. Other images 
 and sacred utensils were also in that temple, all of 
 solid gold. Those that are particularly mentioned 
 by Diodorus contain five thousand and thirty talents, 
 which, with the thousand talents in the image above 
 mentioned, amount to above one and twenty mill- 
 ions of our money. And besides this, we may well 
 suppose the value of as much more in treasure and 
 utensils not mentioned, which was a vast sum. But 
 it was the collection of near two thousand years : 
 for so long that temple had stood. All this Xerxes 
 took away when he destroyed it. And perchance 
 to recruit himself with the plunder, after the vast 
 expense which he had been at in his Grecian expe- 
 dition, was that which chiefly excited him to the 
 destruction of it, what other reason soever might be 
 pretended for it. Alexander, on his return to 
 Babylon from his Indian expedition, purposed again 
 to have rebuilt it, and in order hereto, he did set 
 ten thousand men at work to rid the place of its 
 
BABYLON. 87 
 
 rubbish, but after they had labored herein two 
 months Alexander died, before they had perfected 
 much of the undertaking ; and this did put an end 
 to all further proceedings in that design. Had he 
 lived,. and made that city the seat of his empire, as 
 it was supposed he would, the glory of Babylon 
 would no doubt have been advanced by him to the 
 utmost height that ever Nebuchadnezzar intended 
 to have brought it to, and it would again have been 
 the queen of the East. 
 
 " Next this temple, on the same east side of the 
 river, stood the old palace of the kings of Babylon, 
 being four miles in compass. Exactly over against 
 it, on the other side of the river, stood the new pal- 
 ace, and this was that which Nebuchadnezzar built. 
 It was four times as big as the former, as being 
 eight miles in compass. It was surrounded with 
 three walls one within another, and strongly fortified 
 according to the way of those times. But what was 
 most wonderful in it were the hanging gardens, 
 which were of so celebrated a name among the 
 Greeks. 
 
 " The other works attributed to Nebuchadnezzar 
 by ancient Greek authors were, the banks of the 
 river, and the artificial canals, and the artificial lake, 
 which were made for draining the river in the times 
 of the overflows ; for on the coming on of the sum- 
 mer, the sun melting the snow on the mountains of 
 Armenia, makes the Euphrates to overflow its banks, 
 whereby the city and country of Babylon suffering 
 great damage, Nebuchadnezzar, to prevent it, cut, 
 a great way up on the east side of the stream, two 
 artificial canals to drain these overflowings into the 
 Tigris." 
 
88 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Adjoining the palace, and within the general in- 
 closure, were The Hanging Gardens ; which were 
 constructed by the king to gratify his wife Amytis, 
 who, being a native of Media, (she was the daughter 
 of Astyages, the King of Media,) desired to have 
 some imitation of her native hills and forests. 
 
 "Within the walls was raised a lofty mound, 
 Where flowers and aromatic shrubs adorn'd 
 The pensile garden. For Nebasser's queen, 
 Fatigued with Babylonia's level plains, 
 Sigh'd for her Median home, where nature's hand 
 Had scoop'd the vale, and clothed the mountain's side 
 With many a verdant wood : nor long she pined, 
 Till that uxorious monarch called on art 
 To rival nature's sweet variety. 
 Forthwith two hundred thousand slaves uprcar'd 
 This hill egregious work; rich fruits o'erhang 
 The sloping walks, and odorous shrubs entwine 
 Their undulating branches." 
 
 These gardens contained a square of above four 
 hundred feet on each side, and were carried up in 
 the manner of several large terraces, one above the 
 other, till the height equaled that of the walls of 
 the city. The ascent from terrace to terrace was by 
 stairs ten feet wide. The whole pile was sustained 
 by vast arches, raised on other arches one above 
 another, and strengthened by a wall, surrounding it 
 on every side, of twenty-two feet in thickness. On 
 the top of the arches were first laid large flat stones, 
 sixteen feet long and four broad ; over these was a 
 layer of weeds mixed with a large quantity of bitu- 
 men, on which, were two rows of bricks closely ce- 
 mented together. The whole was covered with thick 
 sheets of lead, on which lay the mold of the garden. 
 And all this floorage was contrived to keep the 
 moisture of the mold from running away through 
 
BABYLON. 89 
 
 the arches. The earth laid thereon was so deep, 
 that large trees might take root in it ; and with such 
 the terraces were covered, as well as with the other 
 plants and flowers proper to adorn a pleasure garden. 
 The trees planted there are represented to have been 
 of various kinds. Here was planted the larch, that 
 curving flings its arms like a falliDg wave ; by it was 
 seen the gray livery of the aspen ; the mournful so- 
 lemnity of the cypress and stately grandeur of the 
 cedar intermingled with the elegant mimosa; be- 
 sides the light and airy foliage of the silk-tasseled 
 acacia, with its clusters of beauteous lilac flowers 
 streaming in the wind and glittering in the sun ; the 
 umbrageous foliage of the chestnut, and ever-vary- 
 ing verdure of the poplar ; the birch with its feath- 
 ered branches light as a lady's plumes, all com- 
 prised with the freshness of the running stream, over 
 which the willow waved its tresses 
 
 And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, 
 The sweetest flower for scent that blows ; 
 And all rare blossoms from every clime 
 Grew in that garden in perfect prime. 
 
 All was ranged in rows on the side of the ascent as 
 well as on the top, that at a distance it appeared as 
 an immense pyramid covered with wood. The sit- 
 uation of this extraordinary efibrt of human skill, 
 aided by wealth, was adjoining the River Euphrates. 
 We suppose that in the upper terrace was an engine, 
 or kind of pump, by which the water was drawn up 
 out of the river, and from thence the whole gardens 
 were watered, and a supply of the pure element 
 furnished to the fountains and reservoirs for cooling 
 the air. In the spaces between the several arches, 
 on which the whole structure rested, were large and 
 
90 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOELD. 
 
 magnificent apartments, very lightsome, with the 
 advantage of possessing beautiful prospects. 
 
 The prospect from these elevated gardens must 
 have been grand and delightful. From the upper 
 area was obtained a view, not only of the whole city 
 and the windings of the Euphrates, which washed 
 the base of the superstructure three hundred feet 
 below, but of the cultivated environs of the city, and 
 of the surrounding desert, extending as far as the 
 eye could reach. The different terraces and groves 
 contained fountains, parterres, seats, and banqueting- 
 rooms, and combined the minute beauties of flowers 
 and foliage, with masses of shade, and light open 
 vistas ; the retirement of the grove, with the vicinity 
 of civic mirth and din ; and all the splendor and 
 luxury of Eastern magnificence in art, with the 
 simple pleasures of verdant and beautiful nature. 
 This surprising and laborious experiment we must 
 certainly consider as a strain of complaisance in 
 King Nebuchadnezzar to his Median bride, to recon- 
 cile her to the naked appearance of Babylon, and 
 induce her to cease regretting the hills and forests 
 she formerly delighted in, and the charms they pre- 
 sented to her youthful imagination. He who thought 
 nothing impossible for his power to execute, left 
 nothing unattempted for the gratification of his be- 
 loved consort, determined to raise even woods and 
 hills within the precincts of a city, equal to those 
 by which her native land was diversified. 
 
 An elevated situation in a warm climate, such as 
 Babylonia, seems to have been an essential requisite 
 to a royal garden ; probably because the air in such 
 regions is there more cool and salubrious the secu- 
 rity from hostile attack of any sort more certain 
 
BABYLON. 91 
 
 and the prospects always sublime. We are told by 
 Diodorus Siculus, that when Semiramis came to 
 Chanon, a city of Media, she discovered, on an ele- 
 vated plain, a rock of stupendous height and of 
 considerable extent. Here she formed another par- 
 adise, exceedingly large, inclosing a rock in the 
 midst of it, on which she erected sumptuous build- 
 ings for pleasure, and commanding views of the 
 plantations. 
 
 The Persians and their monarchs were always very 
 fond of gardens, and Xenophon says, "wherever 
 King Cyrus resides, or whatever place he visits in 
 his dominions, he takes care the paradises shall be 
 filled with everything both beautiful and useful the 
 soil can produce." By Plutarch we are told, that 
 Ijysander, the Spartan general, praising the garden 
 or paradise of the younger Cyrus at Sardis, the king 
 avowed that he had conceived, disposed, and ad- 
 justed the whole himself, and had planted many of 
 the trees with his own hands. 
 
 There was a paradise in the island of Panchea, on 
 the coast of Arabia, which is described by Diodorus 
 Siculus as being in a flourishing state 300 B. C. It 
 belonged to a temple of Jupiter ; it had a copious 
 fountain and river for irrigation, with the usual ac- 
 companiments of groves, trees, thickets, and flowers. 
 
 The grove of Orontes, in Syria, is mentioned by 
 Strabo as being nine miles in circumference. It was 
 composed of laurels and cypress, which formed in 
 the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable 
 shade. A thousand streams of the purest water is- 
 suing from every hill preserved the verdure of the 
 earth and the temperature of the air ; the senses 
 were gratified with harmonious sounds and aromatic 
 
92 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 odors ; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to 
 health and joy, to luxury and love. 
 
 At the present day, the prevailing plan of Persian 
 gardens is that of long parallel walks, shaded by 
 even rows of tall umbrageous planes, interspersed 
 with every variety of fruit-trees and every kind of 
 flowering shrub. Canals flow down the avenues in 
 the same undeviating lines, and generally terminate 
 in large marble basins, containing sparkling fount- 
 ains. Formal as this may seem, and reverse of pic- 
 turesque, the effect is amazingly grand. The num- 
 ber of avenues and canals form so extended a sylvan 
 scene, that viewed from any point it appears a vast 
 wood, with thousands of brilliant rills gliding among 
 the thickets ; for the Persians are not content with 
 one fountain, but have many small low jets, to keep 
 the whole surface of the water in agitation, and thus 
 heighten the sparkling effects through the foliage. 
 
 The art of cultivating the soil is conjectured to 
 have been, if not invented, much studied and im- 
 proved in Egypt; but though some testimony re- 
 mains of their agriculture, we possess but little guide 
 to enable us to form any idea of their gardening. 
 According to Herodotus, the sacred groves or gar- 
 dens were often of extraordinary beauty, thus design- 
 edly corresponding with that primeval garden they 
 were intended to represent. In times of its pros- 
 perity, Egypt is represented to have been as a deli- 
 cious garden, through which a traveler might pro- 
 ceed from one end to the other under the shade of 
 fruit-trees of all kinds. The vine was extensively 
 cultivated, as Herodotus remarks, that at the festival 
 of Bubastis more wine was consumed than in the 
 whole year besides. In the Book of Numbers, the 
 
BABYLON. 93 
 
 Israelites murmur that the place they are brought 
 to has not the advantages of nature they left behind 
 them in Eg} r pt ; among which figs, vines, and pome- 
 granates are expressly enumerated. 
 
 The Old Testament makes mention of gardens be- 
 longing to Jewish princes and subjects, that of 
 King Solomon is the principal one on record ; it is 
 stated to have contained a variety of plants, curious 
 as objects of natural history, as the hyssop which 
 springeth out of the wall ; odoriferous and showy 
 flowers, as the rose, and the lily of the valley, the 
 calamus, the camphire, spikenard, saffron, and cin- 
 namon; timber-trees, as the cedar, the pine, and 
 the fir ; and the richest fruits, as the fig, grape, 
 apple, date, and pomegranate. Solomon says : "I 
 made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees 
 in them, and all kind of fruits. I made me pools of 
 water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth 
 forth trees." About three miles south of Bethlehem 
 there are three tanks or pools, yet called " the Cis- 
 terns of Solomon," which, when Maundrell visited 
 Palestine, he found full of water ; recent travelers, 
 however, say they are dry and in ruins, through 
 neglect ; but their state is such that they might be 
 restored at a small expense. The source from which 
 they were supplied is a fountain about a furlong 
 distant. There are the remains of an aqueduct of 
 brick pipes, which received the stream running from 
 the pools, and carried it by many turnings and wind- 
 ings through the mountains to Jerusalem. 
 
 Some writers consider the existence of these cele- 
 brated gardens of Babylon as problematical, from 
 the fact of some of the Roman historians terming 
 them "the fabulous wonders of the Greeks;" but 
 
94: SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 when we find, by the quotation we have made from 
 the sacred volume, that, live hundred years before 
 the time of their formation, vast expenses were 
 incurred by the Jewish monarch for like purposes 
 of gratification, and that in the neighboring king- 
 dom of Persia, throughout all ages, the cultivation 
 of all kinds of trees and fruits, that might delight 
 the eye or charm the sense, has ever continued, 
 it requires no very great stretch of faith to suppose 
 there is not, in the accounts we have given, any 
 exaggeration. 
 
 From Rich's "Memoirs on Babylon," and Sir 
 R,. K. Porter's " Travels," we gather all the informa- 
 tion that can be obtained from an inspection of the 
 remains of this wondrous city of the East. It is 
 most probable that when these ruins shall undergo 
 the careful examination that Mr. Layard has so 
 recently made at Nineveh, very interesting results 
 will be obtained. 
 
 The whole country between Bagdad and Hillah 
 is a perfectly flat and (with the exception of a few 
 spots as you approach the latter place) uncultivated 
 waste. That it was at some former period in a far 
 different state, is evident from the number of canals 
 by which it is traversed, now dry and neglected, 
 and the quantity of heaps of earth, covered with 
 fragments of brick and broken tiles, which are seen 
 in every direction, the indisputable traces of for- 
 mer population. At present the only inhabitants 
 of this tract are the Zobeide Arabs, the sheikh of 
 which tribe is responsible for the security of the 
 road, which is so much frequented that robberies 
 are comparatively seldom heard of. At convenient 
 distances, khans or caravansaries are erected for the 
 
BABYLON. 95 
 
 accommodation of travelers, and to each of them is 
 attached a small village of fellahs. 
 
 At the village of Mohawil is a large canal, with 
 a bridge over it ; beyond this everything announces 
 an approach to the remains of a great city. The 
 ruins of Babylon may in fact be said almost to com- 
 mence from this spot, the whole country between it 
 and Hillah exhibiting, at intervals, traces of building, 
 in which are discoverable burned and unburned 
 bricks and bitumen ; three mounds in particular 
 attract attention from their magnitude. The ground 
 to the right and left of the road bears the appear- 
 ance of being partially, and occasionally, a morass, 
 though at times it is perfectly dry : the road, which 
 is due south, lies within a quarter of a mile of the 
 celebrated mass, called by Pietro della Valle the 
 Tower of Belus. Hillah is nine miles from Moha- 
 wil, and nearly forty-eight from Bagdad. 
 
 Hillah is called by Abulfeda, Hillah Benne Mo- 
 zeid: he, and the Turkish geographer who copies 
 him, say it was built, or rather augmented, by Saif- 
 cd-Doulah, in the year of the Hejira 495, or A. D. 
 1101-2, in the land of Babel. The Turkish geog- 
 rapher appears to place the ruins of Babylon con- 
 siderably more to the northward, in the direction of 
 Sura and Felugiah. The district called by the 
 natives El-Aredth Babel extends on both sides the 
 Euphrates. Its latitude, according to Niebuhr, is 
 32 28', and it is situated on the western bank of 
 the Euphrates, a few shops and huts only being on 
 the eastern. It is meanly built, and its population 
 does not exceed between six thousand and seven 
 thousand, consisting of Arabs and Jews, (who have 
 one synagogue,) there being no Christians, and only 
 
96 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 such Turks as are employed in the government. It 
 is divided into seven small mahalles or parishes ; but 
 there is only one mosque in the town, all the other 
 j)laces of worship being mere ibadetgahs or oratories. 
 The walls are of mud, and present a truly con- 
 temptible appearance ; but the present pasha of 
 Bagdad has ordered a new wall to be constructed 
 of the finest Babylonian bricks. The gates are 
 three in number, and, as usual in the East, each 
 takes the name of the principal place it leads to, 
 the northern one being called the gate of Hussein 
 or Kerbela, the center that of Tahmasia, (a large 
 village in the neighborhood,) and the southern the 
 gate of Nejef or Imam Ali. The little street on the 
 eastern side is also closed by a gate, or rather door. 
 The gardens on both sides the river are very exten- 
 sive, so that the town itself, from a little distance, 
 appears imbosomed in a wood of date-trees. On the 
 outer verge of the gardens on the west, small redans 
 are established, within sight and hearing of each 
 other, in each of which a matchlockman mounts 
 guard at night ; and for greater security against the 
 marauders of the desert, the late Ali Pasha dug an 
 ample trench round the whole, and built a citadel 
 (which, as usual in these countries, is nothing more 
 than a square inclosure) in the town, on the bank 
 of the river. Mr. Bich, in his Memoir, says : 
 
 " Among the gardens a few hundred yards to the 
 west of the Husseinia gate is the Mesjid-el-Shems, 
 a mosque built on the spot where popular tradition 
 says a miracle, similar to that of the prophet Joshua, 
 was wrought in favor of Ali, and from this the 
 mosque derives its appellation. It is a small build- 
 ing, having instead of a minaret an obelisk, or 
 
BABYLON. 97 
 
 rather hollow cone fretted on the outside like a 1 pine- 
 apple, placed on an octagonal base : this form, which 
 is a very curious one, I have observed in several 
 very old structures, particularly the tomb of Zo- 
 beide, the wife of Haroun-al-Raschid, at Bagdad, 
 and I am informed that it cannot now be imitated. 
 On the top of the cone is a mud cap, elevated on a 
 pole, resembling the cap of liberty. This, they say, 
 revolves with the sun; a miracle I had not the 
 curiosity to verify. The inside of the mosque is 
 supported by rows of short pillars about two feet in 
 girth : from the top of each spring pointed arches, 
 in form and combination resembling in a striking 
 manner the Gothic architecture. It contains nothing 
 remarkable except what the people show as the tomb 
 of the prophet Joshua. This country abounds in 
 supposed tombs of prophets. On the Tigris, be- 
 tween Bagdad and Bussora, they show the sepulcher 
 of Ezra; twelve miles in the Desert, to the S. "W. 
 of Hillah, is that of Ezekiel ; and to the southward, 
 the tomb of Job : the two former are places of pil- 
 grimage of the Jews, who do not acknowledge those 
 of Job and Joshua. 
 
 The district of Hillah extends from Husseinia, 
 (which is a canal leading from the Euphrates near 
 Musseib to Imam Hussein,) on the north, to the 
 town of Hasca on the south. It is governed by a 
 bey, who is always a Turk or Georgian, appointed 
 by the Pasha of Bagdad, from whom the government 
 is farmed for a stipulated yearly sum. There is also 
 a sirdar, or commandant of janizaries, and a cadi, 
 whose office, unlike any other of the same kind in 
 Turkey, has been continued in the same family for 
 upward of a century. The inhabitants of Hillah 
 
98 SEVEN WONDERS OP THE WORLD. 
 
 bear a very bad character. The air is salubrious, 
 and the soil extremely fertile, producing great quan- 
 tities of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds, 
 though it is not cultivated to above half the degree 
 of which it is susceptible. 
 
 The grand cause of this fertility is the Euphrates, 
 the banks of which are lower and the stream more 
 equal than the Tigris. Strabo says that it was a 
 stadium in breadth at Babylon ; according to Ren- 
 nell, about four hundred and ninty-one English feet; 
 or D'Anville's still more reduced scale, three hun- 
 dred and thirty. Niebuhr says, at Hillah it is four 
 hundred Danish feet broad ; my measurement by a 
 graduated line at the bridge there, brings it to 
 seventy-five fathoms, or four hundred^and fifty feet ; 
 its breadth, however, varies in its passage through 
 the ruins. Its depth I found to be two and a half 
 fathoms, and the current runs at the medium rate of 
 about two knots ; when lowest, being probably half 
 a knot less, and when full, a knot more. The Tigris 
 is infinitely more rapid, having a current of near 
 seven knots when at its height. The Euphrates rises 
 at an earlier period than the Tigris ; in the middle 
 of the winter it increases a little, but falls again soon 
 after ; in March it again rises ; and in the latter end 
 of April is at its full, continuing so till the latter 
 end of June. When at its height it overflows the 
 surrounding country, fills the canals dug for its re- 
 ception, without the slightest exertion of labor, and 
 facilitates agriculture in a surprising degree. The 
 ruins of Babylon are then inundated so as to render 
 many parts of them inaccessible, by converting the 
 valleys among them into morasses. But the most 
 remarkable inundation of the Euphrates is at Felu- 
 
BABYLON. 99 
 
 giah, twelve leagues to the westward of Bagdad, 
 where, on breaking down the dike which confines 
 its waters within their proper channel, they flow 
 over the country, and extend nearly to the hanks 
 of the Tigris, with a depth sufficient to render them 
 navigable for rafts and flat-bottomed boats. 
 
 The water of the Euphrates is esteemed more salu- 
 brious than that of the Tigris. Its general course 
 through the site of Babylon is N. and S. I ques- 
 tioned the fishermen who ply on the river, respect- 
 ing its bottom, and they all agreed that bricks and 
 other fragments of building are very commonly 
 found in it. From the gentleness of the current, 
 regularity of the stream, and equal substance of the 
 banks, I am of opinion that the Euphrates would not 
 naturally alter its course in any great degree, cer- 
 tainly not so much as the Tigris, whose variations 
 in a few years are often very considerable. A vari- 
 ety of circumstances may, however, have caused 
 some alterations. It is evident from what Strabo 
 says, that the neglected state of the canals had con- 
 siderably injured the original stream, and it is pos- 
 sible that a part of it might have continued to flow 
 through the channel cut by Cyrus for a long time 
 afterward. That some change in the course of the 
 river has taken place, will be hereafter shown. 
 
 I have before remarked, that the whole of this part 
 of Mesopotamia is intersected by canals. These are 
 of all ages : and it is not uncommon to see workmen 
 employed in excavating a new canal, close to, and 
 parallel with, an old one, when it might be supposed 
 that the cleansing of the old one would be a work of 
 much less toil. The high embankments of these 
 canals easily impose on the unpracticed eye for ruins 
 
100 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 of buildings, especially when the channel has been 
 filled up by the accession of soil, and I doubt not 
 are the origin of the belief, expressed by some trav- 
 elers, that there are ruins in the gardens of Hill ah. 
 Niebuhr and Otter say that the remains of walls and 
 edifices are in existence, though enveloped in woods 
 and coppices. Otter in particular observes that the 
 site of Babylon is generally covered with wood: this 
 is certainly incorrect. On the ruins of Babylon 
 there is not a single tree growing, excepting the old 
 one which I shall hereafter have occasion to mention ; 
 but in the intervals of the ruins, where in all prob- 
 ability no building ever stood, there are some patch- 
 es of cultivation. I made the most diligent search 
 all through the gardens, but found not the slightest 
 vestige of ruins, though previously I heard of many, 
 an example of the value of information resting 
 solely on the authority of the natives. The reason 
 is obvious. Ruins composed, like those of Babylon, 
 of heaps of rubbish impregnated with niter, cannot 
 be cultivated, and any inferior mound would of 
 course be leveled in making the garden. 
 
 In such a soil as that of Babylon it appears sur- 
 prising how long some of the canals have remained. 
 The Naher Malcha, a work of the Babylonian mon- 
 archs, might still be effectually repaired, and it is 
 probable that many of the canals now seen on the 
 site of Babylon may have been in existence when it 
 was a flourishing city. Some of the canals were 
 used for the purpose of navigation, and Alexander 
 took great pains to cleanse and restore those that 
 were out of order. Aristobulus, quoted by Strabo, 
 says that he went into these canals in a boat, which 
 he steered himself, and inspected the repairs in 
 
BABYLON. 
 
 101 
 
 person, in presence of a multitude of spectators, 
 cleansing the mouths of some which were choked 
 up with mud, and blocking up others. In one in- 
 stance, where the canal led toward the morasses and 
 lakes of the Arabian side, he opened a new mouth 
 thirty stadia from the old one, in a more stony place, 
 to insure greater durability. He also dug basins for 
 his fleet ; and in performing these works, it is said 
 the graves of many of the kings and princes who 
 were buried in the morasses were dug up ; by which 
 I understand that the bad state of the canals had 
 caused inundations in the places of sepulture. From 
 the yielding nature of the soil I can readily conceive 
 the ease with which Cyrus dug a trench round the 
 city, sufficient to contain the river. I have not, 
 however, been able to discover any traces either of 
 this trench, or the lines of circumvallation. 
 
 The ruins of the eastern quarter of Babylon com- 
 mence about two miles above Hillah, and consist 
 of two large masses or mounds connected with, and 
 lying N. and S. of each other, and several smaller 
 ones which cross the plain at different intervals. 
 The northern termination of this plain is Pietro della 
 Valle's ruin, from the S. E. angle of which (to which 
 it evidently once joined, being only obliterated there 
 by two canals) proceeds a narrow ridge or mound 
 of earth, wearing the appearance of having been a 
 boundary wall. This ridge forms a kind of circular 
 inclosure, and joins the S. E. point of the most 
 southerly of the two grand masses. 
 
 The river bank is skirted by a ruin, which I shall, 
 for perspicuity's sake, call its embankment, though, 
 as will hereafter be seen, there is good reason for 
 supposing it never was intended for one. It com- 
 
102 SEVEN WONDEES OF THE WORLD. 
 
 mences on a line with the lower extremity of the 
 southernmost grand mound, and is there nearly 
 three hundred yards broad at its base, from the angle 
 of which a mound proceeds, taking a sweep to the 
 S. E., so as to be nearly parallel with, and forty 
 yards more to the south than that boundary : this 
 loses itself in the plain, and is in fact the most 
 southerly of all the ruins. The embankment is con- 
 tinued in a right line to the north, and diminishes 
 in breadth, but increases in elevation till at the dis- 
 tance of seven hundred and fifty yards from its com- 
 mencement, where it is forty feet perpendicular 
 height, and is interrupted by a break nearly of the 
 same breadth with the river : at this point a triangu- 
 lar piece of ground commences, recently gained 
 from the river, which deserts its original channel 
 above, and returns to it again here : this gained 
 ground is one hundred and ten yards- in length, and 
 two hundred and fifty in breadth at its angle or 
 point, and along its base are traces of a continuation 
 of the embankment, which is there a narrow line 
 that soon loses itself. Above this, the bank of the 
 river affords nothing worthy of remark ; for though 
 in some places there are slight vestiges of building, 
 they were evidently not connected with the above- 
 mentioned embankment. 
 
 The whole of the area inclosed by the boundary 
 on the east and south, and river on the west, is two 
 miles and six hundred yards in breadth from E. to 
 YV\, as much from Pietro della Valle's ruin to the 
 southern part of the boundary, or two miles and one 
 thousand yards to the most southerly mound of all, 
 which has been already mentioned as branching off 
 from the embankment. This space is again longitu- 
 
BABYLON. 103 
 
 dinally subdivided into nearly half, by a straight line 
 of the same kind with the boundary, but much its 
 inferior in point of size. This may have crossed the 
 whole inclosure from 1ST. to S., but at present only a 
 mile of it remains. Exactly parallel with it, and 
 a little more than one hundred yards to the west of 
 it, is another line precisely of a similar description, 
 but still smaller and shorter : its northern termina- 
 tion is a high heap of rubbish, of a curious red 
 color, nearly three hundred yards long, and one 
 hundred broad, terminating on the top in a ridge : 
 it has been dug into in various parts, but few or no 
 fine old bricks have been fomid in it. All the ruins 
 of Babylon are contained within the western divis- 
 ion of the area, i. e., between the innermost of these 
 lines and the river, there being no vestiges of build- 
 ing in the eastern or largest division between the 
 outermost line and the external boundary. 
 
 Before entering into a minute description of the 
 ruins, to avoid repetition, it is necessary to state that 
 they consist of mounds of earth, formed by the de- 
 composition of building, channeled and furrowed 
 by the weather, and the surface of them strewed 
 with pieces of brick, bitumen, and pottery. 
 
 On taking a view of the ruins from south to north, 
 the first object that attracts attention is the low 
 mound connected with the embankment ; on it arc 
 two little parallel walls close together, and only a 
 few feet in height and breadth, which bear indis- 
 putable marks of having formed part of a Mohamme- 
 dan oratory or koiibbe. This ruin is called Jumjama, 
 (Calvary,) and gives its name to a village a little to 
 the left of it. To this succeeds the first grand mass 
 of ruins, which is one thousand one hundred yards 
 
104: SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOKLD. 
 
 in length, and eight hundred in greatest breadth, its 
 figure nearly resembling that of a quadrangle : its 
 height is irregular, but the most elevated part may 
 be about fifty or sixty feet above the level of the 
 plain, and it has been dug into for the purpose of 
 procuring bricks. Just below the highest part of it 
 is a small dome in an oblong inclosure, which, it is 
 pretended, contains the body of a son of Ali, named 
 Amran, together with those of seven of his com- 
 panions, all slain in the battle of Hillah. Unfor- 
 tunately for the credit of the tradition, however, it 
 is proved on better authority to be a fraud not un- 
 common in these parts, Ali having had no son of 
 this description. From the most remarkable object 
 on it, I shall distinguish this mound by the name of 
 Amran. 
 
 On the north is a valley of five hundred and 
 fifty yards in length, the area of which is covered 
 with tussocks of rank grass, and crossed by a line 
 of ruins of very little elevation. To this succeeds 
 the second grand heap of ruins, the shape of which 
 is nearly a square, of seven hundred yards' length 
 and breadth, and its S. ~W. angle is connected 
 with the N. W. angle of the mounds of Amran by 
 a ridge of considerable height, and nearly a hundred 
 yards in breadth. This is the place where Beau- 
 champ made his observations, and it is certainly the 
 most interesting part of the ruins of Babylon : every 
 vestige discoverable in it declares it to have been 
 composed of buildings far superior to all the rest 
 which have left traces in the eastern quarter: the 
 bricks are of the finest description ; and notwith- 
 standing this is the grand storehouse of them, ami 
 that the greatest supplies have been, and are now 
 
BABYLON. 105 
 
 constantly drawn from it, they appear still to be 
 abundant. But the operation of extracting the 
 bricks has caused great confusion, and contributed 
 much to increase the difficulty of deciphering the 
 original design of this mound, as in search of them 
 the workmen pierce into it in every direction, hol- 
 lowing out deep ravines and pits, and throwing up 
 the rubbish in heaps on the surface. In some places 
 they have bored into the solid mass, forming wind- 
 ing caverns and subterranean passages, which, from 
 their being left without adequate support, frequently 
 bury the workmen in the rubbish. In all these ex- 
 cavations, walls of burned brick, laid in lime-mortar 
 of a very good quality, are seen ; and in addition to 
 the substances generally strewed on the surfaces of 
 all these mounds, we here find fragments of alabaster 
 vessels, fine earthenware, marble, and great quantities 
 of varnished tiles, the glazing and coloring of which 
 are surprisingly fresh. In a hollow near the southern 
 part I found a sepulchral urn of earthenware, which 
 had been broken in digging, and near it lay some 
 human bones, which pulverized with the touch. 
 
 To be more particular in my description of this 
 mound, not more than two hundred yards from its 
 northern extremity is a ravine, hollowed out by 
 those who dig for bricks, in length near one hundred 
 yards, and thirty feet wide by forty or fifty deep. 
 On one side of it a few yards of wall remain stand- 
 ing, the face of which is very clean and perfect, 
 and it appears to have been the front of some build- 
 ing. The opposite side is so confused a mass of 
 rubbish, that it should seem the ravine had been 
 worked through a solid building. Under the foun- 
 dations at the southern end an opening is made, 
 
106 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 which discovers a subterranean passage, floored and 
 walled with large bricks, laid in bitumen, and cov- 
 ered over with pieces of sandstone, a yard thick, 
 and several yards long: the weight of the whole 
 being so great as to have given a considerable degree 
 of obliquity to the side- walls of the passage. It is 
 half full of brackish water, (probably rain-water im- 
 pregnated with niter, in filtering through the ruins, 
 which are all very productive of it,) and the work- 
 men say that some way on, it is high enough for a 
 man on horseback to pass : as much as I saw of it, 
 it was near seven feet in height, and its course to the 
 south. The superstructure over the passage is ce- 
 mented with bitumen, other parts of the ravine with 
 mortar, and the bricks have all writing on them. 
 The northern end of the ravine appears to have been 
 crossed by an extremely thick wall of yellowish 
 brick, cemented with a brilliant white mortar, which 
 has been broken through in hollowing it out ; and 
 a little to the north of it I discovered what Beau- 
 champ saw imperfectly, and understood from the 
 natives to be an idol. I was told the same thing, 
 and that it was discovered by an old Arab in dig- 
 ging, but that not knowing what to do with it, he 
 covered it up again. On sending for the old man, 
 who pointed out the spot, I set a number of men to 
 work, who, after a day's hard labor, laid open enough 
 of the statue to show that it was a lion of colossal 
 dimensions, standing on a pedestal, of a coarse kind 
 of gray granite, and of rude workmanship : in the 
 mouth was a circular aperture, into which a man 
 might introduce his fist. 
 
 A little to the west of the ravine is the next re- 
 markable object, called by the natives the Kasr, or 
 
BABYLON". 107 
 
 Palace, by which appellation I shall designate the 
 whole mass. It is a very remarkable ruin, which, 
 being uncovered, and in part detached from the rub- 
 bish, is visible from a considerable distance, but so 
 surprisingly fresh in its appearance, that it was only 
 after a minute inspection I was satisfied of its being 
 in reality a Babylonian remain. It consists of several 
 walls and piers, (which face the cardinal points,) 
 eight feet in thickness, in some places ornamented 
 with niches, and in others strengthened by pilasters 
 and buttresses, built of fine burned brick, (still per- 
 fectly clean and sharp,) laid in lime-cement of such 
 tenacity, that those whose business it is to find bricks, 
 have given up working, on account of the extreme 
 difficulty of extracting them whole. The tops of 
 these walls are broken, and may have been much 
 higher. On the outside they have in some places 
 been cleared nearly to the foundations, but the in- 
 ternal spaces formed by them are yet filled with rub- 
 bish, in some parts almost to their summit. One 
 part of the wall has been split into three parts, and 
 overthrown as if by an earthquake ; some detached 
 walls of the same kind, standing at different distances, 
 show what remains to have been only a small part 
 of the original fabric ; indeed, it appears that the 
 passage in the ravine, together with the wall which 
 crosses its upper end, was connected with it. There 
 are some hollows underneath, in which several per- 
 sons have lost their lives ; so that no one will now 
 venture into them, and their entrances have now 
 become choked up with rubbish. Near this ruin is 
 a heap of rubbish, the sides of which are curiously 
 streaked by the alternation of its materials, the chief 
 part of which, it is probable, was unburned brick, of 
 
108 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 which I found a small quantity in the neighborhood, 
 but no reeds were discoverable in the interstices. 
 There are two paths near this ruin, made by the 
 workmen, who carry down their bricks to the river 
 side, whence they are transported by boats to Hillah ; 
 and a little to the N. E". E. of it is the famous tree 
 which the natives call Athele, and maintain to have 
 been flourishing in ancient Babylon, from the destruc- 
 tion of which, they say, God purposely preserved it, 
 that it might afford Ali a convenient place to tie up 
 his horse after the battle of Hillah ! It stands on a 
 kind of ridge, and nothing more than one side of its 
 trunk remains, (by which it appears to have been of 
 considerable girth :) yet the branches at the top are 
 still perfectly verdant, and gently waving in the 
 wind, produce a melancholy rustling sound. It is 
 an evergreen, something resembling the lignum vitce, 
 and of a kind, I believe, not common in this j?art of 
 the country, though I am told there is a tree of the 
 same description at Bussora. 
 
 All the people of the country assert that it is ex- 
 tremely dangerous to approach this mound after 
 nightfall, on account of the multitude of evil spirits 
 by which it is haunted. 
 
 It will not be necessary to describe the inferior 
 heaps, which cross the plain between the two prin- 
 cipal mounds and the inner line ; but, previous to 
 giving an account of the last grand ruin, I shall say 
 a few words more on the embankment of the river, 
 which is separated from the mounds of Amran and 
 the Kasr by a winding valley or ravine, one hundred 
 and fifty yards in breadth, the bottom of which is 
 white with niter, and apparently never had any 
 buildings in it, except a small circular heap in the 
 
BABYLON. 109 
 
 center of it. The whole embankment on the river 
 side is abrupt, perpendicular, and shivered by the 
 action of the water ; at the foot of the most elevated 
 and narrowest part of it, cemented into the burned 
 brick wall of which it is composed, are a number of 
 urns filled with human bones, which had not under- 
 gone the action of fire. The river appears to have 
 encroached here, for I saw a considerable quantity 
 of burned bricks, and other fragments of building 
 in the water. 
 
 A mile to the north of the Kasr, or full five miles 
 distant from Iiillah, and nine hundred and fifty 
 yards from the river bank, is the last ruin of this 
 series, which has been described by Pietro della 
 Yalle, who determines it to have been the Tower of 
 Belus, an opinion adopted by Rennell. The natives 
 call it Mukallib, or, according to the vulgar Arab 
 pronunciation of these parts, Mujelibe, meaning 
 overturned ; they sometimes also apply this term to 
 the mounds of the Kasr. It is of an oblong shape, 
 irregular in -its height and the measurement of its 
 sides, which face the cardinal points ; the northern 
 side being two hundred yards in length, the southern 
 two hundred and nineteen, the eastern one hundred 
 and eighty-two, and the western one hundred and 
 thirty -six ; the elevation of the S.E., or highest angle, 
 one hundred and forty-one feet. The western face, 
 which is the least elevated, is the most interesting 
 on account of the appearance of building it presents. 
 Near the summit of it appears a low wall, with in- 
 terruptions, built of unburned bricks mixed up with 
 chopped straw or reeds, and cemented with clay- 
 mortar of great thickness, having between every 
 layer a layer of reeds ; and on the north side are 
 
110 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 also some vestiges of a similar construction. The 
 S. "W. angle is crowned by something like a turret 
 or lantern: the other angles are in a less perfect 
 state, but may originally have been ornamented in 
 a similar manner. The western face is lowest, and 
 easiest of ascent, the northern the most difficult. 
 All are worn into furrows by the weather ; and in 
 some places, where several channels of rain have 
 united together, these furrows are of great depth, 
 and penetrate a considerable way into the mound. 
 The summit is covered with heaps of rubbish, in 
 digging into some of which, layers of broken burned 
 brick, cemented with mortar, are discovered, and 
 whole bricks with inscriptions on them are here 
 and there found ; the whole is covered with innu- 
 merable fragments of pottery, brick, bitumen, 
 pebbles, vitrified brick or scoria, and even shells, 
 bits of glass, and mother-of-pearl. On asking a 
 Turk how he imagined these latter substances were 
 brought there, he replied, without the least hesita- 
 tion, 'By the deluge.' There are many dens of 
 wild beasts in various parts, in one of which I found 
 the bones of sheep and other animals, and perceived 
 a strong smell like that of a lion. I also found 
 quantities of porcupine quills, and in most of the 
 cavities are numbers of bats and owls. It is a curi- 
 ous coincidence, that I here first heard the oriental 
 account of satyrs. I had always imagined the belief 
 of their existence was confined to the mythology of 
 the West ; but a tchoadar, who was with me when 
 I examined this ruin, mentioned by accident, that in 
 this desert an animal is found, resembling a man 
 from the head to the waist, but having the thighs 
 and legs of a sheep or goat ; he said also that the 
 
BABYLON. Ill 
 
 Arabs hunt it with dogs, and eat the lower parts, 
 abstaining from the upper, on account of their 
 resemblance to those of the human species. 'But 
 wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their 
 houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls 
 shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.' 
 Isaiah xiii, 21." 
 
 In the northern face of the Mujelibe, near the 
 summit, is a niche or recess, high enough for a man 
 to stand upright in, at the back of which is a low 
 aperture leading to a small cavity, whence a passage 
 branches off to the right, sloping upward in a west- 
 erly direction, till it loses itself in the rubbish. The 
 natives call this the serdaub, or cellar ; and we are 
 informed by good authority, that four years ago, 
 some men, searching in it for bricks, pulled out a 
 quantity of marble, and afterward a coffin of mul- 
 berry-wood, containing a human body, inclosed in a 
 tight wrapper, and apparently partially covered 
 with bitumen, which crumbled into dust soon after 
 exposure to the air. This account, together with 
 its appearing the most favorable spot to ascertain 
 something of the original plan of the whole, induced 
 Mr. Rich to employ men to work, to open a passage 
 into the serdaub from above. They dug into a 
 shaft or hollow pier, sixty feet square, lined with 
 fine brick laid in bitumen, and filled up with earth ; 
 in this they found a brass spike, some earthern 
 vessels, (one of which was very thin, and had the 
 remains of fine white varnish on the outside,) and 
 a beam of date-tree wood. On the third day's 
 work they made their way into the opening, and 
 discovered a narrow passage nearly ten feet high, 
 half filled with rubbish, flat on the top, and exhibit- 
 
112 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 ing both, burned and unburned bricks ; the former 
 with inscriptions on them, and the latter, as usual, 
 laid with a layer of reeds between every row, except 
 in one or two courses near the bottom, where they 
 were cemented with bitumen ; a curious and un- 
 accountable circumstance. This passage appeared 
 as if it originally had a lining of fine burned brick, 
 cemented with bitumen, to conceal the unburned 
 brick, of which the body of the building was prin- 
 cipally composed. Fronting it is another passage, 
 (or rather a continuation of the same to the eastward, 
 in which direction it properly extends a considerable 
 distance, perhaps even all along the northern front 
 of the Mujelibe,) choked up with earth, in digging 
 out which was found, near the top, a wooden coffin, 
 containing a skeleton in high preservation. Under 
 the head of the coffin was a round pebble ; attached 
 to the coffin, on the outside, a brass bird, and 
 inside, an ornament of the same material, which 
 had apparently been suspended to some part of the 
 skeleton. These, could any doubt remain, place 
 the antiquity of the skeleton beyond all dispute. 
 This being extracted, a little further in the rubbish 
 the skeleton of a child was found ; and it is probable 
 that the whole of the passage, whatever its extent 
 may be, was occupied in a similar manner. No 
 skulls were found, either here or in the sepulchral 
 urns at the bank of the river. 
 
 At the foot of the Mujelibe, about seventy yards 
 from it, on the northern and western sides, are traces 
 of a very low mound of earth, which may have 
 formed an inclosure round the whole. Further to 
 the north of the river there are no more vestiges of 
 ruins ; but the heaps, in the direction of the Bagdad 
 
BABYLON. 113 
 
 road, shall be examined more particularly at a fu- 
 ture opportunity. 
 
 Having now done with the eastern side of the 
 river, we shall next proceed to take a survey of all 
 that remains of Babylon on the western. The loose 
 and inaccurate accounts of some modern travelers 
 have misled D' Anville and Rennell into the belief 
 of there being considerable ruins on the western 
 bank of the river, corresponding with those we have 
 just described on the eastern. That this is not the 
 case, Mr. Rich was satisfied by the view he obtained 
 from the top of the Mujelibe; yet he determined, 
 for greater accuracy, to examine the whole bank 
 minutely. It is flat, and intersected by canals, the 
 principal of which are the Tajeea, or Ali Pasha's 
 Trench, and the canal of Tahmasia. There are a 
 few small villages on the river, inclosed by mud 
 walls, and surrounded by cultivation ; but there is 
 not the slightest vestige of ruins, excepting opposite 
 the mass of Amran, where are two small mounds of 
 earth, overgrown with grass, forming a right angle 
 with each other, and a little further on are two si- 
 milar ones. These do not exceed a hundred yards 
 in extent, and the place is called by the peasants 
 Anana. To the north the country has a verdant 
 but marshy appearance. 
 
 But although there are no ruins in the immediate 
 vicinity of the river, by far the most stupendous and 
 surprising mass of all the remains of Babylon is 
 situated in this desert, about six miles to the south- 
 west of Hillah. It is called by the Arabs Birs 
 Nemroud, by the Jews Nebuchadnezzar 's Prison. 
 
 Mr. Eich says he visited the Birs under circum- 
 stances favorable to the grandeur of its effect. The 
 
114 SEVEN W0NDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 morning was at first stormy, and threatened a severe 
 fall of rain ; but as he approached the object of his 
 journey, the heavy clouds separating discovered the 
 Birs frowning over the plain, and presenting the 
 appearance of a circular hill, crowned by a tower, 
 with a high ridge extending along the foot of it. 
 Its "being entirely concealed from view, during the 
 first part of the ride, prevented him accmiring the 
 gradual idea, in general so prejudicial to effect, and 
 so particularly lamented by those who visit the 
 pyramids. Just as he was within the proper dis- 
 tance, it burst at once upon the sight, in the midst 
 of rolling masses of thick black clouds, partially 
 obscured by that kind of haze whose indistinctness 
 is one great cause of sublimity, while a few strong 
 catches of stormy light, thrown upon the desert in 
 the background, served to give some idea of the 
 immense extent and dreary solitude of the wastes 
 in which this venerable ruin stands. 
 
 The Birs Kemroud is a mound of an oblong 
 figure, the total circumference of which is seven 
 hundred and sixty-two yards. At the eastern side 
 it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is not more than 
 fifty or sixty feet high ; but at the western it rises 
 in a conical figure to the elevation of one hundred 
 and ninty-eight feet ; and on its summit is a solid 
 pile of brick, thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight 
 in breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, 
 which is broken and irregular, and rent by a large 
 fissure extending through a third of its height. It 
 is perforated by small square holes disposed in 
 rhomboids. The fine burned bricks of which it is 
 built have inscriptions on them; and so admirable 
 is the cement, which appears to be lime-mortar, that, 
 
BABYLON. 
 
 115 
 
 though the layers are so close together that it is 
 difficult to discern what substance is between them, 
 it is nearly impossible to extract one of the bricks 
 whole. The other parts of the summit of this hill 
 are occupied by immense fragments of brickwork 
 of no determinate figure, tumbled together and con- 
 verted into solid vitrified masses, as if they had 
 undergone the action of the fiercest fire, or been 
 blown up Math gunpowder, the layers of the bricks 
 being perfectly discernible a curious fact, and one 
 for which we are utterly unable to account. 
 
 The whole height of the Birs Nemroud above the 
 plain to the summit of the brick wall is two hundred 
 and thirty-five feet. The brick wall itself, which 
 stands on the edge of the summit, and was undoubt- 
 edly the face of another stage, is thirty-seven feet 
 high. In the side of the pile, a little below the 
 summit, is very clearly to be seen part of another 
 brick wall, precisely resembling the fragment which 
 crowns the summit, but which still encases and sup- 
 ports its part of the mound. This is clearly indi- 
 cative of another stage of greater extent. We arc 
 told the masonry is infinitely superior to anything 
 of the kind ever seen ; and leaving out of the ques- 
 tion any conjecture relative to the original destina- 
 tion of this ruin, the impression made by a sight of 
 it is, that it was a solid pile, composed in the in- 
 terior of unburned brick, and perhaps earth or rub- 
 bish ; that it was constructed in receding stages, and 
 faced with fine burned bricks, having inscriptions 
 on them, laid in a very thin layer of lime-cement ; 
 and that it was reduced by violence to its present 
 ruinous condition. The upper stories have been 
 forcibly broken down, and fire lias been employed 
 
116 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 as an instrument of destruction, though it is not easy 
 to say precisely how or why. The facing of fine 
 bricks has partly been removed, and partly covered 
 by the falling down of the mass which it supported 
 and kept together. Mr. Rich says also, that he 
 could speak with the greater confidence of the dif- 
 ferent stages of this pile, from his own observations 
 having been recently confirmed and extended by 
 an intelligent traveler, (Mr. Buckingham,) who was 
 of opinion that the traces of four stages are clearly 
 discernible. Should future examinations of the ruin 
 confirm this opinion to be correct, we cannot omit 
 to notice a remarkable result arising out of them. 
 The Tower of Belus was a stadium in height; there- 
 fore, if we suppose the eight towers or stages which 
 compose the Pyramid of Belus to have been of 
 equal height, according to Major Rennell's idea, we 
 ought to find traces of four of them in the fragment 
 which remains, whose elevation is two hundred and 
 thirty-five feet; and this is precisely the number 
 which Mr. Buckingham believes he has discovered. 
 
 The Birs Nemroud is apparently the Tower of 
 Belus of Benjamin of Tudela, who says it was de- 
 stroyed by fire from heaven a curious remark, as 
 it proves he must have observed the vitrified masses 
 on the summit. 
 
 The Birs Nemroud is in all likelihood at present 
 pretty nearly in the state in which Alexander saw 
 it; if we give any credit to the report that ten 
 thousand men could only remove the rubbish, pre- 
 paratory to repairing it, in two months. If, indeed, 
 it required one-half of that number to disencumber 
 it, the state of dilapidation must have been com- 
 plete. The immense masses of vitrified brick which 
 
BABYLON. 117 
 
 are seen on the top of the mount appear to have 
 marked its summit since the time of its destruction. 
 The rubbish about its base was probably in much 
 greater quantities, the weather having dissipated 
 much of it in the course of so many revolving ages ; 
 and, possibly, portions of the exterior facing of tine 
 brick may have disappeared at different periods. 
 
 It is almost needless to observe that the whole 
 of this mound is itself a ruin, channeled by the 
 weather, and strewed with the usual fragments, and 
 with pieces of black stone, sandstone, and marble. 
 In the eastern part, layers of unburned brick are 
 plainly to be seen, but no reeds were discernible in 
 anv part: possibly the absence of them here, when 
 they are so generally seen under similar circum- 
 stances, may be an argument of the superior an- 
 tiquity of the ruin. In the north side may be seen 
 traces of building exactly similar to the brick pile. 
 At the foot of the mound a step may be traced, 
 scarcely elevated above the plain, exceeding in ex- 
 tent by several feet each way the true or measured 
 base ; and there is a quadrangular inclosure round 
 the whole, as at the Mujelibe, but much more per- 
 fect and of greater dimensions. At a trifling; distance 
 from the Birs, and parallel with its eastern face, is a 
 mound not inferior to that of the Kasr in elevation, 
 but much longer than it is broad. On the top of it 
 are two Koubbes, or oratories, one called Makam 
 Ibrahim Khalil, and said to be the place where 
 Abraham was thrown into the fire by order of 
 Nemroud, who surveyed the scene from the Birs : 
 the other, which is in ruins, is called Makam Saheb 
 Zeman ; but to what part of Mehdy's life it relates, 
 I am ignorant. In the oratories I searched in vain 
 
118 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 for the inscriptions mentioned by Niebuhr; near 
 that of Ibrahim Klialil is a small excavation into 
 the mound, which merits no attention ; but the 
 mound itself is curious, from its position, and cor- 
 respondence with others, as I shall in the sequel 
 have occasion to remark. 
 
 Round the Birs are traces of ruins to a consider- 
 able extent. To the north is the canal which sup- 
 plies Mesjid Ali with water, which was dug at the 
 expense of Kuwaub Shujah-ed-Doulah, and called 
 after his country Hindia. We were informed that 
 from the summit of the Birs, in a clear morning, 
 the gilt dome of Mesjid Ali might be seen. 
 
 To this account of the ruins, which are supposed 
 to have stood in the enceinte of the city itself, it may 
 be useful to subjoin a notice of some remarkable 
 places in the vicinity of Hillah, which bear some 
 relation to the ruins of Babylon. Nebbi Eyoub, or 
 the tomb of the prophet Job, is a Koubbe, or ora- 
 tory, situated near the Euphrates, three leagues to 
 the southward of Hillah; and just below it is a 
 large canal called Jazeria, said to be of great an- 
 tiquity ; close to "which are two large mounds or 
 masses of ruins, named El Mokhatat and El Adouar. 
 Four leagues below Hillah, on the same side of the 
 Euphrates, but not on the bank, is a village called 
 Jerbouiya, near which is a considerable collection 
 of ruins similar to those of Babylon, and called by 
 the natives Boursa, probably the Borosippa of 
 Strabo, and Barsita of Ptolemy. The governor of 
 Hillah informed me of a mound as large as the 
 Mujelibe, situated thirty-five hours to the southward 
 of Hillah; and that a few years ago, a cap or diadem 
 of pure gold, and some other articles of the same 
 
BABYLON. 
 
 119 
 
 metal, were found there, which the Khezail Arabs 
 refused to give up to the pasha. In the western 
 desert, bearing north-west from the top of the Muje- 
 libe, is a large mound called Towereij. In the 
 same desert, two leagues to the- west of Hillah, is 
 the village of Tahinasia, built by Shah Tahmas, 
 where, it is said, are some trifling mounds; this 
 village must occupy part of the site of Babylon. 
 From the top of the Mujelibe, in a southerly direc- 
 tion, at a great distance, two large mounds are 
 visible, with whose names I am unacquainted. Five 
 or six miles to the cast of Hillah is Al Hheimar, 
 which is a curious ruin, as bearing, on a smaller 
 scale, some resemblance to the Birs Nemroud. 
 The base is a heap of rubbish, on the top of which is 
 a mass of red brickwork, between each layer of 
 which is a curious white substance, which pulverizes 
 on the least touch. 
 
 Although it is very difficult to make the descrip- 
 tions given by the ancient historians agree with the 
 ruins in their present state, the majority of modern 
 travelers and investigators are united in determin- 
 ing that the Birs Nemroud is the ruin of the Temple 
 of Belus. Sir P. K. Porter was certain that four 
 of the original eight stages of the tower could be 
 traced in the existing ruins ; and with regard to the 
 intense vitrifying heat to which the summit has 
 most evidently been subjected, he has no doubt that 
 the fire acted from above, and was probably light- 
 ning. No very close examination of the ruins, no 
 excavation at all has been made since the visits of 
 Kich and Porter, and consequently no new light 
 has been thrown on the subject of the remains of 
 Babylon ; but one startling fact is exhibited by the 
 
 8 
 
120 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 concurrent testimony of every visitor to the coun- 
 tries round the district of the ruins, that all the 
 bricks of Babylon, from Bagdad to the Birs Nem- 
 roud, bear the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar, the son 
 of Nabopolassar ; thus fully confirming the expres- 
 sion of the Bible, " Is not this great Babylon that 
 I have built?" Whoever, therefore, might have 
 been the founders of the earlier city, this proof 
 must be received as satisfactory, that the city 
 lauded by the ancients, and of whose splendor 
 tradition has furnished us with such wondrous de- 
 tails, was the "house of the kingdom! the might 
 of the power! the glory of the majesty of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar." 
 
 Many writers, whose opinions are entitled to 
 notice, claim for three different masses the distinc- 
 tion of being a remain of the Tower of Babel, 
 namely, for NimrocCs Tower, at Akker-koof, for 
 the Mujelibe, and for the Birs Nemrottd. Some 
 travelers, having their imagination, perhaps, first 
 excited by the name Tel Nimroud attached to it, 
 have believed the remains at Akker-koof to be the 
 Tower of Babel ; but the people of the country 
 always indicate the site of Babel to be near to 
 Hillah, on the Euphrates. With regard to the 
 Mujelibe, we have shown that there are some traces 
 of evidence that here were those masterly works of 
 the power and genius of Nebuchadnezzar, the 
 hanging-gardens, and consequently we must look 
 elsewhere for the Tower of Confusion. 
 
 The advocates for both the sites mentioned do not 
 notice the Birs Nemroud ; therefore we must conclude 
 that remarkable pile was not observed by them ; 
 for every traveler who has seen it feels at once, that 
 
BABYLON. 121 
 
 of all the masses of ruin there is not one which so 
 nearly corresponds with all preconceived notions of 
 the Tower of Babel, a portion of which structure in 
 aftertiraes formed the nucleus of the temple devoted 
 to Jupiter Belus. Converted as the entire mass is 
 into solid vitrified fragments, by the aid of some over- 
 powering conflagration, it is a most remarkable cir- 
 cumstance in connection with the tradition, that the 
 Tower of Babel was rent and overthrown by fire 
 from heaven. Porter expresses his opinion that the 
 works of the Babylonish king concealed for awhile 
 the marks of the original devastation ; and that now 
 the destructive hand of time and of man have re- 
 duced it to the like condition in which it appeared 
 after the Confusion. The spectator thus has forcibly 
 called to his recollection the emphatic prophecy of 
 Jeremiah : " I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, 
 and roll thee down upon the rocks, and will make 
 thee a burned mountain." 
 
 In approaching the subject of the final overthrow 
 of this great city in the reign of its founder's descend- 
 ant, as foretold by the prophets, how appropriately 
 may be introduced Dean Millman's Soliloquy of the 
 Destroying Angel, commissioned by the Most High 
 to pour on the devoted city the vials of his wrath ! 
 
 Within the cloud-pavilion of my rest, 
 
 Amid the thrones and princedoms, that await 
 
 Their hour of ministration to the Lord, 
 
 I heard the summons, and I stood with wings 
 
 Outspread for flight before the eternal throne. 
 
 And, from the unapproached depth of light 
 
 Wherein the Almighty Father of the worlds 
 
 Dwells, from seraphic sight by glory veil'd, 
 
 Came forth the soundless mandate, which I felt 
 
 Within, and sprung upon my obedient plumes. 
 
122 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 But as I sail'd my long and trackless voyage 
 Down the deep bosom of unbounded space, 
 The manifest bearer of Almighty wrath, 
 I saw the angel of each separate star 
 Folding his wings in terror o'er his orb 
 Of golden fire ; and shuddering till I pass'd 
 To pour elsewhere Jehovah's cup of vengeance. 
 
 And now I stand upon thi3 world of man, 
 My wonted resting-place But thou, earth ! 
 Thou only, dost endure my fatal presence 
 Undaunted. As of old, I hover o'er 
 This haughty city of Chaldean Bel, 
 That not the less pours forth her festal pomp 
 To do unholy worship to her gods, 
 That are not gods, but works of mortal hands. 
 
 Behold ! the sun has burst the eastern gates, 
 And all his splendor floods the tower'd walls, 
 Upon whose wide immeasurable circuit 
 The harness'd chariots crowd in long array. 
 Down every stately line of pillar'd street, 
 To each of the hundred brazen gates, young men 
 And flower-crown'd maidens lead the mazy dance. 
 Here the vast palace, whence yon airy gardens 
 Spread round, and to the morning airs hang forth 
 Their golden fruits and dewy opening flowers ; 
 While still the low mists creep, in lazy folds, 
 O'er the house-tops beneath. In every court, 
 Through every portal, throng, in servile haste, 
 Captains and nobles. There, before the Temple, 
 On the far side of wide Euphrates' stream, 
 The priests of Bel their impious rites prepare : 
 And cymbal clang, and glittering dulcimer, 
 With shrill melodious salutation, hail 
 The welcome morn, awakening all the city 
 To the last dawn that e'er shall gladden her. 
 
 Babylon ! Babylon ! that wak'st in pride 
 And glory, but shalt sleep in shapeless ruin, 
 Thus, with my broad and overshadowing wings, 
 I do embrace thee for mine own ; forbidding, 
 Even at this instant, yon bright orient sun 
 To shed his splendors on thy lofty streets. 
 0, desolation's sacred place, as now 
 
UABYL0N. 123 
 
 Thou'rt darken'd, shall the darkness of the dead 
 Enwarp thee in its everlasting shade ! 
 Babylon ! Babylon ! upon the wreck 
 Of that most impious tower your fathers rear'd 
 To scale the crystal battlements of heaven, 
 I set my foot, here take my gloomy rest 
 Even till that hour be come, that comes full soon. 
 
 Having thus exhibited the accounts that are 
 handed down to us of this wondrous city by the 
 inspired writers of the Old Testament, and by the 
 ancient writers, and the present aspect of the site, 
 Ave shall add a few general remarks on the subject 
 which appear to us of most importance, and then 
 proceed to notice the accomplishment of prophecy 
 in the destruction of man's labor and pride, as well 
 as the entire desolation of the land. 
 
 Of all the ancient authors, Herodotus and Dio- 
 dorus are the most minute : much weight must be 
 certainly placed on the accounts of the former, who 
 was an eye-witness of what he relates ; what he says 
 he saw we may rely on, and credit on our own judg- 
 ment what he relates on the authority of others. 
 
 Of the extent of the walls and their height the 
 ancient authors do not much differ. The greatest 
 variation, and that worthy of particular notice, is the 
 dimensions of the Tower of Belus, which Herodotus 
 says had eight towers, one above the other, and that 
 the lowest was a stadium (about the eighth of a mile) 
 in height and breadth ; but his real meaning is sup- 
 posed to be length and breadth, that is, the base 
 was a square of a stadium ; and this agrees with 
 the account of Strabo. It may be said that the 
 situation of the Birs was so far distant from the 
 other portions of ruins ; but it appears surprising, 
 
124: SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 if the Birs was a building distinct from the Tower 
 of Belus, how so stupendous a pile, in its perfect 
 state, should never have attracted the attention of 
 those who have enumerated the wonders of Bab- 
 ylon. 
 
 The interest attached to the Tower of Belus is the 
 probability of its identity with the tower which the 
 descendants of Noah constructed in the Plain of 
 Shinar, the completion of which was prevented in 
 so memorable a manner. 
 
 Some commentators differ from the sense in which 
 Genesis xi, 4 is commonly understood, and as the 
 translators of our Bible give it, " a tower, whose 
 top may reach unto heaven ;" the phrase is literally, 
 " and its top in the skies ;" a metaphor common 
 in all languages and nations for an elevated summit. 
 This is certainly a more rational interpretation than 
 supposing a people in their senses, even at that early 
 period, would attempt to scale heaven by means of 
 a building of their own construction. 
 
 The intention of raising this structure might have 
 been displeasing to the Almighty on many other 
 accounts ; such, for instance, as the paying divine 
 honors to other beings. It is probable enough that 
 some attempt to frustrate the appointed dispersion 
 of mankind was involved in the undertaking ; and it 
 does not appear that the confusion of tongues was 
 so much a punishment for this attempt, as a proper 
 and obvious measure for giving effect to the intend- 
 ed dispersion and distribution of the human race. 
 Leaving this matter, in which we have only conjec- 
 tures and doubtful interpretations to guide us, we 
 refer our readers to the varied accounts we have 
 collected from ancient writers and modern travelers, 
 
BABYLON. 125 
 
 to form their own conclusions for the site of the 
 Tower of Belus, and of that " whose top is in the 
 skies." 
 
 'From what remains, and from the most favorable 
 accounts handed down to us, there is every reason 
 to believe, that the public edifices which adorned 
 Babylon were more remarkable for vastness of di- 
 mensions than elegance of design; the sculptures 
 that have been found speak a barbarous, people; 
 and we may consider it would be difficult to make 
 anything of such unpropitious materials as brick 
 and bitumen. 
 
 The sacred volume of our faith contains in several 
 places notices of Babylon, and in the prophetical 
 books appear so many denunciations of the crimes 
 and vices of the people and their monarch, that a 
 reference to the accomplishment of the doom of both 
 city and kingdom especially claims our notice. The 
 prophet Isaiah tells us, "Babylon, the glory of 
 kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, 
 shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be 
 dwelt in from generation to generation ; neither 
 shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the 
 shepherds make their fold there. But the wild 
 beasts of the desert shall be there, and their houses 
 shall be full of doleful creatures." 
 
 The general notice we have given of the present 
 condition of the site, shows that the heaps cover the 
 remains of the beauty of the " Chaldees' excellency ;" 
 for many centuries it has been forsaken by man, and 
 left entirely to the " doleful creatures ; " the hyena 
 and the jackal, serpents and scorpions, with other 
 venomous creatures, are now its only occupants. 
 
126 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The time when it became totally deserted has not 
 been clearly ascertained. Strabo, who wrote about 
 B. C. 50, says that in his time a great part of it was 
 a mere desert ; that the Persian had partly demol- 
 ished it, and the neglect of its Macedonian masters 
 had nearly completed its destruction ; and Pliny, 
 who wrote about a century after, describes its site 
 as a desert, and the city as " dead ;" and Pausanias, 
 who lived in the following century, says, " Of Baby- 
 lon, a greater city than which the sun did not form- 
 erly behold, all that now remains is the Temple of 
 Belus and the walls of the city." Jerome, who re- 
 sided in the East in the fourth century of our era, in- 
 forms us that Babylon was then quite in ruins, and the 
 walls served only for a park for the king's hunting. 
 One would imagine that such a city as Babylon 
 is described to have been, was in no danger of being 
 thus totally abandoned or coming to naught. Such 
 a city as this might surely, with less vanity than any 
 other, boast " she should continue forever," if any- 
 thing human or of human production could endure 
 everlastingly. But the fiat had gone forth ; for the 
 prophet Jeremiah, in the first year of the reign of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, by command of the Most High, 
 declares, " It shall come to pass when seventy years 
 are accomplished, that I will punish the king of 
 Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord." At the 
 time appointed, the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, 
 who appears to have been an instrument of Provi- 
 dence raised up for high purposes, struck the first 
 great blow to the prosperity of the city. The height 
 and strength of its walls for many months baffled 
 the invader ; but having understood that at a cer- 
 tain day, then near approaching, a great annual fes- 
 
BABYLON. 127 
 
 tival was to be held, when it was customary for the 
 Babylonians to spend the night in reveling and fes- 
 tivity, he thought it a fit opportunity for executing a 
 scheme of which the besieged had not the smallest 
 apprehension. The Babylonians had looked upon 
 the river as the greatest protection, and Cyrus saw 
 that, by turning the course of the stream, he might 
 make dry the bed of the river, and the fall of the 
 city was then certain : accordingly, on the night of 
 the feast, he sent a party of his men to the canal, 
 which led to the great lake made by Nebuchadnez- 
 zar to receive the waters of the Euphrates, while he 
 was facing the banks of the river with walls ; to this 
 party he gave directions, as soon as it was dark to 
 cut down the great dam which kept the waters of 
 the river in their place, and separated them from 
 the canal ; other parties made openings in the trench- 
 es round the city, that had been made during the 
 two years' siege ; and thus at midnight, the bed of 
 the river being made dry, the army of Cyrus found 
 easy entrance the guards, no doubt partaking of 
 the disorder and negligence of the night, were sur- 
 prised and killed. While all this was going on 
 without, a remarkable scene was transpiring within 
 the palace, Daniel was deciphering the writing on 
 the wall, and Cyrus and his soldiery entered the 
 banqueting-hall, where, encountering Belshazzar, he 
 slew him with all his followers. 
 
 Here we see the prophecy and its literal fulfill- 
 ment, by Isaiah: we are told, that "the Lord saith 
 of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all 
 my pleasure.'" 
 
 And by Jeremiah: "A drought is upon her 
 waters, and they shall be dried up. In their heat I 
 
128 SEVEN W0NDEKS OK THE WOELD. 
 
 will make them drunken, and they shall sleep a per- 
 petual sleep, and not awake." The facts of the 
 capture of the city are related by those truthful his- 
 torians, Herodotus and Xenophon ; the prophecies 
 were delivered by Isaiah, who lived two hundred 
 and fifty years before Herodotus, and three hundred 
 and fifty before Xenophon ; and by Jeremiah, about 
 one hundred years after Isaiah. 
 
 After its capture by Cyrus, Babylon, formerly the 
 seat of empire, was reduced to the rank of a provin- 
 cial city ; and the inhabitants, who had grown weal- 
 thy and proud during their empire over the East, 
 could ill brook this change of fortune, and there- 
 fore made an effort to regain their former power. 
 Accordingly, in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, 
 twelve years subsequent to the death of Cyrus, after 
 some years of preparation, they openly revolted. 
 For twenty months they sustained the siege and all 
 the efforts of Darius ; and when the conqueror was 
 again in possession of the city he threw down the 
 walls. In the succeeding reign another blow was 
 struck toward the downfall of Babylon. Xerxes, 
 after his return from his unfortunate expedition into 
 Greece, partly to indemnify himself for his losses, 
 and partly out of zeal for the Magian religion, which 
 held every kind of image-worship in abhorrence, 
 destroyed the temples, and plundered them of their 
 vast treasures, which appear to have been hitherto 
 spared, thereby accomplishing the other prophecies 
 of Isaiah and Jeremiah : " Babylon is fallen, and all 
 the graven images of her gods he hath broken into 
 the ground. Wherefore behold the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon her 
 graven images." 
 
BABYLON. 12'J 
 
 From this period, despoiled of her wealth, strength, 
 and various resources, Babylon was in no condition 
 for revolt ; and with the decay of her power and lo- 
 cal advantages the population declined. We conse- 
 quently hear no more of Babylon until the coming 
 of Alexander, one hundred and fifty years after, 
 wdien the terror of his name, or the weakness of the 
 place, w r as such, that not the slightest effort of re- 
 sistance was made. Alexander, on his return from 
 his Indian expedition, finding Babylon more suitable 
 in its situation for the capital of his empire than any 
 other place in the East, resolved to fix his residence 
 there, and to restore it to its former strength and 
 magnificence. For this purpose, he set ten thousand 
 men at work to rebuild the Temple of Belus, and a 
 like number to bring back the river into the old 
 channel, from which it had been diverted by Darius. 
 But the behest of the Most High had determined 
 " Babylon should be a desolation," and by the death 
 of Alexander put an end to this and his other mighty 
 projects. 
 
 Babylon never revived, but continued through 
 each succeeding age to make further advances in 
 its progress to depopulation and decay, until, as we 
 learn from Diodorus Siculus, about 130 B. C, the 
 Parthians, who were then its masters, burned the 
 forum, the temples, and several parts of the city, 
 and sold many of the inhabitants to slavery. 
 
 For some hundreds of years, through dearth of 
 authors and ages of ignorance, we hear no more of 
 Babylon. The first mention made by later authors 
 is by Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, who lived in the 
 twelfth century, and he asserts that Babylon was laid 
 waste, but that some ruins are still to be seen of 
 
130 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's palace ; and men feared to enter 
 there on account of the serpents and scorpions that 
 were in the midst of it. Rauwolf, a German trav- 
 eler, in 1574, says : " The country is so dry and bar- 
 ren that it cannot be tilled, and so bare, that I could 
 never have believed that this powerful city, once 
 the most stately and renowned in all the world, 
 and situate in the pleasant and fruitful country of 
 Shinar, could ever have stood there, if it had not 
 been known by its situation, and many antiquities 
 of great beauty which are still lying about in great 
 desolations. 
 
 " By the old bridge over the Euphrates there are 
 yet remaining portions of arches built of burnt brick, 
 so strong that it is admirable. Just before the vil- 
 lage of Elugo (Hillah) is the hill whereon the castle 
 stood, the ruins of the fortifications being yet 
 visible. Behind it did stand the Tower of Babel. 
 The ruin is so low and full of venomous creatures, 
 which lodge in the holes made by them in the rub- 
 bish, that no one durst approach nearer than within 
 half a league of it, except during two months in the 
 winter, when they do not stir out of their holes." 
 
 And when at evening o'er the swampy plain 
 The bittern's boom came far, 
 Distant in darkness seen, 
 Above the horizon's lingering light 
 Rose the near ruins of old Babylon. 
 
 Once from her lofty walls the charioteer 
 Look'd down on swarming myriads ; once she flung 
 Her arches o'er Euphrates' conquer'd tide, 
 And through her brazen portals when she pour'd 
 Her armies forth, the distant nations look'd 
 As men who watch the thunder-cloud in fear 
 
BABYLON. 131 
 
 Lest it should burst above them. She was fallen, 
 
 The queen of cities, Babylon, was fallen, 
 Low lay her bulwark ; the black scorpion bask'd 
 In the palace courts ; within the sanctuary 
 The she-wolf hid her whelps. 
 Is yonder huge and shapeless heap, what once 
 Hath been the aerial gardens, height on height 
 Rising like Media's mountains crown'd with wood, 
 Work of imperial dotage ? where the fane 
 Of Belus ? where the golden image now, 
 Which at the sound of dulcimer and lute, 
 Cornet and sackbut, harp and psaltery, 
 The Assyrian slaves adored ? 
 A labyrinth of ruins, Babylon, 
 Spreads o'er the blasted plain : 
 The wandering Arab never sets his tent 
 Within her walls ; the shepherd eyes afar 
 Her evil towers, and devious drives his flock. 
 Alone unchanged, a free and bridgeless tide, 
 Euphrates rolls along, 
 Eternal Nature's work. 
 
 The remarks of other travelers only corroborate 
 the statements we have given, until the careful 
 examinations made in our own time by Rich and 
 Porter, the results of which we have already stated. 
 But by all the accounts we see how punctually time 
 hath fulfilled the predictions of the prophets concern- 
 ing Babylon. When it was converted into a chase 
 for wild beasts to feed and breed there, then were 
 exactly accomplished the words of the prophet, that 
 " the wild beasts of the desert, with the wild beasts 
 of the islands, shall dwell there, and cry in their 
 desolate houses." One part of the country av;is 
 overflowed by the river being turned out of its 
 course, and never restored again to its former chan- 
 nel, and thence became boggy and marshy, so that 
 it might literally be said to be " A possession for 
 
132 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 the bittern and pools of water." Another part is 
 described as dry and naked, and barren of every- 
 thing ; so thereby was also fulfilled another prophecy, 
 which had seemed in some measure to contradict 
 the former: "Their cities are a desolation, a dry 
 land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man 
 dwelleth." 
 
 The Arab pitches his tent and feeds his flocks 
 where pasture can be found ; but at Babylon there 
 is no pasture, the whole site is a perfect desolation, 
 on which nothing useful to man, or to the beasts 
 for which he cares, can be discovered. The prophet 
 had said, "Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent 
 there ; neither shall the shepherds make their fold 
 there." The soil, for miles around, consists of the 
 grit and clay formed by the decomposition of the 
 buildings by which the site was once covered, and 
 contains no principle friendly to vegetation. Hence 
 the site of Babylon and Nineveh, and of all the other 
 towns of this region, both in their mounds and level 
 grounds, are marked even in a region generally 
 desolate by an appearance of utter barrenness and 
 blast, as if from the curse of God ; which gives a 
 most intense and mournful corroboration to the 
 denunciations of Scripture, and the expression of 
 which, no less true than sublime, that "the Lord 
 of hosts hath swept it with the besom of destruc 
 tion." How wonderful are the predictions com- 
 pared with the event, and what a convincing proof 
 is here of the divinity of the Holy Scriptures. 
 Whoever of posterity reads and compares the proph- 
 ecy and the issue together, must they not be ever 
 ready to acknowledge, " Verily there is a God that 
 judgeth the earth!" 
 
BABYLON. 133 
 
 We cannot conclude the subject without especial 
 notice of the triumphant ode on the Fall of Babylon, 
 in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah. At the com- 
 mencement, a chorus of Jews expresses surprise at 
 the sudden downfall of Babylon ; it then represents 
 the infernal regions as moved, and the ghosts of de- 
 ceased tyrants as rising to meet the king of Baby- 
 lon, and congratulate his coming among them : 
 and the poem closes by solemnly declaring that 
 Jehovah, when he ordains a purpose, none can dis- 
 annul it. 
 
 Undoubtedly this is a poem singularly beautiful 
 in its imagery, and sublime in its conceptions; it 
 moves in lengthened measure like a song of lamen- 
 tation for the dead ; and is full of lofty scorn and 
 contumely from beginning to the end. It may 
 safely be affirmed that there is no poem of its kind 
 in any language, in which the subject is so well laid 
 out and so happily conducted, with such richness 
 of invention, with such variety of images, persons, 
 and distinct actions, with such rapidity and ease 
 of transition in so small a compass, as in this ode of 
 Isaiah. For the beauty of disposition, strength of 
 coloring, greatness of sentiment, brevity, per- 
 spicuity, and force of expression, it stands among 
 all the monuments of antiquity unrivaled. 
 
 We have endeavored to compress into the pre- 
 ceding pages all that is at present known of the 
 ruins of the proud city of Babylon, omitting the 
 measurements and details of the surveys, which 
 would hardly be intelligible without the necessary 
 ground-plans. The light that has been thrown upon 
 the history of Nineveh by Mr. Layard, the wonder- 
 ful products of Eastern art, now disentombed after 
 
134: SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 an interment of two thousand five hundred years, 
 exhibiting to our view specimens of gigantic sculp- 
 ture, chiseled with all the refinement of Grecian 
 art, cannot fail to excite our admiration with feel- 
 ings of surprise and wonderment. 
 
 The surprise is to learn, that long before the time 
 when civilization first dawned upon Europe, while 
 the forests of Greece served only as a refuge to a 
 few expatriated wanderers, whose crimes or mis- 
 fortunes had driven them to seek in their fastnesses 
 that asylum which their own native land refused 
 them, and centuries before the foundation of the 
 all imperial Rome, a great and powerful nation, 
 in the valley of the Euphrates, had risen from in- 
 fancy to maturity, and from maturity was again 
 passing to that inevitable doom of decay which 
 awaits the mightiest empire, as certainly as it does 
 the meanest of mortal things. 
 
 The wonderful thing is, that until a very recent 
 date the history of the Assyrian empire should have 
 been so lost as to be treated as a myth, known only 
 to us from certain traditions collected by the Greeks, 
 and by the references to its people, its monarchs, 
 its pride, and its destruction, in the holy prophetical 
 books ; and now, through the vast assistance de- 
 rived from the discoveries made at Nineveh, we 
 have the history of thirty centuries laid bare to our 
 eyes. The revelations of Nineveh will, we hope 
 ere long, induce a similar examination of the ruins 
 of Babylon. 
 
ffnfe's Slate of fujritcr lpjrm 
 
 O ! where, Dodona, is thine aged grove, 
 Prophetic fount, and oracle divine? 
 What valley echoed the response of Jove? 
 What trace remaineth of the thunderer's shrine ? 
 All, all forgotten and shall man repine 
 That his frail bonds to fleeting life are broke ? 
 Cease, cease ! the fate of gods may well be thine : 
 Wouldst thou survive the marble or the oak ? 
 When nations, tongues, and worlds must sink beneath 
 the stroke ! 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Statue. 
 
 The Invention of Chryselephantine. 
 
 Statues by Phidias. 
 
 Phidias's other Works. 
 
 The Statue of Minerva. 
 
 The Temple of Minerva. 
 
 The Greeks Athens. 
 
 Temple of Jupiter at Athens. 
 
 The Olympian Games. 
 
 Pindar's Odes. 
 
 Temple to Jupiter at Agrigentum and at Selin. 
 
 Temple to Jupiter at Rome. 
 
 Jupiter Zeus. 
 
 Jufiter Ammon. 
 
 Temple of Karnak. 
 
 Temple of Jupiter Ammon. 
 
THE STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 
 
 Thou art not silent ! oracles are thine 
 Which the 'wind utters, and the spirit hears, 
 Lingering, 'mid ruin'd fane and broken shrine, 
 O'er many a tale and trace of other years ! 
 Bright as an ark, o'er all the flood of tears 
 That warps thy cradle land thine earthly love 
 Where hours of hope, 'mid centuries of fears, 
 Have gleam'd, lightnings through the gloom above, 
 Stands, roofless to the sky, thy house, Olympiad Jove ! 
 
 Thy column'd aisles with whispers of the past 
 Are vocal ! and along thine ivied walls, 
 While Elian echoes murmur in the blast, 
 And wild flowers hang, like victor-coronals, 
 In vain the turban'd tyrant rears his halls, 
 And plants the symbol of his faith and slaughters,- 
 Now, even now, the beam of promise falls 
 Bright upon Hellas, as her own bright daughters, 
 And a Greek Ararat is rising o'er the waters ! 
 
 Thou art not silent ! when the southern fair, 
 Ionia's moon, looks down upon thy breast, 
 Smiling, as pity smiles above despair, 
 Soft as young beauty soothing age to rest, 
 Sings the night-spirit in thy weedy crest ; 
 And she, the minstrel of the moonlight hours, 
 Breathes, like some lone one sighing to be blest, 
 Her lay half hope, half sorrow from the flowers, 
 And hoots the prophet-owl, amid his tangled bowers ! 
 
 And round thine altar's moldering stones are born 
 Mysterious harpings, wild as ever crept 
 From him who waked Aurora every morn, 
 And sad as those he sung her till she slept ! 
 A thousand, and a thousand years have swept 
 
138 SEVEN W0NDEE8 OF THE WORLD. 
 
 O'er thee, who wert a moral from thy spring 
 A wreck in youth ! nor vainly hast thou kept 
 Thy lyre ! Olympia's soul is on the wing, 
 And a few Iphitus has waked beneath its string ! 
 
 This statue was the most renowned work of Phidias, 
 the illustrious artist of Greece, the greatest sculptor 
 of antiquity. Phidias was a native of Athens, and 
 although the exact date of his birth is not known, as 
 far as can be judged from the ascertained dates of 
 his works, it must have been about B. C. 480. 
 
 The times in which Phidias lived were peculiarly 
 favorable to the development of his genius and tal- 
 ents, and his ability must have been shown at a very 
 early age, as he was extensively employed upon 
 public works during the administration of Cimon. 
 When Pericles attained the supreme power in 
 Athens, Phidias was consulted on all occasions in 
 which the embellishment of the city, either by mag- 
 nificent buildings or by sculptured decorations, was 
 contemplated: it was Phidias who had the direction, 
 although other architects and artificers were employ- 
 ed to erect them. 
 
 It was at this time the genius of Phidias conceived 
 the daring idea of constructing statues of the gods 
 of Greece, which should unite the opposite equalities 
 of colossal dimensions with materials of comparative 
 minuteness of parts. In Greece, sculpture had been 
 gradually developing itself, through several ages, 
 from the primitive use of the commonest woods to 
 the employment of those of rarer growth, such as 
 ebony or cedar,, in clay, in marble, in metals, till 
 it at length reached, according to the taste of the 
 age, the highest point of perfection, in the combin- 
 ation, upon a great scale, of ivory and gold. There 
 
STATTJE OF JUPITER OLTMPIUS. 139 
 
 was, indeed, independently of the delicate texture 
 of ivory, its pleasing color, and capacity for high 
 polish, something wonderfully stimulating to the 
 imagination, to consider that the colossal objects of 
 the popular worship, which, in their forms alone, 
 might well command profound reverence, uniting 
 all the characteristics of the lovely, the majestic, or 
 the terrible, in the idea of superior intelligence, 
 that even a single one of these great works of art 
 had required, for its completion, the slaughter of 
 hundreds of mighty beasts in distant regions. 
 
 The Olympian Games, the chief national festival 
 of the Greeks, were celebrated at Olympia, near Elis, 
 in the Peloponnesus, every fifty-ninth year. The 
 origin of the festival is lost in the obscurity of Gre- 
 cian history. Olympia was a sacred spot, and had 
 an oracle to Jupiter long before the institution of 
 the games. The Eleans had a tradition, and it is 
 the most received opinion, that the games were first 
 established by Hercules in honor of Jupiter Olym- 
 pius, after a victory B. C. 1222. The care and 
 superintendence of the games were intrusted to the 
 people of Elis ; and Phidias, having fled from 
 Athens to avoid the consequences of a false charge 
 made against him, was, by the Eleans, commissioned 
 to execute a costly statue to Jupiter Olympius ; and 
 the artist, as if in revenge of the ill treatment of the 
 Athenians, determined on producing a statue which 
 should rival the fame of that of Minerva, which he 
 had executed at the request of Pericles, of ivory and 
 gold, thirty-nine feet high, and which then orna- 
 mented the Parthenon. 
 
 The description furnished us by Pausanias from 
 personal observation, and corroborated by Strabo, 
 
140 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 although inadequate to give a precise idea of the 
 splendor of this amazing work of art, which com- 
 manded the wonder and admiration of the time, is 
 sufficient to show us the effect produced by the com- 
 binations of various materials, in a great diversity 
 of color and ornament, was essentially different from 
 that of sculpture of marble. 
 
 The statue was formed of gold and ivory, sitting 
 on a throne, almost touching the summit of the 
 temple, so that it appeared that if the god had risen 
 he would have lifted off the roof. His head was 
 crowned by an olive-branch ; in his right hand he 
 carried a figure of Victory, also of gold and ivory, 
 holding a wreath, and having a crown upon her 
 head. In the left hand of the image was a shining 
 scepter of varied metals ; and on the summit of the 
 scepter was an eagle. The sandals and the robe 
 thrown over the lower part of the body were gold. 
 Upon the robe were painted figures of various ani- 
 mals and flowers, particularly lilies. The throne 
 was composed of a diversified mixture of gold, of 
 precious stones, of ivory, and of ebony, exhibiting 
 figures of all kinds, painted and sculptured. We 
 are not told what were the dimensions of the statue, 
 but the height of the interior of the temple in which 
 it was placed was sixty English feet. 
 
 A new career was opened to Phidias by the mag- 
 nificence of Pericles. The ancient temples had 
 statues of gold and ivory ; but they were not colos- 
 sal. It was for him to create those gigantic monu- 
 ments which should cause the shrine to appear too 
 small for the divinity, and thus to bring the idea of 
 the infinite and finite into a contrast too powerful 
 for the senses to withhold their homage. 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 141 
 
 The peculiar merit of Phidias did not consist in 
 his mere adoption of the colossal form, hut in his 
 employment of a minute material to produce in 
 combination the effect of a vast solid surface. The 
 idea of colossal statuary, without doubt, belongs to 
 the infancy of art. The gods of the Hindoos are 
 ' three times the height of ordinary men, as we find 
 at Elephanta and Ellora. Those of the Chinese are, 
 in some cases, thirty feet high ; they are commonly 
 about fifteen. Most probably the Greeks received 
 a taste for the colossal from the Egyptians, of which 
 so many specimens yet survive. 
 
 In the mixture of materials, the object of the 
 artist was, doubtless in a great degree, to produce 
 an illusion approaching nearer to reality than the 
 cold severity of sculptured stone. It was the result 
 of that spirit of paganism which required that every 
 device of art should be employed to encourage the 
 belief of the real presence of the god in his temple. 
 The votaries indeed knew that the statues of their 
 divinities were the work of human hands ; and the 
 artist had no desire to impose upon the popular 
 credulity in this respect, for the statue of the 
 Olympian Jupiter bore an inscription that it was 
 the work of Phidias. But still we learn, that after 
 the efforts of genius had been exerted to produce a 
 most overpowering, eifect upon the imagination of 
 the beholder by a combination of beauty and splen- 
 dor, the natural tendency of the votaries to super- 
 stition required the priests to invent some legend, 
 which should invest the work with supernatural 
 claims to the popular reverence. 
 
 We are therefore told by the heathen historians, 
 that the skill of Phidias received the testimony of 
 
142 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Jupiter himself. The work being finished, the 
 artist prayed the god would make known if he was 
 satisfied, and immediately the pavement of the 
 temple was struck by lightning, and the spot was 
 afterward marked by a bronze vase. The reputa- 
 tion of this masterly production, for four centuries, 
 drew wondering crowds to Elis; for throughout 
 Greece and Italy it was held as a calamity to die 
 without having seen it. Those who went to the 
 temple imagined they saw not the gold of the mines 
 of Thessaly, or the ivory of India, but the son him- 
 self of Saturn and Rhea, whom Phidias had caused 
 to descend from heaven. And we are told, that 
 the effect which this wonderful statue produced 
 upon the mind was not limited to the superstition 
 of the multitude ; for one of the most celebrated of 
 Roman senators acknowledged, that when looking 
 upon the Olympian Jupiter his mind was moved as 
 if the god were present. This circumstance proves 
 that heathenism degraded the minds and stultified 
 the intellect both of high and low. How applicable 
 to all such are the words of the apostle : " Profess- 
 ing themselves to be wise they became fools, and 
 changed the glory of the incorruptible God into 
 an image made like to corruptible man !" 
 
 Impenetrable obscurity covers the early age of 
 Greece, and buildings of gigantic dimensions, still 
 to be seen, testify its having been in a very remote 
 period the abode of a civilized race, and tradition 
 assigns their erection to the Cyclops, an imaginary 
 people. The earliest race of which there is any record 
 were the Pelasgians, who were a commercial and 
 agricultural, and, of course, a peaceful and industrious 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 143 
 
 community ; and the religion of this people appears 
 to have been of a rural character. In process of 
 time the Pelasgians were followed by the Achseans, 
 a warlike race, and the deities they worshiped 
 were supposed to preside over the various parts of 
 nature and powers of mind. Under the names of 
 Zeus, Apollo, Hecate, Pallas, &c, these deities were 
 honored by temples, sacrifices, processions, and fes- 
 tivals ; oracles were believed to announce their will 
 and the future. Somewhere about this period was 
 established the city of Dodona, where the earliest 
 temple to Jupiter was erected, and near it the first 
 oracle, the responses of which were delivered from 
 the sacred oak : the site of Dodona has not been 
 determined. 
 
 Byron's address to Greece, past and present, 
 may be a fitting introduction to a summary of its 
 history : 
 
 Clime of the unforgotten brave ! 
 Whose land from plain to mountain cave 
 Was freedom's home or glory's grave ! 
 Shrine of the mighty ! can it be 
 That this is all remains of thee ? 
 Approach, thou craven crouching slave : 
 
 Say, is not this Thermopylae? 
 These waters blue that round you lave, 
 
 servile oifsjn-ing of the free 
 Pronounce what sea, what shore is this? 
 The gulf, the rock of Salamis ! 
 These scenes, their story not unknown, 
 Arise, and make again your own ; 
 Snatch from the ashes of your sires 
 The embers of their former fires ; 
 And he who in the strife expires, 
 Will add to theirs a name of fear, 
 That tyranny shall quake to hear, 
 And leave his sons a hope, a fame, 
 
144 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 They too will rather die than shame : 
 For freedom's battle once begun, 
 Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, 
 Though baffled oft, is ever won. 
 Bear witness, Greece, thy living page 
 Attest it, many a deathless age ! 
 While kings, in dusty darkness hid, 
 Have left a nameless pyramid ; 
 Thy heroes, though the general doom 
 Have swept the column from their tomb, 
 A mightier monument command 
 The mountains of their native land ! 
 There points thy Muse to stranger's eye 
 The graves of those that cannot die ! 
 'T were long to tell, and sad to trace, 
 Each step from splendor to disgrace ; 
 Enough no foreign foe could quell 
 Thy soul, till from itself it fell ; 
 Yes ! self-abasement paved the way 
 To villain bonds and despot sway. 
 
 The time of disturbance and revolution came, and 
 the Dorians, a brave and hardy race, left their 
 abode in the mountains, and spread their power over 
 Greece. Of this race the Spartans were the most 
 renowned; by the celebrated legislator, Lycurgus, 
 their institutions were fixed for a considerable time, 
 and while they were in vigor the Spartan character 
 was distinguished for its sterner virtues. With the 
 decay of the power of the Spartans, Athens arose to 
 the supreme power over the Hellenic confederacy, 
 and by the wisdom of their laws attained a pitch of 
 eminence in acts and arms that never had been 
 excelled. Darius, the Persian, meditated the con- 
 quest of Greece, and sent a large army (some say 
 three hundred thousand) against it; but the plain 
 of Marathon witnessed the total defeat of the Per- 
 sians by ten thousand Greeks : for the first time in 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 145 
 
 the world's history, the power of numbers was 
 broken by that of intelligence. 
 
 Where'er we tread 't is haunted holy ground ; 
 No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mold, 
 But one vast realm of wonder spreads around, 
 And all the Muses' tales seem truly told, 
 Till the sense aches with gazing to behold 
 The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon : 
 Each hill and dale, each deep'ning glen and wold 
 Defies the power which crush'd thy temples gone : 
 Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon. 
 
 The sun, the soil, but not the slave, the same ; 
 Unchanged in all except its foreign lord 
 Preserves alike its bounds and boundless fame 
 The battle-field, where Persia's victim horde 
 First bow'd beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword, 
 As on the morn to distant glory dear, 
 When Marathon became a magic word ; 
 Which utter'd, to the hearer's eye appear 
 The camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's career. 
 
 The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow ; 
 The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear ; 
 Mountains above, earth's, ocean's plains below, 
 Death in the front, destruction in the rear ! 
 Such was the scene what now remaineth here ? 
 What sacred trophy marks the hallow'd ground, 
 Recording freedom's smile and Asia's tear ? 
 The rifled urn, the violated mound, 
 The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger ! spurns around. 
 
 By their unity they withstood the vast power of 
 the Persians under Xerxes, who led an army of two 
 millions over the Hellespont. Treachery only, by 
 revealing a passage unprotected, enabled the enemy 
 to reach Athens, and to destroy it ; but the defeat 
 of his fleet at Salamis caused Xerxes to retreat, 
 leaving behind him an army of three hundred thou- 
 sand men, who were entirely defeated by the Greeks 
 
146 SEVEN WONDERS OF TIIE WORLD. 
 
 at Platsea with little over a third of their number, 
 and but forty thousand of the immense Persian 
 horde were enabled to return. Athens was rebuilt, 
 and the arts of architecture and sculpture were em- 
 ployed to ornament the city to a degree of excel- 
 lence that has never been surpassed ; the encourage- 
 ment afforded to literature and all the arts of civil 
 life have been models to aftertimes. Successive 
 ages and dynasties added to the splendor of Athens, 
 and when it fell into the Eoman power temples and 
 theaters continued to be erected and adorned. It 
 was by the liberality of the Emperor Hadrian that 
 the magnificent temple of Jupiter Olympius, which 
 had been commenced on the site of an older temple, 
 and had been worked on at intervals, was completed ; 
 and at the time was one of the most magnificent in 
 the world, and it was one of the largest ever erected 
 by the Greeks in honor of their deities. This tem- 
 ple and its sacred inclosure was filled with statues : 
 there were two of the emperor, made of marble, from 
 Thasos, and two others of stone, from Egypt, besides 
 a colossal statue of the deity of gold and ivory. The 
 temple was built of the purest white Pentelic marble ; 
 it had a frontage of two hundred feet, and was about 
 three hundred and fifty in length. It was adorned 
 and supported by one hundred and twenty columns, 
 sixteen of which are all that now remain ; and these, 
 which are fluted and having rich Corinthian capitals, 
 tower more than sixty feet above the plain, perfect 
 as they were reared. Some years ago a hermit 
 made his lonely cell on the architrave connecting 
 three of these columns, and passed his life in that 
 elevated solitude accessible only to the crane and 
 the eagle : the hermit has long since passed to his 
 
STATUE OF JUriTER OLYMPIUS. 147 
 
 silent home, but this little habitation still resists the 
 whistling of the wind, and awakens the curiosity of 
 the wondering traveler. 
 
 Separated from Asia by the Hellespont and the 
 long defiles of Thrace, shielded on the north by the 
 lofty chain of mountains which -divide it, with Italy, 
 from the open plains of Northern Europe, and on 
 every other side surrounded by water, Greece com- 
 bines with all these external fortifications the advan- 
 tages of an internal construction resembling a castle 
 of the middle ages. Wall is added to wall, and por- 
 tal to portal, forming an inextricable labyrinth, 
 which affords a retreat and an asylum for its defend- 
 ers after a defeat, and presents snares and perils to 
 its enemies after a victory. 
 
 Where on this earth could be found a spot more 
 appropriate for consecration To Liberty ? 
 
 The nodding promontories and blue isles, 
 
 And cloud-like mountains, and dividuous waves 
 Of Greece, bask'd glorious in the open smiles 
 
 Of favoring heaven ; from their enchained caves 
 Prophetic echoes flung dim melody 
 On the unapprehensive wild. 
 The vine, the corn, the olive mild, 
 Grew savage yet, to human use unreconciled ; 
 
 And like unfolded flowers beneath the sea, 
 
 Like man's thought dark in the infant's brain, 
 
 Like aught that is which wraps what is to be, 
 Art's deathless dreams lay vail'd by many a vein 
 Of Farian stone ; and yet a speechless child, 
 
 "Verse murmur'd, and philosophy did strain 
 Her lidless eyes for thee ; when o'er the JEgean main 
 Athens arose : a city such as vision 
 
 Builds from the purple crags and silver towers 
 Of battlemented cloud, as in derision 
 
 Of kingliest masonry : the ocean-floors 
 Pave it ; the evening sky pavilions it ; 
 
148 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Its portals are inhabited 
 
 By thunder-zoned winds, each head 
 Within its cloudy wings with sun-fire garlanded, 
 A divine work ! Athens, diviner yet, 
 
 Gleam'd with its crest of columns, on the will . 
 
 Of man, as on a mount of diamond, set ; 
 
 For thou wert, and thine all-creative skill 
 Peopled with forms that mark the eternal dead 
 In marble immortality, that hill 
 Which was thine earliest throne and latest oracle. 
 
 Upon this soil, shone upon by a glorious sun, 
 bathed by romantic seas, adorned to profusion by 
 beauties of luxuriant vegetation, was cast a race of 
 men, endowed with activity and courage, and pos- 
 sessed of a spirit of independence, and contempt of 
 danger, well fitted to become the beacon-lights in 
 the path of liberty to future ages of the world. 
 
 Prior to the execution of the remarkable statue 
 we have described, and while in his native city of 
 Athens, among the celebrated events upon which 
 the talents of Phidias were exercised, the temple of 
 Minerva, called also the Parthenon, justly claims 
 preeminence. No pains, no expense, were spared 
 to make this one of the most splendid and perfect 
 monuments of art ; and, fortunately, enough exists 
 in the present day, both of its architecture and 
 sculptural decorations, to confirm the high encomi- 
 ums passed upon it by those who saw it in its pris- 
 tine state. The temple has always been considered 
 the most refined of the Grecian Doric order, and 
 one of the noblest remains of antiquity. The entire 
 structure was of marble ; and all the circumstances 
 which related to the birth of Minerva were beauti- 
 fully and minutely represented in bass-relief over 
 the entrance. One object of art that decorated the 
 
STATUE OF JUPITEK OLYMPIUS. 149 
 
 interior was the statue of Minerva, of ivory and 
 gold, thirty-nine feet high, which was the sole work 
 of Phidias : the value of the gold upon this statue 
 was six hundred thousand dollars of our money ; of 
 this it was stripped by Lachares, about one hundred 
 and twenty years after the death of Pericles. 
 
 Alaric the Goth is sup230sed to have commenced 
 the work of destruction on this edifice. The roof was 
 shattered by an explosion in 1687, when it was used 
 as a powder-magazine by the Turks at the time the 
 city was besieged by the Yenetians. About twenty 
 years prior to that time, travelers, who visited 
 Athens, saw every antiquity of which there is now 
 any trace in the Acropolis, in a tolerable state of 
 preservation ; the temple might then be considered 
 entire, although the interior had been more or less 
 despoiled and injured by having been first convert- 
 ed into a Christian church, and afterward into a 
 mosque. Since the year 1687, the Turks have made 
 it a quarry, and virtuosi have rivaled them in the 
 work of havoc and spoliation. At present only 
 twenty-nine columns remain, some of which no 
 longer support their entablature. 
 
 Still, even in its present and mangled state, it is 
 the admiration of every beholder ; artists who have 
 seen it, speak of it in terms of enthusiasm ; what re- 
 mains of it may be said to far exceed any idea that 
 can be derived by drawings or descriptions, and 
 that it appears to be on a much larger scale than it 
 really is. 
 
 Indeed, in its original state, the effect must have 
 been impressive : taking the building by itself, with- 
 out reference to the advantages it possessed in site, 
 locality, and climate, it was distinguished by beauty 
 
150 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 of material, exquisiteness of execution, and grandeur 
 of style ; while to these merits must be added the 
 wonderfully rich display of sculpture in the pedi- 
 ments, the metopes, and the frieze along the exterior 
 of the cella, and also the decoration of painting and 
 bronze ornaments. The chief portion of the sculp- 
 ture that remained was removed by Lord Elgin, and 
 is now in the British Museum at London. 
 
 At Olympia was instituted that periodical festival, 
 which became a mode of reckoning dates : it consist- 
 ed of religious ceremonies, athletic contests, and 
 races ; and, like all other public festivals, might be 
 attended by all who were of. the Hellenic race. 
 Spectators came not only from Greece, but from 
 all the Grecian colonies throughout the world, some 
 of which sent solemn deputations to represent their 
 different states. The games appear to have been 
 neglected after a time, but were reinstituted with 
 great solemnity about B. C. 884, and this forms a 
 celebrated epoch in Grecian history, and is the be- 
 ginning of the Olympiads, which is the space of 
 time between the celebration of the games, that is, 
 every fifth year. They were again neglected till 
 B. C. 776, from which date they were regularly and 
 constantly celebrated. The presidents, whose num- 
 ber had varied from time to time, were obliged sol- 
 emnly to swear that they would act impartially, 
 not take any bribes, or discover why they rejected 
 some of the combatants. No women were allowed 
 to appear, or even to cross the Alpheus, during the 
 festival, under pain of death. This law, however, 
 was sometimes neglected, for we find women taking 
 part in the chariot-races ; and an exception was 
 made to this law of exclusion in favor of the priest- 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 151 
 
 ess of Ceres, and of certain virgins, who bad places 
 assigned to them opposite the judges. 
 
 In these games were exhibited running, leaping, 
 wrestling, boxing, and throwing the quoit. Besides 
 these, there were horse and chariot races, and also 
 contentions in poetry and the fine arts. No crimin- 
 als, or such as were connected with impious or guilty 
 persons, were suffered to present themselves as 
 combatants. The wrestlers were matched and ap- 
 pointed by lot. The equestrian contests were nec- 
 essarily confined to the wealthy, who displayed in 
 them great magnificence ; but the athletic exercises 
 were open to the poorest citizens. The combatants 
 underwent a long and laborious training, the nature 
 of which varied with the game they were engaged 
 in. The competitors who intended to engage were 
 obliged to appear at Elis, and to enter their names 
 and state the prize for which they intended to con- 
 tend, ten months prior to the festival ; the interval 
 was spent in preparatory exercises, and for one 
 month they were thus engaged in the gymnasium 
 at Elis. When the festival arrived, their names 
 were proclaimed in the Stadium, and after proving 
 their qualification, they were led to the altar of 
 Jupiter, where they swore that they would not be 
 guilty of any fraud, nor any attempt to interfere 
 with the fair course of the games. 
 
 The prizes were at first of intrinsic value, but 
 after the seventh Olympiad, the only reward that 
 the conqueror obtained was a crown or garland of 
 wild olive, cut from a tree in the sacred grove at 
 Olympia, which was said to have been brought by 
 Hercules from the land of the Hyperboreans. Small 
 and trilling as the reward may appear, it was a 
 
 10 
 
152 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 stimulus to virtue and courage, and was the source 
 of greater honors than the most unbounded treas- 
 ures. Fresh honors awaited the victor on his return 
 home ; the entrance to his native city was not through 
 the gate, but, to make it more triumphant, it was 
 through a breach made in the wall. Banquets were 
 given by his friends ; painters and poets employed 
 to celebrate his name ; indeed, the victories obtain- 
 ed at Olympia are the subjects of some of the most 
 beautiful odes of Pindar. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the chief object of 
 this festival was to form a bond of union for the 
 Grecian states. The more effectually to attain this 
 end, it was immediately connected with the worship 
 of the principal deity of the mythological reign at 
 the period, and contiguous to the temple devoted to 
 him. Besides, the exercises of the body must have 
 had immense influence in forming the national char- 
 acter, and, as a necessary part of a manly education, 
 might be considered as one of the causes of the vigor 
 and energy which characterized the Hellenic race. 
 Beyond all, the beneficial effects of this gathering 
 of the Grecian people must have been felt, not only 
 in a commercial point of view, Olympia, during 
 the celebration, being the center of trade, but the 
 scope it afforded for the free interchange of opinions 
 and the publication of knowledge, as well as finding 
 a fit audience for literary compositions. 
 
 Pindar, in the Olympic Odes, addresses and in- 
 vokes the god. The first ode he commences with 
 announcing his intention to celebrate the fes- 
 tivals : 
 
 And we "will sing in loftiest strain 
 The contest of Olympiad plain ; 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 153 
 
 Whence, Saturn's mighty son to praise, 
 Poets the hymn of triumph raise. 
 
 The fourth ode commences with a sublime invo- 
 cation to Jupiter : 
 
 Thy circling hours, immortal Jove, 
 Who mak'st the' unwearied lightnings move, 
 With song and lyre's accordant string 
 Rouse me the victor's praise to sing. 
 When friends succeed, the good rejoice, 
 And hail the sweet-toned herald's voice. 
 
 son of Saturn ! thou who rul'st above, 
 Where iEtna with his burning load imprest 
 Weighs down the hundred-handed Typhon's breast, 
 
 Deign with thy favor to approve 
 The hymn which to the victor's praise address'd, 
 
 Aspires to crown the' Olympic strife, 
 That gilds with glory's beam the latest hour of life. 
 
 The eighth ode personifies and invokes Olympia : 
 
 Olympia, mother of heroic games, 
 
 Whose golden wreath the victor's might proclaims, 
 
 Great queen of truth ! thou whose prophetic band 
 
 From victims blazing in the sacred fire 
 
 Jove's sovereign will, the lightning's guide, inquire, 
 
 What favor'd mortal shall the crown command 
 
 Which bids the anxious hour of contest close, 
 
 And gives to virtuous toil the guerdon and repose. 
 
 At Agrigentum, about three miles inland from 
 the south-west coast of the island of Sicily, in what 
 is now called the Valley of Mazara, a Grecian colony 
 settled in 556 B. C, and there raised a city which 
 surpassed all others in the magnificence of its build- 
 ings. 
 
 Pindar commences his twelfth Pythian ode witli 
 an invocation to the city of Agrigentum, personify- 
 ing it in the character of a goddess : 
 
154 SEVEN WONDEES OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Thee, shining on the well-built mountain's head, 
 Fairest of mortal cities, I entreat, 
 
 Proserpina's imperial seat, 
 By Acragas' sheep-feeding banks outspread. 
 
 And in the third Olympic ode, 
 
 I would awake the' Olympic string, 
 And raise the lyric song, to crown 
 Bright Agrigentum with renown. 
 
 We learn from Polybius that the settlers were Kho- 
 dians, who introduced the worship of Jupiter Olym- 
 pius, and dedicated to the god a most sumptuous tem- 
 ple, yielding in splendor to none even in Greece. 
 The people in a very short period rose to vast wealth, 
 and in their buildings exhibited a considerable taste 
 in the fine arts ; and it was observed by Plato, "They 
 built as if they were to live forever, and feasted as 
 though they were to die on the morrow." Their 
 duration was marvelously short, for only one hun- 
 dred and fifty years after their first settlement the 
 Carthaginians besieged the city, and laid it in ruins : 
 the temple of Jupiter was then being roofed in, but 
 the ruin of the people and the devastation were so 
 complete, that no means were left to finish it. The 
 magnificence and gigantic size of the remains bear 
 testimony to the statements made by ancient histori- 
 ans of the extraordinary wealth of the Agrigentines. 
 
 This temple of Jupiter was, excepting only the 
 temple of Diana at Ephesus, the largest Grecian 
 building applied to sacred purposes. The dimensions 
 given by Mr. Cockerell, who traced the foundation, 
 were, extreme length, three hundred and sixty-nine 
 feet ; breadth, one hundred and eighty-two feet. It 
 was of the Doric order, but had no portico, the in- 
 terval between the columns being filled up by wall : 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLTMPIUS. 155 
 
 this deviation is supposed to have risen from the im- 
 possibility of finding stones large enough to serve as 
 the epistyle or architrave, the distance from center 
 to center of the columns being thirty feet, and a 
 series of masses of stones of that length, and of cor- 
 responding depth and thickness, would have been 
 required, had not the superincumbent entablature 
 been sustained by a continual wall. As it is, many 
 of the blocks of the entablature weigh near nine 
 tons. The echinus of each column was formed by 
 two stones, each a quarter of the whole capital, two 
 of which now remain, each of them weighing by 
 computation over twenty-one tons. These enor- 
 mous masses were raised to a height of seventy feet 
 from the ground. The flutings of the columns were 
 wide enough to contain a man in their hollow, as in 
 a niche. On the pediments were sculptured the 
 wars of the giants, and the siege of Troy. "Within, 
 the temple was divided into what we may call a 
 nave and two aisles. To comprehend the immense 
 size of this edifice, the nave may be said to have 
 been eighteen feet higher than the nave of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, and two feet broader. The walls of the 
 interior were strengthened by massive pilasters, sup- 
 porting an entablature, upon which stood a row of 
 Atlantes, as the Greeks termed the male figures thus 
 applied. These colossal figures were twenty-five 
 feet high, and supported an upper entablature, which 
 rose about one hundred and ten feet above the floor 
 of the temple. Mr. Cockerell collected sufficient 
 fragments to restore one of these giants ; the width 
 of the chest was more than six feet. 
 
 Of this splendid building, with the exception of 
 the basement, scarce one stone remains above 
 
156 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 another. Not a single column remains standing, 
 but two capitals, with a portion of the entablature 
 attached, are still to be seen, which, by their gigantic 
 size, excite the wonder and admiration of the 
 traveler. Altogether this temple must have been 
 one of the grandest and most magnificent that ever 
 existed. 
 
 At Selinus, on the eastern coast of Sicily, a city 
 founded 725 B. C, are the remains of six larg-e 
 temples, all of the most massive and solid construc- 
 tion, and among them a temple supposed to have 
 been dedicated to Jupiter. The blocks of stone are 
 of great magnitude ; one which formed the archi- 
 trave is twenty-one feet in length, near six feet 
 wide, and seven feet in depth, weighing probably 
 fifty tons. "We are lost in admiration of the means 
 employed by the ancients in lifting such a mass, 
 and placing it safely upon the capitals of columns 
 upward of forty feet from the ground. 
 
 The temple of Jupiter at Eome was built by 
 order of Augustus, and is supposed, from a frag- 
 ment of an inscription on the entablature, to have 
 been restored by Severus and Caracalla. The por- 
 tico was hexastyle, of the Corinthian order, and the 
 columns, which are deeply fluted, are of white Luna 
 marble. The basement was lined with marble, and 
 the steps are constructed between the columns in 
 the basement. Upon the frieze are sculptured 
 various instruments of sacrifice, and the decorations 
 which remain indicate that the building was highly 
 ornamented. 
 
 In the Forum at Eome is another temple, said to 
 have been dedicated to Jupiter. The existing ruin 
 consists of three marble Corinthian fluted columns. 
 
STATUE OF JUPITEK OLYMPIUS. 157 
 
 on an isolated basement of travertine : the columns 
 support a part of the highly-enriched entablature, 
 which is in tolerable preservation. The proportions 
 and execution of this fragment are the finest ever 
 seen, and, since the restoration of true architecture, it 
 has served as the great model of the Corinthian order. 
 
 John of Malala says that .zElius Antoninus Pius 
 built a great temple to Jupiter at Heliopolis, (Baal- 
 bec,) in Phoenicia, which was one of the Wonders 
 of the World, and on one of the coins of Sept. 
 Severus the reverse has the front of the great tem- 
 ple of Baalbec, which is dedicated to Jupiter. The 
 remains are not distinguishable among the rest of 
 the ruins. 
 
 Jupiter, the supreme Roman deity, known to the 
 Greeks as Zeus, who, on the dethronement of his 
 father, Kronos, had the dominion of the aerial re- 
 gions, appears to have been originally an elemen- 
 tary deity, who was worshiped as the god of the air : 
 snow, rain, meteors, and all the aerial phenomena 
 are attributed to him. In Homer he is styled the 
 king or father of gods and men : the thunder is the 
 weapon with which he terrifies and punishes the 
 guilty. The Zeus of Homer is like an earthly 
 monarch, partial, capricious, and apt to use his 
 power somewhat tyrannically, yet kind and indul- 
 gent to his children : he is to man the guardian of 
 social and civil life, punishing breaches of law and 
 hospitality, and in general the great director of the 
 destinies of mankind. Thus is he depicted by He- 
 siod : 
 
 Begin we from the Muses, my song ! 
 Who the great spirit of their father Jove 
 Delight in heaven ; whose voice symphonious breathes 
 The present, and the future, and the past. 
 
158 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Sweet, inexhaustible, from every mouth 
 
 That voice flows on : the palaces of him 
 
 Who hurleth the loud thunder, laugh with sounds 
 
 Scatter'd from lilied breath of goddesses ; 
 
 Olympus echoes from its snow-topp'd heads, 
 
 The dwellings of immortals. They send forth 
 
 The' imperishable voice, and in their song 
 
 Praise first the venerable race of gods, 
 
 From the beginning, whom the spacious heaven 
 
 And earth produced, and gods who sprang from these 
 
 Givers of blessings : then again to Jove, 
 
 Father of gods and men, those goddesses 
 
 Give praise, or when they lift the choral hymn, 
 
 Or when surcease ; how excellent he is 
 
 Above all gods, and mightiest in his power. 
 
 Once more, recording in their strain the race 
 
 Of men and giants strong, they soothe the soul 
 
 Of Jupiter in heaven. 
 
 He in heaven 
 Reigns : the red lightning and the bolt are his ; 
 Since by the strong ascendent of his arm 
 Saturn his father fell : hence Jove to all 
 Disposes all things ; to the immortal gods 
 Ordering their honors. 
 
 The etymology of the name leads us to the conclu- 
 sion of its elementary origin, as Jupiter was origin- 
 ally Jovis Pater or Dies pater or Diu-pater, the 
 Diu becoming softened into Ju, as dimmed has 
 become journal. Jupiter or Diu-pater would there- 
 fore mean, the father of the day or the air. This is 
 also probably the meaning of the Greek Zeus, which 
 some contend is the same both in meaning and ety- 
 mology as Deus. There is also a striking similarity 
 between the word Jovis and the Hebrew name of 
 the supreme deity (rttP). Thus the name Jupiter 
 we may fairly assume to be, according to all prob- 
 ability, the Zevg 7ra-n)p of the Greeks, latinized by 
 those natives of southern Italy who wrote in the 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 159 
 
 Latin language. The original word as given by 
 Ennius is Jovis, or by Varro, Diovis. As Yarro, 
 however, speaks of three hundred gods of this name, 
 it is most likely that Diovis, like Deus or Dis, 
 originally signified God. 
 
 The Indian god of the visible heavens is called 
 Indra, or the king, and Divespiter, Lord of the Sky. 
 He is the god of thunder and the five elements, and 
 lias inferior genii under his command. 
 
 Of the life and progeny of Jupiter it is not neces- 
 sary here to offer notice, as a metaphor, that fruit- 
 ful mother of fable, was most probably the origin 
 of much of his history. A bard, to exalt the fame of 
 the chief whose praises he sang, called him Jove- 
 descended, or Zeus-sprung, in the oriental style, 
 which exalts by connecting the individual with the 
 name of the divinity ; soon the metaphor was 
 taken literally, and a legend invented to unite the 
 god with the ancestry of the object celebrated. 
 
 The principal Jupiter of Italy was the Capitoline, 
 or the Jupiter Optimus Maximus, whose temple, with 
 those of Juno and Minerva, adorned the Capitol in 
 Rome, and who was regarded as the great guardian 
 of the fortune of the city. There were other appella- 
 tions under which Jupiter was worshiped among 
 the Italian nations ; such as Stator, Yictor, Pistor, 
 Latiaris, Anxur, Feretrius, and Elicius : and from 
 the Fragments of Ennius, it is evident that the Ro- 
 mans, in his time, called the god who ruled over 
 the atmosphere and caused its phenomena, Jovis. 
 
 The most famous temple to this deity was at 
 Olympia, in Elis ; but his worship was widely diffused 
 throughout Greece, all of whose inhabitants united 
 in the duty of doing homage to the sovereign of all 
 
160 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the gods. His great oracle was amid the oak woods 
 of Dodona, where, even in the Pelasgian period, his 
 priests announced his will and futurity. 
 
 He was represented by artists of Greece as the 
 model of dignity and majesty of mien; his counte- 
 nance grave, but mild. He is seated on a throne, 
 with the scepter in his hand : the eagle, his favorite 
 bird, is sometimes standing by the throne, and some- 
 times surmounting the scepter. 
 
 In the Townley collection in the British Museum 
 there is a head of Jupiter, which represents him as 
 middle-aged, with a most beautiful expression of 
 mild and placid benignity in the features ; the hair 
 is arranged in thick, matted curls, which fall down 
 to the neck behind, and mingle in front with the 
 smaller curls of the beard. It is manifestly a frag- 
 ment of a statue of most excellent sculpture, and of 
 an early period of art, apparently of the age of Scopas 
 or Polycretes, who flourished about the fifth century 
 before the Christian era. The surface of the bust is 
 in good preservation, and of Pentelic marble, which 
 is beautifully clear and white. 
 
 The fable of Jupiter is to be explained by the 
 history of an ancient monarch, or rather by that of 
 several princes who bore this appellation, the best- 
 known of whom was a king of Crete, whose history 
 is filled with the adventures of the rest. Jupiter of 
 Crete, having banished from that island his father 
 Saturn, and overthrown the powerful race of giants, 
 determined to devote his attention to the happiness 
 of his subjects. In course of time he extended his 
 dominion, and became possessed of a vast empire, 
 which he divided into tributary kingdoms : thus, 
 Atlas governed the frontiers of Africa ; Pluto, the 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 161 
 
 west of Gaul ; and Mercury, Spain ; and greatly 
 signalizing himself, he afterward became the great 
 deity of the Celts. To Neptune was committed the 
 government of the maritime forces of this mighty em- 
 pire. Jupiter reserved for his own control, Greece, 
 and the isles of the Archipelago, together with part 
 of Asia. He is said to have been married seven 
 times, and the last of his wives was Juno. He lived 
 to the age of one hundred and twenty years, during 
 sixty-two of which he reigned, and was buried near 
 Gnossus, in Crete, where his tomb was for a long 
 time shown, with this epitaph, "Here lies Zan, 
 who was called Jupiter." This explanation, derived 
 from Cretan tradition, was by some said to be vision- 
 ary, and that the mendacity of the people was so 
 notorious as to render any statement made by them 
 as unworthy of belief. But to this it may be answer- 
 ed, that the advocates and supporters of the pagan 
 system would naturally see, that if any faith was 
 placed upon the Cretan affirmation of the mortal 
 reign of Jupiter, and the exhibition of the tomb 
 where the remains of this deified being reposed, a 
 great scandal would arise among true believers. 
 
 Idolatry, or the superstitious worship paid to idols 
 and false gods, in the opinion of most writers had 
 for its first objects the sun, moon, and stars. 
 
 The order, the regularity, and the beauty of the 
 ordinances of the heavens, have been at all times 
 subjects of gratulation and wonder. Whether men 
 were rude or refined, in a social or a savage state, 
 they felt the importance inseparable from the seasons 
 of the year, and gradually associated in their minds 
 the periodical returns of those luminaries which at 
 first announced the returns of the seasons, and at 
 
162 SEVEN W0NDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 length were supposed to exert an influence over 
 them. The sun and the moon were, indisputably, 
 the two greater lights of heaven ; to these the most 
 powerful influences were ascribed, and the most 
 important obligations universally acknowledged. 
 They led on the year and the months, with their 
 respective productions ; they afforded means of calcu- 
 lating time, and of defining periods ; and, eventually, 
 they contributed to the formation of systems, and to 
 extensive combinations of numbers into multiples, 
 progressions, and series. But in addition to these 
 principles, known to us all as the sources of light, 
 the heavens presented, to the observant and intelli- 
 gent, various minor luminaries, the periods of which 
 were not only incommensurate among themselves, 
 but required long-continued investigation of their 
 appearances, to obtain materials for the theory of 
 their orbits and motions. It had been well had 
 mankind stopped here; but, having acquired an 
 elementary knowledge of the heavenly bodies and 
 their circuits, the misplaced gratitude of some, and 
 the pious credulity of others, attributed to them of- 
 fices for which their Creator never designed them, 
 and consequently never prepared them. The smallest 
 spark of rationality too powerfully illuminates the 
 human breast, to allow its possessor to conceive of 
 the Great Supreme, other than as a Spirit of in- 
 comprehensible attributes and infinite wisdom and 
 powers ; a portion of which he at pleasure delegates 
 to the emanations of his creative Jiat, and which in 
 fact he has in some degree delegated to man, as a 
 rational creature ; and to beings much superior, in 
 degrees proportionately higher. And where should 
 the imagination of man establish these superior 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 163 
 
 beings, if not in these celestial bodies, the aspects of 
 which were deemed propitious, or were thought to 
 be detrimental, beyond the interference of mortals, 
 or the ken of inhabitants of earth ? It was, then, 
 from attributing to the heavenly bodies the office 
 of mediators between man and the Supreme Deity 
 that idolatry took its rise. It was from entreaties 
 addressed to the circulating orbs of our system, from 
 solicitations beseeching their favorable acceptance 
 and report, of worship intended to be conciliatory, 
 as it respected themselves, and intended to be most 
 profoundly reverential as it respected the Self-ex- 
 istent, the first Cause and last End of being : who 
 was indeed the only proper object of adoration, but 
 who was supposed to be too high, too exalted, to be 
 approached, immediately, by feeble man. 
 
 Such was the state of things when the sacred pen- 
 man composed his history of the creation, in which 
 he describes, in direct terms, the origin and the offices 
 of the sun and the moon, but confines his account of 
 other celestial bodies to a single phrase, " he made 
 the stars also." It was not because Moses was ig- 
 norant of the importance attached to the stars that 
 he studied this brevity ; it was because he knew it too 
 well, and had too sensibly felt its evil consequences, 
 in the course of his own life, and had seen them too 
 extensively prevalent, to the great injury of the world 
 at large, and to the no small crimination of that pecu- 
 liar people over which he had now the charge. This 
 argument acquires additional strength on a reference 
 to the original text ; for the fact is, that the stars are 
 not spoken of, except as being placed under the power 
 or influence of the two greater lights : " And God 
 made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the 
 
164: SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 day, and the lesser light to rule the night : the stars 
 also." Gen. i, 16. 
 
 The beginnings of all arts and of all practices are 
 extremely simple; and it is impossible, from the 
 simple beginnings of practices founded on a mere 
 mental idea, so much as to conjecture in what they 
 may issue, when the ingenuity of man has refined 
 upon them, and they have been the study of suc- 
 cessive generations. To suppose that every star, 
 and especially every revolving planet, was animated 
 by a resident angel peculiar to itself, was doubtless 
 accepted as the happy thought of a mind deeply im- 
 bued with the learning of the age, with astronomical 
 knowledge in more than usual proportion ; and per- 
 haps favored by some superior power with a revela- 
 tion, by which it was enabled to penetrate into mys- 
 teries " far beyond this visible diurnal sphere." Nor 
 less felicitous and convenient was the formation of a 
 symbolical representation of a star ; it required no 
 skill ; a mere effort of the hand was sufficient to exe- 
 cute the design ; and the model once obtained, the 
 idol was constantly before the eye of the worshiper, 
 whether the original were above or below the horizon. 
 And yet, in these rude efforts originated that idolatry 
 which eventually, like a flood, overwhelmed the 
 whole human race ; to which the sacred books, though 
 standing in direct opposition, bear but too striking 
 witness, and which to this day retains its tyranny in 
 some of its most odious and destructive forms. For 
 the issue proved, that when the stars and the planets 
 were once named, their idols were named after them ; 
 that when their idols were formed, they gradually 
 assumed the personal figure of those intelligences 
 whose names they bore, and of which they became 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 165 
 
 the human representatives. Hence gods and god- 
 desses of every description and attribute ; until at 
 length their numbers became incalculable, and their 
 characters flagitious, and "darkness covered the 
 earth, and gross darkness the people." 
 
 Ammon, or Amun, was the name of an Egyptian 
 deity, whom the Greeks considered as synonymous 
 with their Zeus, and was by the Romans termed 
 Jupiter Ammon. He is represented on the monu- 
 ments of Egypt, and various other works of Egyp- 
 tian art, with a ram's head and human body ; about 
 which Herodotus tells us an odd story, picked up 
 during his travels in Egypt : 
 
 "Hercules was exceedingly anxious to have a 
 sight of Zeus, but Zeus did not feel inclined to show 
 himself. At last, Hercules being very importunate, 
 Zeus hit on the following contrivance : he flayed a 
 ram, and cutting off the head, put it before his face ; 
 he then got into the skin, and in this guise showed 
 himself to Hercules. From this circumstance the 
 Egyptians represent Zeus with a ram's head." 
 
 The worship of Ammon was not common to all 
 the Egyptians ; it would seem to have been specially 
 of Ethiopic origin. The two chief temples that now 
 exist are that at Karnak, on the east side of the Nile, 
 forming part of the extensive ruins of Thebes ; and 
 that of Siwah, in the Libyan desert, known to the 
 Greeks by the name of Ammonium. The name of 
 the city of Thebes was changed by the Greeks to 
 Diospolis Magna, that is, the great city of Jove. 
 
 Excepting only the Pyramids, the most ancient 
 remains now existing are uncmestionably in the great 
 Temple of Karnak, the largest and most splendid ruin 
 of which perhaps any age can boast; but it was the 
 
166 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 work of successive monarchs, each of whom was 
 anxious to surpass his predecessor. 
 
 Sir Gardner Wilkinson is of opinion that no part 
 of the earliest foundation of the temple remains, but 
 of what does exist, a portion was erected by Osirtesen, 
 the cotemporary of Joseph, and therefore dates about 
 thirty-six centuries. 
 
 The remains of Karnak lie north-east of Luxor, 
 about two thousand five hundred feet from the 
 banks of the river, the principal part on an artificial 
 elevation, surrounded by a wall of unburned bricks, 
 about five thousand three hundred yards in circuit. 
 It is impossible, without a plan on a large scale, to 
 give any adequate idea of the extent of these remains. 
 They consist of several buildings, the largest of which, 
 by some called a palace and by others a temple, is con- 
 tained within the spacious in closure just mentioned, 
 which was extensive enough to hold also a large tank, 
 that was cased with stone, and had a flight of steps 
 leading down to it. The chief front (the western) is 
 turned to the Nile, with which it was connected by an 
 alley of colossal crio-sphinxes ; and at the termination 
 there was probably a flight of steps leading down to 
 the banks of the river. The axis of each part of this 
 temple lies in the same direction, which is forty- 
 nine degrees west of the magnetic pole. 
 
 Here the devotee would land, who came from a dis- 
 tance to the shrine of Amnion, and with amazement 
 and a feeling of religious awe would he slowly walk 
 along between the majestic and tranquil sphinxes to 
 the still more magnificent propyla of the building. 
 This colossal entrance is about three hundred and 
 sixty feet long and one hundred and forty-eight 
 high, but without sculptures ; the great door in the 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 167 
 
 middle is sixty-four feet in height. Passing through 
 this doorway, he would enter a large court, occupied 
 by a range of pillars on the north and south sides, and 
 a double row of taller pillars running down the mid- 
 dle. It is rather curious that on the south side of this 
 court another building of smaller dimensions projects 
 some distance into it ; which was either a subordi- 
 nate part of the larger temple, or, if we consider the 
 great building to be a palace, this appendage must 
 be considered as a temple attached to it. The pil- 
 lars in the middle of the entrance-court terminate 
 opposite to two colossal statues in front of a second 
 propylon, one of which is still standing in tolerable 
 preservation. It is a figure with one foot a little in 
 advance of the other. The whole is made of a sin- 
 gle block, through which, after ascending a flight of 
 twenty-seven steps, we come to a large hall, which 
 has had a flat stone roof. This is the great hypostyle 
 hall of Karnak, which is supported by one hundred 
 and thirty-four colossal pillars ; there being sixteen 
 columns running across the breadth of the building, 
 in nine parallel rows, which, however, as we shall 
 presently explain, offer some irregularities. 
 
 The adytum itself consists of three apartments -en- 
 tirely of granite. The principal room, which is in 
 the center, is twenty feet long, sixteen wide, and 
 thirteen feet high. Three blocks of granite form 
 the roof, which is painted with clusters of gilt stars 
 on a blue ground. The walls are likewise covered 
 with painted sculptures of a character admirably 
 adapted to the mysterious purposes mentioned by 
 Herodotus, on the subject of the virgins w T ho were 
 there introduced to the Theban Jupiter. Beyond 
 
 this are other porticoes and galleries, which have 
 
 11 
 
168 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 been continued to another propylon at the distance 
 of two thousand feet from that at the western ex- 
 tremity of the temple. 
 
 This temple seems in fact .to have had some re- 
 semblance in its plan to the great temple of Mem- 
 phis, which had four principal propyla, turned re- 
 spectively to the four cardinal points. The western 
 entrance of Karnak faced the river; opposite to this 
 at the eastern end was another propylon, which Mr. 
 Hamilton describes as being two thousand feet dis- 
 tant from that first mentioned ; and again another 
 set of propyla (four in the French plan, all of which 
 had colossi in front of them) on the southern side 
 formed the approach from Luxor. We may con- 
 jecture that another similar approach on the north- 
 ern side would perhaps have been made, had the 
 native monarchs continued to reign at Thebes. 
 
 The great hall has a double row of larger pillars, 
 twelve in number, running down the center. Owing 
 to the projection of a doorway or entrance from the 
 court which succeeds the hypostyle hall, there are 
 two pillars cut off on each side, from the rows of 
 smaller pillars which are next to the larger ones. 
 This reduces the whole number to one hundred and 
 thirty-four, which would be one hundred and forty- 
 four, if all the pillars were of the same size, and if 
 there were no irregularity in the two rows nearest 
 the center rows on each side. The width of this 
 magnificent hall is about three hundred and thirty- 
 eight feet, and the length or depth (measured in the 
 direction of the axis of the building) one hundred 
 and seventy feet. It is remarkable that the great 
 courts and chambers in some of the oldest Egyptian 
 buildings, such as Medinet-Abou and the tomb 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIU8. 169 
 
 of Osymandyas, have their width greater than 
 their length : the entrance, in fact, is in the center 
 of the longest side ; and this apparently must have 
 been part of the architect's design. In the small 
 chambers, however, such as the sanctuary, we be- 
 lieve the case is nearly always the reverse ; and also 
 in the great courts of the palace of Luxor, in that 
 of Edfou, and other temples. The area of this pro- 
 digious hall is fifty-seven thousand six hundred 
 and twenty-nine square feet, on which stand the one 
 hundred and thirty-four columns, the largest near 
 eleven feet in diameter, once supporting a roof of 
 enormous slabs of stone. Words are inadequate to 
 express the grandeur of conception exhibited in this 
 design. Champollion's expression, though often 
 quoted, is worth quoting again, as it conveys the 
 full force of a powerful impression : " The imag- 
 ination, which in Europe rises far above our porti- 
 coes, sinks abashed at the foot of the one hundred 
 and forty columns of the hypostyle hall of Karnak." 
 
 But we shall form a more exact idea of this enor- 
 mous work by comparing it with some standard of 
 which we can judge. The church of St. Martin's 
 in the Fields, one of the finest and largest of modern 
 religious edifices in London, is one hundred and 
 thirty-seven feet long and eighty-one feet wide, 
 measured along the outside basement, not including 
 the steps and portico. This will give an area of 
 nearly eleven thousand one hundred and fifty square 
 feet, which is not so much as one-fifth part of the 
 great hall of Karnak. 
 
 Or we may consider the matter in the following 
 way. The width of the hall of Karnak is more than 
 four times that of the front of St, Martin's church, 
 
170 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 while the depth of the former exceeds the length of 
 the latter by more than thirty-two feet. Therefore 
 four such churches as St. Martin's might stand side 
 by side on the area of this hall, without occupying 
 the whole space. In forming this calculation the 
 outer measurements of St. Martin's church have 
 been taken, and the interior measure of the great 
 hall of Karnak. But the great hall itself is not more 
 than one-seventh of the whole area inclosed by the 
 walls of the great temple. 
 
 The two rows of columns down the middle are 
 larger than the rest, and were designed to support 
 the highest part of the roof, in the vertical sides of 
 which small window-lights are cut. Both the pil- 
 lars, walls, and propyla of this magnificent colon- 
 nade are completely covered with sculptured forms 
 of deities. On the outside of this part of the temple 
 two immense boats are sculptured; one of them, 
 which is fifty-one feet long, has the head of a ram at 
 each end. Another boat, forty-five feet in length, 
 is full of people, who are pushing it along with 
 poles. In the French work on the antiquities of 
 Egypt, two such boats are represented ; but here 
 the people in the first boat are pulling along the 
 second boat, which is that of Amnion. 
 
 At this part of the building, where the grand hall 
 terminates, the great passage from the temple of 
 Luxor, after having made two deviations from the 
 main line, strikes in, by which the sacred processions 
 would arrive from the last-mentioned place through 
 the long avenues of sphinxes and under four suc- 
 cessive propyla to the great temple of Karnak. Here, 
 also, near the center of this magnificent building, 
 are three noble obelisks about seventy feet high, 
 
STATUE OF JUPITEK OLYMPIUS. 171 
 
 and nine square at the base ; a fourth obelisk is ly- 
 ing on the ground cut into two pieces. Near these 
 obelisks are some small chambers, which either con- 
 tained the adytum, or were set apart for the use of 
 the priests. We may infer from this position of 
 these two smaller obelisks that the place which they 
 occupy was once the front of the building, and that 
 the great hypostyle chamber, and all that is before 
 it, are the additions of a later period. Indeed, this 
 seems confirmed by the appearance of the great en- 
 trance turned toward the river, which looks as if it 
 had never been finished. In this building also, as 
 at Luxor, there are internal proofs of its being built 
 at different eras. Many of the gateways (those on 
 the south side) form different angles with one an- 
 other, and with the walls of the temple : in some 
 places blocks of stone are used, covered with in- 
 verted hieroglyphics, and some of the principal 
 sculptures are concealed behind a projecting gate- 
 way. Another instance of the dislike of symmetry 
 of the architects of ancient Egypt is visible in the 
 difference in the spaces between the sphinxes and 
 crio-sphinxes, and in the sizes of these statues, which 
 vary from twelve to seventeen feet in length, as they 
 form the several avenues which lead to the body of 
 the building. 
 
 The great hall of Karnak is in its kind a speci- 
 men of architecture equally calculated to excite our 
 admiration. But words are inadequate to convey 
 any idea of the extent of the remains of this won- 
 derful place. Besides the great palace with its prop- 
 yla, obelisks, and avenues of colossal sphinxes, 
 there are magnificent temples to the north and south 
 of it, altogether forming an assemblage of remains 
 
172 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 such as perhaps no other spot on earth can oner. 
 What Thebes must have been in all its glory, - before 
 commerce deserted its temples for the sanctuaries 
 of Memphis, and foreign conquest laid waste its 
 palaces, it is impossible to conceive. 
 
 A modern traveler eloquently describes the im- 
 pressions conveyed to his mind by the appearance 
 of these vast ruins. 
 
 Two or three stragglers who came down to the 
 bank to gaze at us, were the only living beings we 
 beheld in a city which had numbered its millions. 
 When Greece was just emerging from the shades 
 of barbarism, and before the name of Rome was 
 known, Egypt was far advanced in science and the 
 arts, and Thebes the most magnificent city in the 
 world. But the Assyrian came, and overthrew for- 
 ever the throne of the Pharaohs. The Persian war- 
 cry rang through the crowded streets of Thebes, 
 Cambyses laid his destroying hands upon the temples 
 of its gods, and a greater than Babylon the Great 
 fell to rise no more. 
 
 The ancient valley was twenty-three miles in 
 circumference. The valley of the Nile was not 
 large enough to contain it, and its extremities rested 
 upon the bases of the mountains of Arabia and 
 Africa. The whole of this great extent is more or 
 less strewed with ruins, broken columns, and avenues 
 of sphinxes, colossal figures, obelisks, pyramidal 
 gateways, porticoes, blocks of polished granite, and 
 stones of extraordinary magnitude, while above 
 them, "in all the nakedness of desolation," the 
 colossal skeletons of giant temples are standing in 
 the unwatered sands, in solitude and silence. Thev 
 are neither gray nor blackened ; there is no lichen, 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 173 
 
 no moss, no rank grass or mantling ivy, to robe 
 them and conceal their deformities. Like the bones 
 of man, they seem to whiten under the sun of the 
 desert. The sand of Africa has been their most 
 fearful enemy; blown upon them for more than 
 three thousand years, it has buried the largest 
 monuments, and, in some instances, almost entire 
 temples. 
 
 Great and magnificent as was the temple of Luxor, 
 it served but as a portal to the greater Karnak. 
 Standing nearly two miles from Luxor, the whole 
 road to it was lined with rows of sphinxes, each of a 
 solid block of granite. At this end they are broken, 
 and, for the most part, buried under the sand and 
 heaps of rubbish. But approaching Karnak they 
 stand entire, still and solemn as when the ancient 
 Egyptian passed between them to worship in the 
 great temple of Ammon. Four grand propyla 
 terminate this avenue of sphinxes, and, passing 
 through the last, the scene which presents itself 
 defies description. Belzoni remarks of the ruins of 
 Thebes generally, that he felt as if he were in a city 
 of giants ; and no man can look upon the ruins of 
 Karnak without feeling humbled by the greatness 
 of a people who have passed away forever. The 
 western entrance, facing the temple of Northern 
 Dair on the opposite side of the river, also ap- 
 proached between two rows of sphinxes, is a mag- 
 nificent propylon four hundred feet long and forty 
 feet in thickness. In the language of Dr. Richard- 
 son, "looking forward from the center of this gate- 
 way, the vast scene of havoc and destruction pre- 
 sents itself in all the extent of this immense temple, 
 with its columns, and walls, and immense propyla 
 
174 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 all prostrate in one heap of ruins, looking as if the 
 thunders of heaven had smitten it at the command 
 of an insulted God." 
 
 Volume's have been written, and volumes may 
 yet be written, and he that reads all will still have 
 but an imperfect idea of the ruins of Thebes. "We 
 need only add, that all these temples were connected 
 by long avenues of sphinxes, statues, propyla, and 
 colossal figures, and the reader's imagination will 
 work out the imposing scene that was presented in 
 the crowded streets of the now desolate city, when, 
 with all the gorgeous ceremonies of pagan idolatry, 
 the priests, bearing the sacred image of their god, 
 and followed by thousands of the citizens, made 
 their annual procession from temple to temple, and 
 "with harps, and cymbals, and songs of rejoicing," 
 brought back their idol, and replaced him in his 
 shrine in the grand temple at Karnak. 
 
 The temple dedicated to Jupiter Amnion was in 
 the deserts of Libya, twelve days' journey from 
 Memphis, and in the midst of a beautiful oasis. 
 According to ancient tradition, it had a famous 
 oracle, established eighteen centuries B. C. ; the rep- 
 utation of it was destroyed by the gross flattery of 
 pronouncing Alexander to be the son of Jupiter. 
 In a valley of the desert there is a vast collection 
 of ruins, which appear to consist of eight small 
 temples, connected by galleries and terraces: the 
 circuit of these ruins is over two thousand seven 
 hundred feet, and the whole is surrounded by a 
 double inclosure ; the largest temple is in the center. 
 Though these ruins are extensive, the buildings are 
 on a small scale; the greater temple being only 
 thirty-four feet in length. On some of the columns 
 
STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 175 
 
 are figures in the Egyptian style, and in the same 
 portico others are fluted in the Greek fashion. On 
 the base of one is the remains of a zodiac. This is 
 conjectured to be the ancient Ammonium, the 
 original seat of the oracle. From the statements of 
 Diodorus and Herodotus, these temples are sup- 
 posed to have been chief residences of the powerful 
 priest caste of Meroe. 
 
 Cambyses having overturned Thebes, after rav- 
 aging the country, divided his army, and one 
 part of it perished by famine ; and the other part 
 was sent to plunder the temple of Jupiter Am- 
 nion, and was overwhelmed by the sands of the 
 desert. 
 
 Darwin describes this event in some of the sub- 
 limest language in his glittering poem : 
 
 When Heaven's dread justice smites in crimes o'ergrown 
 
 The blood-nursed tyrant on his purple throne, 
 
 Gnomes ! your bold forms unnuniber'd arms outstretch, 
 
 And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch. 
 
 Thus when Cambyses led his barbarous hosts 
 
 From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts, 
 
 Defiled each hallow'd fane, and sacred wood, 
 
 And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood ; 
 
 Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states, 
 
 And pour'd destruction through her hundred gates ; 
 
 In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands, 
 
 And swarming armies blacken'd all the lands, 
 
 By Memphis these to Ethiop's sultry plains, 
 
 And those to Ammon's sand-encircled fanes. 
 
 Slow as they pass'd the indignant temples frown'd, 
 
 Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground ; 
 
 Long aisles of cypress waved their deepen'd glooms, 
 
 And quivering specters grinn'd amid the tombs ; 
 
 Prophetic whispers breathed from Sphinx's tongue, 
 
 And Memnon's lyre with hollow murmurs rung ; 
 
 Burst from each pyramid expiring groans, 
 
 And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones : 
 
176 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Day after day their deathful route they steer, 
 Lust in the van, and rapine in the rear. 
 
 Loud o'er the camp the fiend of famine shrieks, 
 Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks ; 
 O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand, 
 And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand ; 
 Perch'd on her crest the griffin Discord clings, 
 And giant Murder rides between her wings ; 
 Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill, 
 And showers of tears in blended streams distill ; 
 High poised in air her spiry neck she bends, 
 Rolls her keen eye, her dragon-claws extends, 
 Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop 
 With iron fangs the decimated troop. 
 
 Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe, 
 And the live desert pants and heaves beneath ; 
 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise 
 Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies, 
 In red arcades the billowy plain surround, 
 And whirling turrets stalk along the ground. 
 Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend, 
 To demon-gods their knees unhallow'd bend. 
 Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square, 
 And now they front, and now they fly the war, 
 Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries, 
 Press their parch'd lips, and close their bloodshot "eyes. 
 Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, 
 Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ; 
 Wave over wave the driving desert swims, 
 Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs ; 
 Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush, 
 Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush, 
 Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, 
 And one great earthy ocean covers all ! 
 Then ceased the storm, Night bow'd his Ethiop brow 
 To Earth, and listen'd to the groans below, 
 Grim horror shook, awhile the living hill 
 Heaved with convulsive throes, and all was still ! 
 
Cjf* <8mt Cnnplc af fiatta at 
 
 (EjT|[*8tt8. 
 
 The mighty hunter, lifting up his eyes 
 Toward the crescent moon, with grateful heart 
 Call'd on the lovely wand'rer who bestow'd 
 That timely light, to share his joyous sport : 
 And hence a beaming goddess with her nymphs, 
 Across the lawn and through the darksome grove 
 (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes 
 By echo multiplied from rock or cave) 
 Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars 
 Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven, 
 When winds are blowing strong. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Ephesus. 
 
 The Temple. 
 
 Bishop Pococke's Remarks. 
 
 Vitruvius's Descrdption. 
 
 Diana Artemis Hecate. 
 
 The Temple op Diana at London. 
 
 Early Christian Churches were all erected on the 
 
 site of Ancient Heathen Temples. 
 Diana as depicted in Homer. 
 Diana as Hecate in Hesiod. 
 
 Ephesus and the Temple when visited by St. Paul. 
 The Incantations performed there. 
 The Fulfillment of Prophecy. 
 Stephens's Visit. 
 
THE GREAT TEMPLE OF DIANA AT 
 EPHESUS. 
 
 As arrow-joying Artemis along 
 
 A mountain moves, either Taygetus high, 
 
 Or Erymanthus, in the chase rejoiced 
 
 Of boars and nimble deer ; and with her sport 
 
 The country-haunting nymphs, the daughters fair 
 
 Of iEgis-holding Zeus, while Letojoys; 
 
 O'er all she high her head and forehead holds, 
 
 Easy to know, though beautiful are all. 
 
 " Great is Diana of the Ephesians," was the apos- 
 trophe of the people, when the inspired apostle of 
 our Lord first preached the faith of Christianity in 
 the metropolis of Asia. This city held the preemi- 
 nence over all others in which the goddess was 
 worshiped. 
 
 Ephesus, a city of Asia Minor, thirty-eight miles 
 south-south-east of Smyrna, was anciently one of 
 the most splendid in the world. When speaking 
 of this renowned city, the Greek writers are prodi- 
 gal in epithets describing its glory and excellence. 
 Strabo tells us it is one of the best and most glorious 
 cities, and the great emporium of Asia Minor, while 
 another distinguishes it as one of the " eyes " of Asia. 
 Sic transit gloria mundi! a few unintelligible 
 heaps of stones, with some mud cottages untenanted, 
 are all the remains of the great city of the Ephesians. 
 Even the sea has retired from the scene of desolation, 
 and a pestilential morass, covered "with mud and 
 
180 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 rushes, has succeeded to the waters which brought 
 up the ships laden with the merchandise of every 
 country. We are told that some hundred and fifty 
 years back, a few Greek peasants harbored among 
 the substructions of the once glorious edifices which 
 their renowned forefathers raised ; but now, even 
 these miserable representatives of the ancient Ephe- 
 sians have disappeared; and the malaria has in- 
 creased to such a degree, that the ruins can hardly 
 be approached with safety during six months of the 
 year. Part of the plain of Ephesus is, however, 
 under cultivation, for the plow has passed over 
 the site of the city, and the green corn may be seen 
 growing among the forsaken ruins. The laborers, 
 however, all come from distant villages. Some 
 ninety years back, we are told by Chandler, that 
 the few peasants were living in extreme wretched- 
 ness and insensibility, representatives of an illustrious 
 people, inhabiting the wreck of their greatness, 
 some even in the vaults of the glorious edifices, and 
 others among the sepulchers which received the 
 ashes of their great progenitors. 
 
 The utter desolation and* silence are indescribable : 
 a herd of goats running into and under cover of the 
 ruins for shelter from the noon-day sun ; a noisy 
 flight of crows from the marble fragments startles 
 the quietude ; the cry of the partridge and the quail 
 alone disturbs the repose of the theater and the 
 stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship 
 is no longer remembered ; and Christianity, which 
 was here nursed by the apostles, and fostered by ' 
 general councils, until it increased to fullness of 
 stature, now barely lingers on an existence scarcely 
 visible. Nothing more is required to establish the 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPUESUS, 181 
 
 fulfillment of the prophecy; for "the candlestick" is 
 indeed "removed out of its place," and night hangs 
 over Ephesus. 
 
 In the general calamities of mankind, the death 
 of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an 
 edifice, however famous, are passed over with care- 
 less inattention. Yet we cannot forget that this 
 celebrated temple, after having risen with increased 
 splendor from several repeated misfortunes, was 
 finally burned by the Goths in their third naval in- 
 vasion. 
 
 Mythology assigns as the founder of the city, 
 Ephesus, the son of Cresus, a native of the soil; 
 another tradition makes it to have been settled by 
 the Amazons, who, pursued by Hercules, fled to an 
 altar erected to Diana for protection, which the 
 goddess granted. Steabo says, that the first settle- 
 ment was by the Carians and Leleges, a people *of 
 the islands on the coast of Asia Minor. The origin- 
 al object of worship was a small statue of Diana, of 
 ebony, made by one Canaitias, though commonly 
 believed in those days to have been sent down from. 
 heaven by Jupiter. It was, no doubt, an Egyptian 
 hieroglyphic. A temple of magnificent structure 
 was erected to contain this image, which building 
 was completed in the reign of Servius Tullius, 570 
 B. C. This temple is said to have been destroyed 
 by fire. 
 
 A second temple was commenced about 540 B. C, 
 which exceeded the first in splendor in as great 
 degree as that did every other building in the world; 
 and again this was partially burned on the day on 
 which Socrates was poisoned, 400 B. C. It is said 
 that Xerxes, the Persian king, who destroyed the 
 
182 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 idol temples wherever he came, had spared this on 
 account of its magnificence and splendor. The 
 temple having been restored with yet greater grand- 
 eur, it was again fired 356 B. C, on the night that 
 Alexander the Great was born. This was done by 
 Erastratus, who confessed he had done the deed to 
 immortalize his name by the destruction of this 
 wonderful building. To balk him, it was decreed 
 his name should never be mentioned; but such a 
 decree served only to make his name more memo- 
 rable. Alexander offered to rebuild the temple, only 
 on condition that the Ephesians would allow his 
 name to be placed in front ; but this offer was re- 
 spectfully declined. We conclude that the roof 
 only was destroyed, for it is said that the materials 
 saved from the fire were sold, and women parted 
 with their jewels, and other contributions were sent 
 most liberally from all parts of Asia, which in a 
 short time amounted to an immense treasure ; and 
 thus the splendid pile was restored. 
 
 The temple stood between the city and the port, 
 and was built at the base of a mountain, and at the 
 head of a marsh, which situation is said by Pliny to 
 have been chosen as less liable to earthquakes. This 
 choice of site had, however, the effect of vastly in- 
 creasing the expenses, through the necessity of 
 making vast drains, to convey the water that came 
 down from the mountain into the morass and river ; 
 in this work so much stone was used, that all the 
 quarries of the country were exhausted. "We are 
 told by Pliny, that to secure the foundations of the 
 conduits and sewers, which were' to support the 
 weight of so prodigious a structure, there were laid 
 beds of charcoal, well, rammed ; over them layers 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 183 
 
 of wool ; and that two hundred and twenty years 
 elapsed before this grand temple was completed, by 
 the contributions of all the cities of Asia. It was 
 four hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and 
 two hundred and twenty in breadth, supported by 
 one hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of 
 the Ionic order, sixty- feet high, of which thirty -six 
 were curiously sculptured, and the rest highly pol- 
 ished. The pillars were the gifts of so many kings, 
 and the bass-reliefs on one of them were wrought by 
 Scopas, one of the most famous of ancient sculptors ; 
 the altar was adorned by the masterly sculptures of 
 Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the 
 favorite legends of the place, the birth of the divine 
 children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo, after 
 the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency < f 
 Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons. The first 
 architect, and he who appears to have planned the 
 whole work, was Dinocrates, who built the city of 
 Alexandria, and who offered to carve Mount Athos 
 into a statue of Alexander. According to Vitruvius, 
 however, the architects are said to be, Peonius of 
 Ephesus, and Daplmis of Miletus. The only re- 
 mains of this wonderful temple, are three entire 
 columns and a profusion of marble fragments; but 
 these are amply sufficient to indicate its former 
 beauty and grandeur, even had it not been so highly 
 extolled by the ancients. 
 
 Bishop Pi icnoko, who visited Asia Minor in 1736-7, 
 thus describes the remains of this celebrated building 
 from actual observation. 
 
 The temple was situated toward the south-west 
 
 corner of the plain, having a lake on the west side, 
 
 now become a morass, extending westward to the 
 
 12 
 
184 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 River Cayster. The building and the courts about it 
 were encompassed every way with a strong wall; that 
 to the west of the lake and to the north was likewise 
 the wall of the city ; there was a double wall to the 
 south. Within these walls were four courts, that is, 
 one on every side of the temple ; and on each side of 
 the court to the west there was a large open portico, 
 or colonnade, extending to the lake, on which arches 
 of bricks were turned for a covering. The front of 
 the temple was toward the east. The temple was 
 built on several narrow arches, one within another, 
 to which there is a descent. It is probable these 
 arches extended to the porticoes on each side of the 
 western court, and served for foundations for the 
 pillars. The site being a morass, made the expense 
 of such a foundation necessary ; so that it is said, as 
 much cost was incurred beneath, as on the fabric 
 above ground. It is probable, also, that the sewers 
 of the city passed this way into the lake. There 
 are great quantities of earthenware pipes in the 
 passages beneath the arches. 
 
 There seems to have been in the east front of the 
 temple a grand portico, as before this lay three 
 pieces of red granite pillars, each about fifteen feet 
 in length, and one of gray granite broken in two 
 pieces. 
 
 There are four pillars like the red granite ones in 
 the mosque of St. John, at the village of Ajasalouk, 
 also a fine entablature, and on one of the columns in 
 the mosque is a most beautiful composite capital, 
 which, without doubt, had belonged to the temple. 
 
 There are vast remains of pillars -of hewn stone, 
 upon which we conclude the arches were turned. 
 The pillars, as well as the entire temple, appear to 
 
 
 
m 
 
 ^mr m 'w;*^ ; 
 
 'JB& 
 
 TEMPLE OF DIANA. 
 
 ' 
 
^CO > TOT 
 
 [TJHI7BB.SIT7J 
 
 XglFOT 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 187 
 
 have been cased with, marbles : as on the stone-work 
 of the middle grand apartment there were many 
 small orifices, which would appear to have been 
 designed in order to fix the marble casing. 
 
 In the sixth century of our present era the Emper- 
 or Justinian filled Constantinople with the statues, 
 and raised the Church of St. Sophia upon the columns 
 of this once magnificent edifice. 
 
 From Vitruvius's description we infer that the 
 building was of the Ionic order ; but the fragments 
 and columns now among the ruins are described 
 by recent travelers as of the Composite order, and 
 this is in some measure corroborated by ancient 
 medals which have representations of the grand 
 front. 
 
 Magnificent as was the Temple of Diana, its length 
 was only two-thirds of the measure of St. Peter's at 
 Rome. In the other dimensions it was still more 
 inferior to that sublime production of modern archi- 
 tecture. The spreading arms of the Christian cross 
 require a much greater breadth than the oblong tem- 
 ples of the pagans ; and the boldest artists of antiquity 
 would have been startled at the proposal of raising 
 in the air a dome of the size and proportions of the 
 Pantheon. The Temple of Diana was, however, 
 among the ancients admired as one of the wondrous 
 buildings of the world. Successive empires the 
 Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman had 
 revered its sanctity and enriched its splendor ; but 
 the rude savages of the Baltic were destitute of a 
 taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal 
 terrors of a foreign superstition. 
 
 The ancient pagan idolatry having ceased, the mild 
 worship of Jesus followed. Some centuries passed 
 
188 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 on, and the altars of the true and living God were 
 thrown down, to make way for the delusions of 
 Mohamniecl ; the cross is removed from the dome 
 of the church, and the crescent glitters in its stead, 
 while, within, the keble is substituted for the altar. 
 A few years more, and all is silence in church and 
 mosque : the busy hum ,of a mighty population is 
 silent in death ! " Thy riches and thy fairs, thy mer- 
 chandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy caulkers, 
 and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy 
 men of war, are fallen !" 
 
 Of the three Christian churches that Ephesus 
 could at one time boast, that of St. Paul's is wholly 
 destroyed, St. Mark's is a heap of ruins, and St. 
 John's, as we have stated, has been converted into 
 a Turkish mosque. 
 
 The Turkish village of Ajasalouk, or the- Temple 
 of the Moon, is the nearest to the ancient city of 
 Ephesus. 
 
 The Diana of the Romans, or Artemis of the 
 Greeks, was a celebrated goddess among the heathen, 
 and one of the twelve superior deities. Diana we 
 must consider to have been primarily the moon, and 
 was worshiped under divers names and characters. 
 According to Cicero, there were three of this name, 
 a daughter of Jupiter and Latona, a daughter of 
 Jupiter and Proserpine, and a daughter of TJpis and 
 Glauce. The first is the most celebrated, and to 
 her nearly all the great temples were devoted, and 
 all the ancient writers allude. She is represented 
 as dedicated to perpetual celibacy, and to avoid so- 
 ciety devoted herself to the chase and other manly 
 sports, and was always accompamed by a number 
 of chosen virgins, who, like herself, had abjured 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 189 
 
 marriage. She is represented by the Greeks and 
 Romans with a crescent on her head, and a quiver, 
 attended by dogs. She is depicted as being much 
 taller than her attendant nymphs ; her face has a 
 manly character, her legs are bare, and her feet 
 covered with a buskin, as worn by huntresses among 
 the ancients. Diana is, by some, erroneously sup- 
 posed to be the same as the Isis of the Egyptians ; 
 but that goddess more nearly approaches to Ceres. 
 She appears to have been called Luna, or Meni, (the 
 moon,) in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate in 
 the infernal regions ; thus her power extended over 
 heaven, earth, and hell. But the Ephesian deity 
 Diana was evidently the second named, being fig- 
 ured with several rows of breasts, intimating that she 
 was at Ephesus regarded as Nature, the mother of 
 mankind. The image wore a sort of high civic- 
 crowned miter, and its feet were involved in gar- 
 ments. And there is little doubt that the goddess 
 to whom temples of worship were erected in various 
 parts of the world was of this character. We are 
 given to understand, that at Rome there is a full- 
 length and complete image of this goddess, which 
 is clearly an enigmatical representation of the de- 
 pendence of all creatures on the power of nature ; 
 or the many and extensive blessings bestowed by 
 nature on the whole animal kingdom, whether man, 
 beasts, fish, or insects. This deity is symbolized as 
 diffusing her benefits to each and all. Her numerous 
 rows of breasts speak the same allegorical language 
 fountains of supply ; whence figures of this kind 
 were called -nolvpaaroi, (many-breasted.) Cities 
 especially were honored by her protection, as is 
 evinced by the turreted ornament, or rather civic 
 
190 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 diadem with which she is crowned. She wears a 
 necklace of pearls, and on her breastplate are the 
 signs of the zodiac, in testimony that throughout all 
 the seasons of the year nature dispenses her various 
 bounties. In fact, in this image the whole course 
 of nature, and her extensive distributions, are rep- 
 resented. Diana, as a goddess of the Latins, was 
 universally worshiped, but does not appear as a 
 huntress. Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, 
 erected a temple for her worship on Mount Aven- 
 tine ; and the slaves of Rome, in honor of Servius, 
 here held an annual festival. We are told that the 
 Sabines also joined in the worship at this temple, 
 and that the temple was the joint property of the 
 Romans and Sabines. Diana was also worshiped 
 in the grove of Aricia, near to Rome ; and the fes- 
 tivals celebrated there in her honor were called Ne- 
 moralia. 
 
 In the Townley Collection at the British Museum 
 there is a statue of Diana, in a long vestment reach- 
 ing to the feet, over which is a shorter garment, 
 fastened at the waist by a narrow band. The right 
 arm is uplifted in the action of hurling a spear. The 
 drapery appears blown back by the wind. The 
 whole of the right arm, and the left arm from the 
 elbow downward, being of modern work, it may 
 be doubted whether the restorer has given the real 
 character to the statue as it was seen in its perfect 
 state. Some artists and connoisseurs consider it 
 probable that this statue was originally represented 
 holding a bow in her left hand, and with the right 
 hand drawing an arrow from a quiver fastened be- 
 hind her shoulder ; such is the action of Diana in 
 two well-known statues. The bow and quiver, when 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 191 
 
 the statue was perfect, were doubtless of bronze ; 
 and the place occupied by the quiver, behind the 
 right shoulder, is very perceptible, as well as the 
 holes and the metal by which it was fastened to the 
 marble. It was found in 1772, near La Stocta, about 
 eio-ht miles from Rome. Here likewise may be seen 
 a most beautiful head of Diana, sculptured in Parian 
 marble. It is altogether a most superior work. 
 Chaste severity and virginal sweetness and simplici- 
 ty are most happily blended in the character, and 
 the fleshy and elastic appearance of the features, and * 
 flowing lightness and luxuriance of the hair, are as 
 perfect as we can conceive the material to admit of. 
 It is quite perfect, the ancient polish of the surface 
 being preserved throughout. 
 
 Upon the very site that the great Christian cathe- 
 dral of St. Paul at London now stands, there was, in 
 ancient times, a great temple to Diana ; and we are 
 told, upon good authority, that at no very distant 
 period it was usual to bring up a fat buck to the 
 altar of St, Paul's, with hunters' horns blowing, in 
 the middle of divine service. This is an evident 
 proof of the long-continued attachment of the people 
 to their established festivals, which they were un- 
 willing to part with; therefore Gregory, or Thau- 
 maturgus, a Christian bishop in 260, to facilitate 
 their conversion, instituted annual festivals to the 
 saints and martyrs. Hence it came to pass, that for 
 exploding the festivals of the heathens, the principal 
 festivals of the Christians succeeded in their room, 
 as the keeping of Christmas with joy and feasting 
 and sports, in the stead of the Bacchanalia and 
 Saturnalia; the celebrating of May-day with flowers, 
 in the room of the Floralia; and the keeping of fes- 
 
192 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 tivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and 
 divers of the apostles, in the place of the solemnities 
 at the entrance of the sun into the signs of the zodiac 
 in the old Julian calendar. We may infer the in- 
 evitable corruption of practical Christianity in the 
 Middle Ages, from the obstinate attachment of the 
 converted barbarians to their ancient pagan customs, 
 and the allowed continuance of many by the Catholic 
 clergy. There is extant a letter from Pope Gregory 
 the Great, in the sixth century, to the Abbot Mel- 
 litus, then departing to Britain, desiring him to tell 
 Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, that, 
 after mature deliberation on the affairs of the En- 
 glish, he was of opinion that the temples of the idols 
 in that nation ought not to be destroyed, but that 
 the idols should. He further orders that the tem- 
 ples be sprinkled with holy water, and relics be 
 placed in them ; and because their ancestors sacri- 
 ficed oxen in their pagan worship, he directs the ob- 
 ject of sacrifice to be exchanged, and permits them 
 to build huts of trees about the temples so trans- 
 formed into churches, on the day of the dedication, 
 or nativities of the martyrs whose relics they con- 
 tain, and there to kill the cattle and celebrate the 
 solemnity with religious feasting. 
 
 Some etymologists derive the name London from 
 Han-Diem, which signifies in British the Temple 
 of Dian. 
 
 Homer, in the hymn addressed to this goddess, 
 thus describes her occupations : 
 
 Along the shady hills and breezy peats, 
 Rejoicing in the chase, her golden bow 
 She bends, her deadly arrows sending forth. 
 Then tremble of the lofty hills the tops ; 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 193 
 
 The shady wood rcbelloweth aloud 
 
 Unto the bowstring's twang ; the earth itself 
 
 And fishy sea then shudder : hut she still 
 
 A braVe heart bearing goeth forth around, 
 
 Slaughtering the race of savage beasts. But when 
 
 Beast-marking, arrow-loving Artemis 
 
 Would cheer her soul, relaxing her curved bow, 
 
 She to her brother Phoebus-Apollo's house 
 
 Ample repaireth, to the fertile land 
 
 Of Delphi, to arrange the lovely dance 
 
 Of Muses and of Graces ; there hangs up 
 
 Her springy bow and arrows, and begins 
 
 To lead the dance ; her body all array'd 
 
 In raiment fair. They pouring forth their voice 
 
 Divine, sing Leto lovely-ankled, how 
 
 She brought forth children, 'mid the deathless, far 
 
 The best in counsel, and in numerous deeds. 
 
 With respect to the characteristics attached to 
 this goddess as Hecate, there is a good deal of ob- 
 scurity. Her name, the feminine of Hecatus, one 
 of the epithets of Apollo, denotes an affinity with 
 him. It signifies Far-shooter, or Far-worker, and 
 therefore would apply to the moon-goddess. Many 
 of her attributes are the same as those of Artemis ; 
 and hence she became the patroness of magic, an 
 attribute foreign to her original character. She 
 was invoked as the triple goddess, and believed to 
 wander by night upon the earth, seen only by the 
 dogs, whose baying announced her approach. She 
 was regarded as beneficent, and the averter of evil. 
 Her statues were set up in Athens and other places, 
 before the houses, in the market-places, and at 
 cross-roads ; and at the new moon, offerings of meat 
 were made to her, that she might prevent the 
 souls of the dead from appearing. Keightley sug- 
 gests the probability that Hecate was to one tribe 
 of Greeks what Artemis was to another, and that 
 
194 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 when the tribes mingled together, the two goddesses 
 were, after the usual process of their system of 
 theocracy, made one. 
 
 There is in the British Museum a Greek inscrip- 
 tion, found at Halicarnassus, which we may call an 
 advertisement, offering the sale of the priesthood of 
 Diana, and reciting the emoluments of the office. 
 It is dated in the month of Heraclius, under the 
 prsetorship of Charmylus. 
 
 Bryant, in the "Analysis of Ancient Mythology," 
 says, Hecate is an epithet of the moon, as Hecatos 
 was of the sun ; signifying most distant, or far-dart- 
 ing. Hecate was Diana Triformis, a goddess of 
 heaven, earth, and the nether world. She was also 
 the same as Lucina; and he also notices that the 
 moon was a type of the ark, the sacred ship of Osiris 
 being represented in the form of a crescent. 
 
 The evangelist Luke, in his narrative of the Acts 
 of the Apostles, affords us a copious insight into the 
 history of Syria and Asia Minor in his own time ; 
 and in the nineteenth chapter exhibits the vast 
 reverence and awe entertained by the people of 
 Ephesus for the name and worship of their goddess. 
 
 The Apostle Paul, after a residence of three years 
 in Greece, went by sea to Palestine, and for the 
 fourth time after his conversion visited Jerusalem. 
 From thence he proceeded to Antioch, and, having 
 remained there for some time, went on a tour 
 through the Churches of Galatia and Phrygia. 
 After providing for the due administration of re- 
 ligious worship in the principal cities, he went to 
 Ephesus, where he stayed two years. He first began 
 to preach in the synagogue ; but finding the Jews, 
 as usual, obstinately opposed him, he taught Chris- 
 
TEMPLE OP DIANA AT EPHESUS. 195 
 
 tianity in the school of one Tyrannus, who was most 
 probably a Gentile and a convert, and had become 
 a teacher in Ephesus. Here Paul met with great 
 success, God confirming the word by many miracles. 
 In this city, as well as others where the Jews 
 dwelt, there were many vagabonds, exorcists, as 
 they were termed, whose practices were exposed 
 by the apostle. These appear to have been strolling 
 Jews, who went from place to place, professing to tell 
 fortunes, cast out devils, and effect cures by charms, 
 after the skill of the physician was unavailing. The 
 sentiment of wonder thus produced in the minds of 
 the heathen was highly favorable to the pretensions 
 which many unprincipled Jews made to extraor- 
 dinary, and even supernatural powers. Among the 
 Jews themselves there was, in all sincerity, a strong 
 partiality for the arts of magic, which were freely 
 studied by persons of the most ambitious pretensions 
 to character and learning. With respect to exor- 
 cists in particular, some notion of their ideas and 
 practices may be obtained from Josephus, who 
 shows that the Jews had certain incantations which 
 were believed to be effectual for the expulsion of 
 devils, which magical charms were greatly valued 
 and venerated from being the supposed invention 
 of Solomon. He mentions in particular one Eleazar, 
 who made an exhibition of his art before Yespasian ; 
 he relieved those who were possessed of evil spirits 
 from them ; and this he did by drawing the devil 
 forth by the nostrils of the possessed person. For 
 this purpose he applied to his nose a ring, which 
 had under it a root, the virtues of which had been 
 discovered by Solomon ; by which, and by repeat- 
 ing the name of Solomon, and reciting the incanta- 
 
196 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 tions which that wise monarch had composed, the 
 evil spirit was obliged to leave the possessed person. 
 Josephus also states that they had also other forms 
 of exorcism and modes of incantation, composed, as 
 they believed, or professed to believe, by Solomon. 
 
 Ephesus was notorious for the addiction of its 
 inhabitants to sorcery, magic, and such like "curious 
 arts ;" whence came the proverbial phrase of " Ephe- 
 sian letters," to express all kinds of charms and 
 spells. These "Ephesian letters" were, properly, 
 certain obscure words and incoherent sentences, 
 which the superstitious people were wont to write 
 upon their girdles, or even imprint upon their 
 bodies, under the idea of securing themselves from 
 harm, or procuring benefits. 
 
 Thus, we are informed by Plutarch, that the magi- 
 cians compel those who were possessed of a demon to 
 recite and pronounce the Ephesian letters in a certain 
 order; and by Erasmus we learn that there were 
 certain works and magical words, by the use of which 
 the Ephesians believed they would insure success in 
 any undertaking. 
 
 The image of the goddess, which was said to have 
 fallen from heaven, or, as they expressed it, descended 
 from Jupiter, being the great object of both resident 
 and stranger worshipers, great employment was given, 
 by the manufacture of shrines and votive offerings, to 
 many silversmiths, jewelers, and such-like workmen. 
 These silver shrines are supposed to have been models 
 of the temple, the open doors of which displayed the 
 figure of the goddess in the center. These shrines 
 were purchased by the worshipers, who, upon their 
 return to their homes, would set them up and con- 
 secrate them to domestic worship. In pageants and 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPIIESUS. 197 
 
 processions the goddess was represented as borne 
 about in a car, representing her own temple. One 
 of these, named Demetrius, finding that his trade 
 declined, in consequence of the rapid progress of 
 Christianity, excited a fearful tumult, to which the 
 Jews lent their assistance, and dragged the Christian 
 teachers before the assembly in the theater. Alex- 
 ander, one of the Christians, having in vain attempted 
 to address the assemby in defense of the gospel they 
 preached, was overpowered by shouts of "Great is 
 Diana of the Ephesians." The magistrates there- 
 upon appeased the tumult, by telling them that the 
 Christians, not being robbers of churches nor blas- 
 phemers of their goddess, had been wrongfully 
 brought before them, and therefore dismissed the 
 assembly. 
 
 The theater, among the Greeks and states of Greek 
 origin, was not only appropriated to public games, 
 but also to every kind of public business, it was 
 the town-hall, the senate, the forum, harangues to 
 the people were there delivered. The situation of 
 the theater at Ephesus would not a little promote 
 and increase the tumult, as it was immediately within 
 view of the Temple of Diana. 
 
 In reference to incantations performed at Ephesus, 
 that are noticed by the apostle, we think it is clear 
 that even the very heathen must have had some 
 knowledge of the name of the eternal the infinite 
 the incomprehensible Being the Creator of all 
 things, for we have an oath in the golden verses of 
 Pythagoras, "By him who has the four letters;" 
 and on the front of a temple at Delphi, we are told 
 by Eusebius, was inscribed, " Thou art." The Egyp- 
 tians inscribed on one of their temples, " I am." The 
 
198 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 heathen had names of their gods which they did 
 not dare to pronounce ; for Cicero and Lucan tell 
 us, that the earth would have trembled had any 
 one pronounced them. 
 
 Some writers, whose opinions are deserving of 
 regard, are inclined to the idea that it was by the 
 power of the ineffable and mysterious name of the 
 omnipotent and omniscient Creator of the universe, 
 Jehovah pronounced in a way peculiar to them- 
 selves that these miracles were to be performed. 
 Basnage, in his " History of the Jews," has some 
 remarkable notices of Hebrew reverence and' dread 
 of the name. " I appeared," says the Almighty, 
 " to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name 
 of Al Shaddai, but by my name Jehovah was I not 
 known to them." Shaddai signifies self-sufficient ; 
 Jehovah, the self-existent, he who gives being and 
 existence to others. The modern Hebrews affirm 
 that Moses, by virtue of the word Jehovah engraved 
 upon his rod, performed all his miracles, and that 
 .we might all be able to do as much as he did, if we 
 could attain the perfect pronunciation of this name. 
 They flatter themselves that the Messiah will teach 
 them this mighty secret. It is called by Josephus 
 the four-lettered name the sacred letters the shud- 
 dering name of God. 
 
 We also learn from ancient Jewish writers, that 
 the Jod in Jehovah is one of those things which the 
 eye hath not seen, but which has been concealed 
 from all mankind. Its essence and nature are in- 
 comprehensible ; but it is not lawful so much as to 
 meditate upon it, Man may lawfully revolve his 
 thoughts from one end of the heavens to the other ; 
 but he cannot approach that ineffable light that 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 199 
 
 primitive existence contained in the letter Jod. 
 And, indeed, the masters call the letter Thought, or 
 Idea, and prescribe no bounds to its efficacy. It 
 was this letter which, flowing from the primitive 
 light, gave being to emanations ; it wearied itself by 
 the way, but assumed new vigor by the assistance 
 of the letter H, which makes the second letter of 
 the ineffable name. The other letters have also 
 their mysteries. The last H discovers the. unity of 
 a God and a Creator ; and upon this letter that grand 
 truth is built : but four streams issue from this unity, 
 the four majesties of God, which the Jews call 
 Shekinal. The whole name Jehovah includes in it 
 all things in general, and therefore he that pro- 
 nounces it puts the whole world into his mouth, and 
 all the creatures that compose it. The man that 
 pronounces the name of the Lord moves the heaven 
 and the earth in proportion as he moves his lips and 
 tongue. The angels feel the motion of the universe, 
 and are astonished, and ask one another, " Whence 
 comes this concussion of the world ?" It is answered : 
 "The impious 1ST has moved his lips in pronouncing 
 the ineffable name." 
 
 What would have been the astonishment and 
 grief of the Apostle Paul and his disciple, Timothy, 
 if they could have foreseen that a time would come 
 when there would be in Ephesns neither Church 
 nor city, when the great metropolis would become 
 "heaps, a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness; 
 a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any 
 son of man pass thereby !" Once it had an idolatrous 
 temple, celebrated throughout the world for its mag- 
 nificence, and the mountains of Corissus and Prion 
 reechoed the shouts of ten thousand voices, " Great 
 
200 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 is Diana of the Ephesians !" Once it had Christian 
 temples, almost rivaling the pagan in splendor; 
 wherein the image that descended from Jupiter 
 lay prostrate before the cross, and as many 
 tongues, moved by the Holy Spirit, made public 
 avowal that " Great is the Lord Jesus !" Once it 
 had a bishop, " the angel of the Clmrch," Timothy, 
 the disciple of Paul and St. John ; and tradition 
 reports that it was honored with the last days of 
 St. John, and of Timothy, and of the mother of our 
 Lord. 
 
 Here we see the fulfillment of the prophecy : " the 
 candlestick " is indeed " removed out of his place," 
 and the interest we must all feel in tracing the foot- 
 steps, the acts, and teaching of our Lord and his 
 disciples, is immeasurably increased in reviewing, 
 in the dread prediction of eighteen centuries ago, 
 the very picture and present desolation of this one 
 of the primitive Churches of our faith, one of the 
 first to echo the glad tidings of salvation. 
 
 Mr. Stephens, who visited Ephesus in 1835, in 
 his "Incidents of Travel" furnishes so much in- 
 teresting information, and his impressions upon 
 beholding the ruins of this once great city, that we 
 inve it entire : 
 
 " Go with me where, by comparison, the foot of 
 civilized man seldom treads ; go with me into the 
 deserts and solitary places ; go with me among the 
 cities of the seven Churches of Asia ; and, first, to 
 the ruins of Ephesus. I have been several days 
 expecting a companion to make this tour with me, 
 but, being disappointed, was obliged to set out 
 alone. I was not exactly alone, for I had with me 
 a Turk as guide, and a Greek as cicerone and inter- 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESITS. 201 
 
 prefer, both well mounted, and armed to the teeth. 
 AVe started at two o'clock in the morning, under the 
 light of thousands of stars ; and the day broke upon 
 us in a country wild and desolate, as if it were re- 
 moved thousands of miles from the habitations of 
 men. There was little variety and little incident in 
 our ride. During the whole day it lay through a 
 country decidedly handsome, the soil rich and fer- 
 tile, but showing with appalling force the fatal 
 effects of misgovernment, wholly uncultivated, and 
 almost wholly uninhabited. Indeed, the only habi- 
 tations were the little Turkish coffee-houses and 
 the black tents of the Turcomans. These are a 
 wandering tribe who come out from the desert, and 
 approach comparatively near the abodes of civiliza- 
 tion. They are a pastoral people ; their riches are 
 their flocks and herds ; they lead a wandering life, 
 free as the air they breathe ; they have no local 
 attachments ; to-day they pitch their tents on the 
 hill-side, to-morrow on the plain ; and wherever they 
 set themselves down, all that they have on earth, 
 wife, children, and friends, are immediately around 
 them. There is something primitive, almost pa- 
 triarchal, in their appearance ; indeed, it carries 
 one back to a simple, and perhaps a purer age, and 
 you can almost realize that state of society when 
 the patriarch sat in the door of his tent, and called 
 in and fed the passing traveler. 
 
 " The general character of the road is such as to 
 prepare one for the scene that awaits him at Ephe- 
 sus ; enormous burying-grounds, with thousands of 
 head-stones shaded by the mourning cypress, in the 
 midst of a desolate country, where not a vestige of 
 a human habitation is to be seen. They stand on 
 
 13 
 
202 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the roadside, as melancholy tell-tales that large 
 towns or cities once existed in their immediate 
 neighborhood, and that the generations who occu- 
 pied them have passed away, furnishing fearful 
 evidence of the decrease of the Turkish population, 
 and, perhaps, that the gigantic empire of the Otto- 
 man is tottering to its fall. 
 
 " For about three hours before reaching Ephesus, 
 the road, crossing a rich and beautiful plain watered 
 by the Cayster, lies between two mountains ; that 
 on the right leads to the sea, and on the left are 
 the ruins of Ephesus. Near, and in the imme- 
 diate vicinity, storks were calmly marching over 
 the plain, and building among the ruins; they 
 moved as if seldom disturbed by human footsteps, 
 and seemed to look upon us as intruders upon a spot 
 for a long time abandoned to birds and beasts of 
 prey. About a mile this side are the remains of 
 the Turkish city of Aysalouk, or Temple of the 
 Moon, a city of comparatively modern date, reared 
 into a brief magnificence out of the ruins of its 
 fallen neighbor. A sharp hill, almost a mountain, 
 rises abruptly from the plain, on the top of which 
 is a ruined fortress, with many ruins of Turkish 
 magnificence at the base : broken columns, baths 
 overgrown with ivy, and the remains of a grand 
 mosque, the roof sustained by four granite columns 
 from the Temple of Diana ; the minaret fallen, the 
 mosque deserted; the Mussulman no more goes 
 there to pray ; bats and owls were building in its 
 lofty roof, and snakes and lizards were crawling 
 over its marble floor. 
 
 " It was late in the afternoon when I arrived at 
 the little coffee-house at Avsalouk ; a caravan had 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 203 
 
 already encamped under some fine old sycamores 
 before the door, preparatory to passing the night. 
 1 was somewhat fatigued, and my Greek, who had 
 me in charge, was disposed to stop and wait for the 
 morrow; but the fallen city was on the opposite 
 hill at but a short distance, and the shades of even- 
 ing seemed well calculated to heighten the effect 
 of a ramble among its ruins. In a right line it was 
 not more than half a mile ; but we soon found that 
 we could not go directly to it: a piece of low 
 swampy ground lay between, and we had not gone 
 far before our horses sank up to their saddle-girths. 
 We were obliged to retrace our steps, and work our 
 way around by a circuitous route of more than two 
 miles. This, too, added to the effect of our ap- 
 proach. It was a dreary reflection, that a city, 
 whose ports and whose gates had been open to the 
 commerce of the then known world, whose wealth had 
 invited the traveler and sojourner within its walls, 
 should lie a ruin upon a hill-side, with swamps and 
 morasses extending around it, in sight but out of 
 reach, near but unapproachable. A warning voice 
 seemed to issue from the ruins, JProcul, o procul 
 este, prqfani, My day is past, my sun is set, I have 
 gone to my grave : pass on stranger, and disturb 
 not the ashes of the dead. 
 
 " We moved along in perfect silence ; for, besides 
 that my Turk never spoke, and my Greek, who was 
 generally loquacious enough, was out of humor at 
 being obliged to go on, we had enough to do in 
 picking our lonely way. But silence best suited the 
 scene ; the sound of the human voice seemed almost 
 a mockery of fallen greatness. We entered by a 
 large and ruined gateway into a place distinctly 
 
204 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 marked as having been a street, and, from the bro- 
 ken columns strewed on each side, probably having 
 been lined with a colonnade. I let my reins fall 
 upon my horse's neck ; he moved about in the slow 
 and desultory way that suited my humor ; now sink- 
 ing to his knees in heaps of rubbish, now stumbling 
 over a Corinthian capital, and now sliding over a 
 marble pavement. The whole hill-side is covered 
 with ruins to an extent far greater than I expected 
 to find, and they are all of a kind that tends to give 
 a high idea of the ancient magnificence of the city. 
 To me, these ruins appeared to be a confused and 
 shapeless mass : but they have been examined by 
 antiquaries with great care, and the character of 
 many of them identified with great certainty. I had, 
 however, no time for details ; and, indeed, the in- 
 terest of these ruins in my eyes was not in the de- 
 tails. It mattered little to .me that this was the 
 stadium and that a fountain ; that this was a gym- 
 nasium and that a market-place : it was enough to 
 know that the broken columns, the moldering walls, 
 the grass- grown streets, and the wide-extended scene 
 of desolation and ruin around me, were all that re- 
 mained of one of the greatest cities of Asia, one of 
 the earliest Christian cities in the world. But what 
 do I say ? Who does not remember the tumults and 
 confusion raised by Demetrius the silversmith, 'lest 
 the temple of the great goddess Diana should be 
 despised, and her magnificence be destroyed ; ' and 
 how the -people, having caught ' Caius and Aristar- 
 chus, Paul's companions in travel,' rushed witli one 
 accord into the theater, crying out, ' Great is Diana 
 of the Ephesians ! ' I sat among the ruins of that 
 theater ; the stillness of death was around me ; far 
 
TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS. 205 
 
 as the eye could reach, not a living soul was to be 
 seen, save my two companions, and a group of lazy 
 Turks smoking at the coffee-house in Aysalouk. A 
 man of strong imagination might also go wild with 
 the intensity of his own reflections ; that even one 
 like me, brought up among the technicalities of dec- 
 larations and replications, rebutters and surrebut- 
 ters, and in nowise given to the illusions of the 
 senses, should find himself roused, and irresistibly 
 hurried back to the time when the shapeless and 
 confused mass around him formed one of the most 
 magnificent cities in the world ; when a large and 
 busy population was hurrying through its streets, 
 intent upon the same pleasures and the same busi- 
 ness that engage men now ; that he should, in imag- 
 ination, see before him St. Paul preaching to the 
 Ephesians, shaking their faith in the gods of their 
 fathers, gods made with their own hands ; and the 
 noise and confusion, and the people rushing tumult- 
 uously up the very steps where he sat; that he 
 should almost hear their cry ringing in his ears, 
 ' Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! ' and then that 
 he should turn from this scene of former glory and 
 eternal ruin to his own far-distant land a land that 
 the wisest of the Ephesians never dreamed of; 
 where the wild man was striving with the wild beast 
 when the whole world rang with the greatness of 
 the Ephesian name ; and which bids fair to be grow- 
 ing greater and greater when the last vestige of 
 Ephesus shall be gone, and its very site unknown. 
 
 " But where is the temple of the great Diana 
 the temple two hundred and twenty years in build- 
 ing the temple of one hundred and twenty-seven 
 columns, each column the gift of a king? Can it 
 
206 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 be that the temple of the 'great goddess Diana,' 
 that the ornament of Asia, the pride of Ephesns, 
 and one of the seven wonders of the world, has gone, 
 disappeared, and left not a trace behind ? 
 
 " Topographers have fixed the site on the plain, 
 near the gate of the city which opened to the sea. 
 The sea, which once almost washed the walls, has 
 receded or been driven back for several miles. For 
 many years a new soil has been accumulating, and 
 all that stood on the plain, including so much of the 
 remains of the temple as had not been plundered 
 and carried away by different conquerors, is proba- 
 bly now buried many feet under its surface. 
 
 "To the Christian, the ruins of Ephesus carry 
 with them a peculiar interest ; for here, upon the 
 wreck of heathen temples, was established one of 
 the earliest Christian Churches ; but the Christian 
 Church has followed the heathen temple, and the 
 worshipers of the true God have followed the wor- 
 shipers of the great goddess Diana ; and in the city 
 where Paul preached, and where, in the words of 
 the apostle, ' much people were gathered unto the 
 Lord,' now not a solitary Christian dwells*' Verily, 
 in the prophetic language of inspiration, ' the candle- 
 stick is removed from its place ; ' a curse seems to 
 have fallen upon it, men shun it, not a human being 
 is to be seen among its ruins ; and Ephesus, in faded 
 glory and fallen grandeur, is given up to birds and 
 beasts of prey, a monument and a warning to na- 
 tions." 
 
|e iitofltam at ^Elitantassns. 
 
 Four faces had the dome, and every face 
 Of various structures, but of equal grace. 
 Westward a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd 
 Of Doric columns of white marble rear'd ; 
 Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold, 
 And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold. 
 Of antique structure was the northern side, 
 O'erwrought with ornaments of barb'rous pride. 
 The eastern front was glorious to behold 
 With scarlet flaming and barbaric gold. 
 But on the south a long majestic race 
 Of Hellas' deities, the niches grace. 
 Finish'd the whole, and labour'd every part, 
 With patient touches of unwearied art. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Mausolus and Artemesia. 
 
 Halicarnassus. 
 
 The Mausoleum. 
 
 The Tomb of Cyrus. 
 
 The Tomb of Darius. 
 
 Alexander's Mausoleum to Heph;estion. 
 
 The Mausoleum of Augustus. 
 
 The Mausoleum of Hadrlin. 
 
 The Tomb of the Scipios. 
 
 The Tomb of Cecelia Metella. 
 
 The Tomb of Maximilian. 
 
 The Taj Mahal. 
 
 Other Mausoleums in India. 
 
 The Mausoleum to the Marquis of Rockingham. 
 
 The Mausoleums at Castle Howaed, at Cobham, 
 
 and brocklesby. 
 The Tombs of the Kings in Egypt. 
 The Tombs at Thebes. 
 The Tombs at Jizeh. 
 
THE MAUSOLEUM, 
 
 OB 
 
 TOMB ERECTED BY ARTEMISIA, QUEEN OF CARIA, TO 
 THE MEMORY OF HER HUSBAND MAUSOLUS. 
 
 There thou ! whose love and life together fled 
 Have left me here to love and live in vain 
 Twined with my heart, and can I deem thee dead 
 When busy memory flashes on my brain ? 
 Well I will dream that we may meet again, 
 And woo the vision to my vacant breast ; 
 If aught of young remembrance then remain, 
 Be as it may futurity's behest, 
 
 For me 't were bliss enough to know thy spirit blest. 
 
 This celebrated tribute of affectionate regard, the 
 name of which gave the designation to all struc- 
 tures afterward erected as sepulchers or tombs, was 
 designed by direction of Artemisia, the wife of 
 Mausolus, a King of Caria, who died B. C. 353. 
 Mausolus and Artemisia were the son and daughter 
 of Hecatomnus, King of Caria : they were famed 
 throughout Asia for their personal charms. 
 
 We have no information as to the time of their 
 union; all that we can learn is the date of their 
 decease ; we are consequently in ignorance of the 
 years of enduring attachment between these para- 
 gons in connubial tenderness. 
 
 The love of Artemisia was so great, that at the 
 death of her Mausolus, his body being burned, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the country, she caused his 
 
210 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 ashes to be mixed with wine or <3ther liquor, which 
 she drank. 
 
 She then resolved to erect to the memory of her 
 beloved husband at Halicarnassus, the metropolis of 
 Caria, a tomb, which in magnificence should surpass 
 any other building that had ever been devoted to the 
 same purpose, in any part of the world : and from 
 the accounts that have been handed down to us 
 by ancient writers, it certainly must have surpassed 
 any other memorial of iihe dead of which we have 
 record. 
 
 Of this wondrous monument not the smallest 
 vestige has remained to modern times, unless those 
 fragments presented to the British Museum by 
 Sir Stratford Canning are such. The accounts 
 which the ancient historians furnish us, in no one 
 case affording a complete description of its construc- 
 tion, we are by necessity compelled to unite the 
 narrations they have left us, and with the aid of an 
 ancient engraving to exhibit a notion of the edifice, 
 prefacing it with some notice of Halicarnassus, 
 and Caria, and its King Mausolus. Mr. Morrett, 
 who visited Budrun in 1795, and made most dili- 
 gent search for traces of the Mausoleum, found some 
 ruins of capitals which have the delicacy of finish, 
 and would seem to have belonged to a structure 
 of the most refined period of Grecian architecture, 
 and might probably have been remains of this 
 noted structure : and Sir Stratford Canning re- 
 ceived from the Sultan Abd-ul-Megid some sculp- 
 tured remains, which appear to have formed the 
 frieze of an extensive building. They were found 
 among the ruins of Halicarnassus, and are said to 
 have belonged to the Mausoleum. They consist 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS. 211 
 
 of eleven bass-reliefs, and are now in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 The subject of the frieze is the battle of the Greeks 
 and Amazons, and Hercules appears among the 
 combatants. In A. D. 1522 these sculptures were 
 discovered amid a heap of ruins, and were by the 
 Knights of Ehodes employed in the construction of 
 the Castle of St. Peter, at Halicarnassus, the present 
 fortress of Budrun, in the walls of which edifice 
 they remained incased tH] their removal in 1846, 
 when they were removed by order of the sultan. 
 There is also in the Museum a draped female statue, 
 wanting the head, which had also been inserted in 
 the walls of the fortress ; two bass-reliefs represent- 
 ing gladiatorial combats; and two others, votive 
 offerings to Pluto and iEsculapius all from the 
 same site. 
 
 Halicarnassus was a chief city of the Cares, a 
 Dorian race, and the residence of its sovereigns. 
 The* site is now occupied by the Turkish port of 
 Budrun, in Asia Minor. Mausolus, who was one of 
 the most powerful kings, here constructed a mag- 
 nificent palace, which was standing in the time of 
 Pausanias, about five hundred years afterward; it 
 was built of brick, covered with slabs of Procon- 
 nessian marble, so highly polished that they re- 
 flected like glass. Mausolus, who was born at 
 Mylasa, established himself here on account of the 
 situation being so well fortified by nature, and the 
 port being admirably adapted for commerce. The 
 site of the city in form resembled an amphitheater : 
 in the lowest part, near the harbor, was the Forum ; 
 up the hill, in the middle of the curve, was a large 
 square, in the center of which was afterward erected 
 
212 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 the Mausoleum ; on the summit of the hill stood the 
 Temple of Mars, which contained the colossal statue 
 sculptured by Leochares : on the right were the tem- 
 ples of Yenus and Mercury, near the Fountain of 
 Salmasius. The palace on the right commanded a 
 view of the Forum and the harbor, as well as the 
 whole circuit of the walls. 
 
 The remains of walls and square towers are yet 
 visible for a distance of six miles from the western 
 extremity of the port ; and on the highest point of 
 the eminence are some remains of columns and 
 capitals of the Doric order, of gray marble, the site 
 indicated by Vitruvius as that of the Temple of 
 Mars. A modern castle, at the eastern extremity 
 of the port, has been constructed of materials of the 
 ancient structures. 
 
 The Mausoleum appears to have been nearly 
 square in its plan, measuring one hundred and 
 thirteen feet on its sides, and ninetv-three feet on its 
 ends. Pithis and Satyrus were joint architects of 
 the building. It was decorated with a peristyle of 
 thirty-six columns of the Doric order, which are 
 said to have been sixty feet high ; above this the 
 building was carried up in pyramidal form, in three 
 terraces. Between the columns were statues of 
 Parian marble, the execution of which was com- 
 mitted to four different artists. Scopas of Ephesus 
 (whose statue of Venus was one of the most renowned 
 with which Pome was adorned ; and there is in the 
 British Museum a statue supposed to be the iden- 
 tical one of Yenus) had the east side ; Timotheus 
 the south ; Leochares the west ; and Bruxis the 
 north. At each angle of the basement was a pro- 
 jecting portico, on the top of which was a colossal 
 
MAUSOLEUM 
 
roI7IRSIT7] 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT H ALIO AEN A8SUS. 215 
 
 equestrian statue. The first terrace was ornamented 
 in a somewhat similar manner, hut with hass-reliefs 
 instead of statuary, the different sides being executed 
 by the same sculptors as the lower tier, and on each 
 side was an entrance to the interior of the tomb. At 
 two angles of the second terrace were octagonal 
 towers, crowned by cones of colossal height, sculp- 
 tured throughout in bass-relief, and along the sides 
 of the terrace were planted cypresses and other for- 
 est trees. From the third terrace rose the crown 
 of the pyramid, and on its apex was placed a colos- 
 sal group in marble, of Phaeton driving in a chariot 
 with four horses. 
 
 The whole structure was on a platform, ascended 
 by steps, and was built of the most costly marbles. 
 The edifice was throughout profusely yet classically 
 enriched with ornament, the entire decorations being 
 in the richest style of Grecian art. The entire 
 height was one hundred and forty feet. 
 
 The expense of the monument was so immense 
 that it gave occasion to the philosopher Anaxagoras 
 to exclaim, when he saw it, " How much money is 
 changed into stone ! " Artemisia did not live to see 
 it finished, dying two years after her husband. 
 
 Artemisia, besides all this display of her affection 
 for her husband, invited all the literary men of the 
 age to a competition for a large reward, which she 
 offered for the best elegy on the virtues and ex- 
 cellences of Mausolus : the prize was awarded to 
 Theopompus. 
 
 One of the most interesting tombs of ancient 
 times, that has withstood the destruction of twenty- 
 four centuries of Vandalism, barbarity, and neglect, 
 is the tomb of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian 
 
216 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 empire ; which is described by the historian Arriart 
 "as a small house with a roof, that stood in the 
 royal garden at Passagardse." Passagardse, now 
 Murghab, is about fifty miles from the ruins of 
 Persepolis. The pyramid on which it stands is forty- 
 five feet square, and consists of seven irregular 
 courses of stone, the height of which is eighteen feet. 
 On this is situated the tomb, a small house, twenty- 
 one by seventeen feet outside, the center of which 
 is occupied by a cell ten and a half feet by seven 
 feet, which once contained the golden coffin, the 
 bed, the cloak, and other royal robes and regalia of 
 Cyrus. It is surmounted by a pedimented roof, 
 similar to that of a Greek temple. The beauty of 
 the white marble of which it is constructed is yet 
 preserved. Around the whole there once stood a 
 range of columns, portions of which are yet stand- 
 ing, though for what purpose, or what they support- 
 ed, is not apparent. 
 
 The chamber, though dismantled and injured by 
 barbarian hands, still retains the exquisite polish and 
 whiteness of the marble sides and flooring; and 
 though it has sustained great injury from man, on 
 account of the simplicity of its form, and the solidity 
 of the marble, it yet seems calculated to withstand 
 the accidents of nature till the last shock, 
 
 The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. 
 
 The recent discoveries in Lycia have made us 
 acquainted with the sepulchers of the Lycians ; and 
 we find the hewers of the stone impressed on the 
 material the character of the habitation once ten- 
 anted by the occupier of the tomb, no doubt with 
 the intention of conveying to after-times a resem- 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT HALIC ARN ASSUS. 217 
 
 blance of what was dear to the deceased when liv- 
 ing. They certainly show an abode for the dead of 
 a far more cheerful character than the pyramid or 
 mound of earth. 
 
 Among the more remarkable tombs of the an- 
 cients, although unlike the mausoleums, may be 
 noticed the sepulcher carved out of the living rock, 
 by order of Darius, the warrior and conqueror king 
 of Persia, for the reception of his own remains ; and 
 which is existing to this day at Persepolis, after a 
 duration of twenty-three centuries. 
 
 The portico is supported by four columns twenty 
 feet in height, and in the center is the form of a 
 doorway, seemingly the entrance to the interior, but 
 it is solid ; the entablature is of chaste design. 
 Above the portico there is what may be termed an 
 ark, supported by two rows of figures, about the 
 size of life, bearing it on their uplifted hands, and at 
 each angle a griffin, an ornament which is very 
 frequent at Persepolis. On this stage stands the 
 king with a bent bow in his hand, worshiping the 
 sun, whose image is seen above the altar that stands 
 before him, while above his head hovers his ferou- 
 her, or disembodied spirit. This is the good genius, 
 that in Persian sculpture accompanies the king 
 when performing any important act. On each side 
 the ark are nine niches, each containing a statue in 
 bass-relief. No other portion of the tomb was in- 
 tended to be seen, excepting the sculptured front ; 
 and we must therefore conclude, that the entrance 
 was kept secret, and the avenues were, by subter- 
 raneous passages, so constructed that none but the 
 privileged could find their way. We are told by 
 Theophrastus, that Darius was buried in a coffer of 
 
218 SEVEN WONDERS OP THE WOKLI). 
 
 Egyptian alabaster ; and also that the early Persians 
 buried their dead entire, preserving the bodies with 
 honey or wax. 
 
 From the account we gather in the description, 
 given by Diodorus Siculus, of the mausoleum erect- 
 ed by Alexander the Great in honor of Hephaestion, 
 it must have far exceeded that of Mausolus in extrav- 
 agant decoration. It was built in stories' lessening 
 toward the top. The lower apartment was adorned 
 by the gilded rostra, or beaks of two hundred and 
 forty ships ; the next tier was enriched by a profu- 
 sion of sculptured figures of the gods of the Grecian 
 mythology ; the third, various animals, centaurs, &c. ; 
 and on the summit were bronze statues of sirens, 
 made hollow, in order that the singers who chanted 
 dirges might be concealed within them. 
 
 Hephsestion was a Macedonian, famous for his 
 intimacy with Alexander. He accompanied the 
 conqueror in his Asiatic campaigns, and was so 
 faithful and attached to him, that Alexander often 
 observed, that Craterus was the friend of the. kiss, 
 but that Hephasstion was the friend of Alexander. 
 It is said by some that he died through excess of 
 drinking or eating. Alexander was so inconsolable 
 at the death of this faithful subject, that he shed 
 tears at the intelligence, and ordered the sacred fire 
 to be extinguished, which had never been done but 
 at the death of a Persian monarch. The physician, 
 who attended Hephsestion in his illness, was accused 
 of negligence, and by the king's order inhumanly 
 put to death. The body was intrusted to the care of 
 Perdiccas, and honored by the most magnificent fu- 
 neral at Babylon. He was so like the king in features 
 and stature, that he was often saluted as Alexander. 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT II ALIO AEN AS SUS . 219 
 
 In the remains of ancient Rome, the more remark- 
 able among the mausoleums are : 
 
 The mausoleum to Augustus Caesar was a struc- 
 ture of magnitude as well as grandeur : it was cir- 
 cular in form, and in plan similar to that of Hadrian. 
 It stood in the Campus Martius, where the remains 
 yet exist in the two concentric circles, forming the 
 first and second stories of the building, and the vault- 
 ed chambers between, which supported the first or 
 lowest terrace. There were three terraces, and con- 
 sequently four stages in the building, gradually de- 
 creasing in diameter, the uppermost of which was 
 crowned by a colossal statue of the emperor, in 
 bronze. In it were deposited the remains of Mar- 
 cellus, the nephew of Augustus, and those of Julius 
 Caesar, Augustus, and Germanicus. By Strabo we 
 are told, " the foundations were of white marble, 
 and covered with evergreens ; " by which we under- 
 stand it was built in terraces, as he further says, 
 " the statue was elevated four hundred feet from the 
 foundations, on a pedestal, lifting it above the ever- 
 green forest which covered the conical structure." 
 From traces that yet remain in the ruin, it is con- 
 jectured that there was originally an advanced por- 
 tico attached to the building, forming the entrance. 
 
 The mausoleum to the honor of the Emperor Ha- 
 drian is a work of the most massive construction, 
 and originally presented an unbroken circular mass 
 of building, erected upon a much larger square base- 
 ment, lofty in itself, yet of moderate height in pro- 
 portion to the superstructure, the latter being about 
 twice as high as the former. This nearly solid ro- 
 tunda was originally coated with Parian marble, 
 
 and had on its summit numerous fine statues, which 
 
 14 
 
220 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 were broken to pieces, and the fragments hurled 
 down by the soldiers of Belisarius upon the Goths, 
 who attempted to take the building by storm. The 
 uppermost stage of the edifice assumed the form of 
 a circular battlemented temple, whose diameter was 
 one-third of the larger circle. Of this stage not a 
 vestige remains. Tradition asserts, that the peristyle 
 consisted of the twenty-four beautiful marble Corinth- 
 ian columns, which afterward decorated the basil- 
 ica of St. Paul ; and that the dome of the edifice 
 was surmounted by a colossal pine-apple in bronze, 
 now placed in the gardens of the Vatican. 
 
 Procopius says: "The tomb of Hadrian stands 
 without the Porta Aurelia, at about a stone's throw 
 from the walls ; and is undoubtedly well worth see- 
 ing, for it is built of Parian marble. The square 
 stones of which the basement is built are joined 
 alternately to each other without any cement, and it 
 is divided into four sides of equal dimensions ; each 
 is of such a length, that a stone thrown from one 
 angle would just reach the other. In height it sur- 
 passes the walls of the city. There are on it statues 
 of men and horses, finished with wonderful skill, of 
 Parian marble." 
 
 It received its present appellation of the Castle 
 of St. Angelo from Pope Gregory the Great, who, it 
 is said, in crossing the bridge, as he went to offer up 
 prayers for the deliverance of Rome from a pesti- 
 lence then raging, beheld, on the summit of the 
 tomb of Hadrian, the figure of an angel waving a 
 sword. In commemoration of this vision, the brazen 
 statue which crowns the building was erected, and 
 the name given by which it is at present distin- 
 guished. 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT II ALIO AKN ASSUS . 221 
 
 The tomb of the Scipios, discovered in 1780, is 
 one of the most ancient of the Roman mausoleums. 
 It is cut out of tufa, a light porous volcanic stone ; 
 and consists of a series of dark chambers, in one of 
 which was an elegant sarcophagus of Peperino, sur- 
 mourited with a bust of the same material, which 
 contained the ashes of L. Scipio Barbatus : the sar- 
 cophagus has been removed to the Vatican. 
 
 The tomb of Caecelia Metella, erected on an emi- 
 nence on the side of the .Appian Way, is of circular 
 form, on a square basement ; it is constructed with 
 magnificent blocks of travertine, or concrete lime- 
 stone. This mausoleum is surmounted with a beau- 
 tifully-decorated frieze and cornice, and from it is 
 supposed to have risen a dome or conical-formed 
 roof, now destroyed. A sarcophagus was found 
 here, which was removed, and placed in the Farnese 
 Palace. 
 
 The tomb of St. Constantia, erected probably by 
 Constantine the Great, to contain the bodies or 
 ashes of his sister and his daughter, which were 
 placed in a magnificent sarcophagus of porphyry, 
 now in the museum of the Vatican. The edifice 
 was turned into a church by Pope Alexander IV. 
 The style is rather remarkable for its arrangement 
 of double Corinthian columns, supporting a dome, 
 and also for its mosaics. 
 
 Although the term " mausoleum " is more gen- 
 erally applicable to detached buildings, yet, from 
 its magnificence, the tomb of the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian,' in the Franciscan Church at Inspruck, the 
 capital of the Tyrol, deserves notice here, among 
 even the extravagant expenditure of the ancients. 
 
 This majestic tomb is placed in the center of the 
 
222 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE "WORLD. 
 
 middle aisle of the church, upon a platform ap- 
 proached by steps of red marble. The sides of the 
 tomb are divided into twenty -four compartments, of 
 the finest Carrara marble, on which are represented, 
 in bass-relief, the most interesting events of the 
 emperor's warlike and prosperous career. The work- 
 manship of these tablets is exquisite ; and, taken in 
 connection with the lofty deeds they record, are the 
 most princely decorations ever ( seen. Each tablet 
 contributing to the splendid biography which the 
 sculptures exhibit, is in size two feet four inches by 
 one foot eight inches; and every object contained 
 in them is in most perfect proportion, while the ex- 
 quisite finish of the heads and draperies requires a 
 magnifying-glass to do it justice. The tomb is sur- 
 mounted by a colossal figure in bronze of the em- 
 peror, kneeling in the act of prayer ; and around it 
 are four allegorical figures of smaller size, also in 
 bronze. 
 
 But, marvelous as is the elaborate beauty of this 
 work, it is far from being the most remarkable fea- 
 ture of this imperial mausoleum. Hanged in two 
 long lines, as if to guard it, stand twenty-eight 
 colossal statues in bronze, of whom twenty are 
 kings and princes, alliances of the house of Haps- 
 burgh, and eight their stately dames. Anything 
 more impressive than the appearance of these tall 
 dark guardians of the tomb some clad in regal 
 robes, some cased in armor, and all finished with 
 the greatest skill it would be difficult to imagine. 
 
 In the. death-like stillness of the church, the 
 visitor who, for the first time, contemplates the 
 tomb and its gloomy guards, is struck by a feeling 
 of awe, approaching to terror. The statues, with 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT H ALIC ARN AS SUS. 223 
 
 life-like individuality of attidude and expression, 
 each solemn, mournful, dignified, and graceful ; 
 and all seeming to dilate before the eye into enor- 
 mous dimensions, and, as if framed to scare intrud- 
 ers, endowed by a power more than mortal, to keep 
 watch and ward around the mighty dead. They 
 appear like an eternal procession of mourners, who 
 shall cease not, while earth endures, to gaze on, 
 mourn over, and protect the relics of him who was 
 the glory of their noble race on earth. 
 
 Hindoostan abounds with mausoleums, which even 
 in that land of "barbaric gold" are marvelous for 
 their splendor and extent. The most remarkable 
 for its beauty is at Agra, called Taj Mahal, or Crown 
 of Edifices. It was erected by Shah Jehan about 
 1650, as the burial-place of his favorite wife, Noor 
 Jehan. The mausoleum is entirely of white marble, 
 and raised on elevated terraces of white and yellow 
 marble. Within the building is a central hall, which 
 contains the tombs of the begum and Shah Jehan 
 himself; and around the hall are several apartments 
 and corridors. The construction is said to have cost 
 750,000. The country round Agra is a perfect 
 desert, and visitors, after winding their way through 
 an arid plaia, diversified only by sand-heaps and 
 crumbling masses of stone, come, as if by enchant- 
 ment, upon the luxuriant gardens that still adorn 
 the mausoleum where Shah Jehan and the beautiful 
 partner of his throne sleep in undisturbed repose. 
 The grounds attached to the building are kept by 
 the British government in. most excellent order; 
 and being watered dayly, during the dry season, 
 the trees and flowers are clothed with perpetual 
 verdure. 
 
224 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 At Sasseram, in Northern India, rises in majestic 
 solemnity and sober plainness the dark gray pile 
 covering the remains of Shere Shah, who did not 
 leave the care of his ashes to posterity, but con- 
 structed his mausoleum during the most flourishing 
 period of his reign. The mausoleum emerges from 
 the center of an immense reservoir of water, four 
 hundred yards square. It is surrounded by a high 
 embankment, and on each side is a flight of stone 
 steps, affording access to the tank, The tomb 
 stands on an elevated platform, at the angles of 
 which are low cupolaed towers. The tomb itself 
 is octagonal in form, consisting of two stories be- 
 neath the dome, each having a flat terrace running 
 round it, and adorned with turrets open at the side 
 and covered at the top. This mausoleum, although 
 wanting the gorgeous beauty of the Taj Mahal, 
 commands admiration for the vast and massive 
 grandeur of its construction: but time and neglect 
 the inevitable destroyers will, ere long, sink in 
 ruins even the solidity of the building ; the redun- 
 dance of foliage, now springing through the inter- 
 stices of the basement, is fast undermining the 
 foundations. 
 
 At Bejapore, the capital of a considerable province 
 in the Deccan, are the ruins of the mausoleum of 
 Ibrahim Adil Shah, who died in 1626 : the tomb is 
 fifty-seven feet square, and consists of a plain cham- 
 ber, surrounded by a verandah twelve feet broad 
 and twenty-two feet high. The exterior is most 
 elaborately ornamented ; the ceiling of the verandah 
 is covered with passages from the Koran, sculptured 
 in bass-relief. The whole of the town of Bejapore 
 may be termed a city of tombs; many of these 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT H ALIC AKN ASSUS . 225 
 
 buildings being in good preservation, the dwellings 
 of tlie former inhabitants being entirely in ruins. 
 
 The taste for useless splendor and posthumous 
 fame, so remarkably exemplified in the tombs of 
 Hindoostan, is displayed to its fullest extent in the 
 mausoleum of Mohammed Shah, called the Burra 
 Gumbooz, or Great Dome, which was constructed 
 in the lifetime of the monarch, and under his own 
 auspices. Though somewhat heavy in its structure, 
 its amazing size, and the symmetry of its propor- 
 tions, fill the mind with reverence : from whatever 
 point of distance it is surveyed, its surpassing 
 magnitude reduces all surrounding objects to com- 
 parative insignificance, while its grave and solemn 
 character assimilates with the desolate grandeur of 
 the ruins which it overtops. 
 
 The Burra Gumbooz exceeds the dome of St. 
 Paul's Cathedral in London in diameter, and it is 
 little inferior to that of St. Peter's at Eome: it 
 crowns a quadrangular building, consisting of a 
 single hall, one hundred and fifty feet square, and, 
 including the cupola, one hundred and sixty feet in 
 height. At each angle of the building are four 
 octagonal towers, surmounted by domes, with spiral 
 staircases to each. The sarcophagus of Mohammed 
 Shah is placed on a raised platform of granite, in the 
 center of the hall : on one side are the tombs of his 
 son and daughter-in-law ; on the other, those of his 
 wife, his favorite dancing-girl, and his son : the whole 
 are covered with holy earth brought from Mecca, 
 mixed with sandal-wood dust. Over the sarcophagus 
 was formerly a canopy of solid silver, which was 
 stolen by the Mahrattas. ' The walls are embellished 
 by passages from the Koran in alto-relievo ; the 
 
226 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 characters, being raised and gilded upon a deep-blue 
 ground of enamel, formed by a liquid coating of 
 lapis-lazuli, produce a very fine effect, and evince 
 considerable taste and judgment. 
 
 At Wentworth, in Yorkshire, the princely seat of 
 the Earl Fitzwilliam, there is a magnificent mauso- 
 leum, erected by the fourth earl, in honor of his 
 uncle, the Marquis of Rockingham. This superb 
 monument, which is built of a fine freestone, stands 
 in an elevated situation, near the grand entrance into 
 the park. Its height is ninety feet, and it is built 
 in three stories : the basement is a square Doric ; 
 the next story is Ionic, having each of its sides open- 
 ing into an arch, and disclosing an elegant sarcopha- 
 gus in the center ; the upper story is surmounted by 
 a cupola supported by twelve Ionic columns. The 
 interior of the basement rises into a dome supported 
 by eight columns, and in the center is a statue of 
 the marquis, size of life, by Nollekens. Round this 
 apartment are marble busts of the marquis's asso- 
 ciates. 
 
 At Castle Howard, in Yorkshire, the superb seat 
 of the Earl of Carlisle, there is an elegant mausoleum, 
 designed by TIawksmoor; it is a noble circular 
 edifice, in the Roman Doric style, elevated upon a 
 basement. Over the vault is a beautiful chapel, 
 with a dome supported by eight Corinthian columns : 
 this apartment is singularly light and beautiful. The 
 height of the structure is ninety feet, the diameter 
 is over fifty feet. The flooring of the interior is in- 
 laid with various marbles. 
 
 On an elevated situation at the south end of the 
 park of Cobham Hall, in Kent, the seat of the Earl 
 of Darnley, is a splendid mausoleum, erected by 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT II ALIC ARN ASSUS . 227 
 
 direction of the fourth earl, designed to remain for 
 the sepulture of the family. The basement, which 
 is rusticated, contains a vault and sarcophagus, and 
 is surrounded by recesses for interments. The prin- 
 cipal apartment was intended for a chapel, but is 
 not so used ; it is crowned by a dome, supported by 
 eight Corinthian columns. The exterior has four 
 wings with duplicated columns, sustaining sarcopha- 
 gi, and is terminated by a pyramid. 
 
 At Brocklesby Park, in Lincolnshire, the seat of 
 the Earl of Yarborough, is an elegant building, 
 erected by direction of the late earl, after the de- 
 signs and under the superintendence of the late 
 James "Wyatt, intended for the mausoleum of the 
 family. The structure is erected on a tumulus, once 
 a place of sepulture, as appears from numerous 
 Roman sepulchral urns that had been found there. 
 The building is of circular form, having fluted Doric 
 columns, supporting a rich entablature, and sur- 
 mounted by a dome, which is surrounded by an open 
 balustrade. The interior is divided into four com- 
 partments by eight fluted Corinthian columns, sup- 
 porting a highly-decorated and lofty dome. Beneath 
 the chamber or chapel is a vault with recesses : this 
 is also divided by pillars, and has a circular sarcoph- 
 agus in the center. 
 
 The tombs of the Memlouk kings of Egypt, with- 
 out the walls of Cairo, are splendid specimens of 
 Saracenic architecture ; and it is much to be regret- 
 ted that they are by neglect fast falling to ruin : 
 they were erected between A. D. 1382 and 1517. 
 
 At Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt, besides 
 the vast remains of temples, palaces, and dwellings, 
 the ruins of which are a mile in diameter, in what 
 
228 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 may be called the sacred valley are the celebrated 
 tombs of the Kings of Egypt. The rocks that sur- 
 round the sacred ground can be visited only by a 
 single natural entrance, that is formed like a gate- 
 way, or by the craggy paths across the mountains. 
 The tombs are all cut out of the solid rock, which 
 is Of hard calcareous stone, as white as it is possible 
 for stone to be. The tombs in general consist of a 
 long square passage, which leads to a staircase, some- 
 times with a gallery at each side of it, and other 
 chambers. Advancing further, we come to wider 
 apartments, and other passages and stairs, and at 
 last into a large hall, where the great sarcophagus 
 lay which contained the remains of the kings. Some 
 of these tombs are quite open, and others incum- 
 bered with rubbish at the entrance. 
 
 A tomb that was opened by Belzoni is curious, as 
 being a specimen of a sepulcher in an unfinished 
 state. It consisted only of a passage about seventy- 
 five feet long and ten wide, the walls of which were 
 plastered, with fine white and handsome figures on 
 them, painted in an excellent style, and in a high 
 state of preservation : the end of the passage was 
 evidently unfinished. Another tomb, into which he 
 found his way by excavation, had evidently been 
 entered by visitors before ; a brick wall which closed 
 the end of the first passage had been broken through, 
 and in the chamber at the extremity of the tomb 
 two female mummies, quite naked, were lying on 
 the floor. 
 
 The great tomb which Belzoni opened in this val- 
 ley is one of the most interesting discoveries that 
 have been made in Egypt. After proceeding a 
 considerable distance, he came to a well thirty feet 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT H ALICARN ASSUS. 229 
 
 deep, and fourteen feet by twelve feet three inches 
 wide, which he supposes to have been constructed 
 for the purpose of receiving the rain-water, and 
 keeping the rest of the chambers dry : for it should 
 be borne in mind that heavy rains fall at Thebes 
 once or twice a year ; and an immense quantity of 
 rubbish is carried down from the mountains into the 
 valley of the kings' tombs, which has actually made 
 the ground higher than the entrance to most of them. 
 The long passage leading to the well already men- 
 tioned, slopes toward it from the entrance ; and thus, 
 whatever rain found its way into the entrance of 
 the tomb would be received by this well. At first 
 there appeared to be no passage beyond the well ; 
 but on the side opposite to where Belzoni stood, on 
 first approaching this shaft, he saw a hole in the 
 wall, which some previous adventurer, Greek or 
 Roman,' must have made: for the Egyptians had 
 plastered the whole up, giving it an appearance 
 just as if the well was the termination of the tomb. 
 After passing through the little aperture, Belzoni 
 came to a beautiful chamber, twenty-seven feet six 
 inches by twenty -five feet ten inches, in which were 
 four pillars, each three feet square. This room, 
 which Belzoni calls the entrance-hall, was painted 
 like the rest of the chambers and the approaches to 
 it, already described. It would be impossible to 
 give any clear description of this tomb without a 
 plan. Besides numerous corridors and staircases, 
 it contained six large rooms, and either five or seven 
 small ones we cannot tell which, for Belzoni's 
 words are not exact. In the last great chamber he 
 found the carcass of a bull embalmed with asphal- 
 tum; and also a number of those small wooden 
 
230 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 mummy-shaped figures, six or eight inches long, 
 which are covered with hieroglyphics and pitch. 
 But the greatest curiosity was found in one of the 
 other chambers, which has an arched roof, cut, we 
 must suppose, like the rest of the chamber, out of 
 the solid rock : this was a sarcophagus of white 
 arragonite, nine feet five inches long, three feet 
 seven inches wide, and two inches thick. .It is 
 translucent when a candle is put into it. Both the 
 inside and outside are sculptured with figures not 
 more than two inches high. The cover was found 
 in digging for the entrance into the tomb on the 
 outside, where it had been carried by some former 
 rifler of the sepulcher ; but, unfortunately, it was 
 broken into several pieces. This beautiful and 
 unique specimen of Egyptian art is now in the 
 Museum of Sir John Soane, Lincoln's-Inn Fields. 
 
 Under the sarcophagus there was a staircase 
 communicating with a subterraneous passage lead- 
 ing downward, three hundred feet in length ; at the 
 end of which was found a great quantity of bats' 
 dung, which, together with the rubbish that had 
 fallen in, choked up the passage. From this it 
 would seem probable that there is now an entrance 
 into the sarcophagus-chamber in the direction of 
 this subterraneous gallery, though it may be almost 
 filled up with broken stone and filth. Belzoni, in- 
 deed, ascertained that the excavation extends, as far 
 as he explored it, halfway through the mountain to 
 the upper part of the valley ; and he conjectures 
 that it formed another entrance into the tomb, 
 though this could not have been the case after the 
 sarcophagus was placed there, as there was a wall 
 built just under the sarcophagus, which completely 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT H ALICABN ASSUS . 231 
 
 cut off all communication between the chamber 
 and the subterraneous passage. Also large blocks of 
 stone were placed horizontally under the sarcophagus 
 and on a level with the floor, apparently for the pur- 
 pose of hiding this gallery. This tomb faces the 
 north-east, and the direction of the whole runs due 
 south-west. 
 
 The character and design of some of the paintings 
 in this tomb, which Belzoni opened, possess the very 
 deepest interest. The entrances, as we have said, 
 are adorned with various kinds of paintings of minor 
 interest. In the hall, or first chamber, there are 
 three tiers of figures on the right side, which, Bel- 
 zoni remarks, is the general system in this tomb. 
 On the left side is a representation of a procession. 
 The principal personage appears to be the king on 
 his throne, with the regal dress, and the serpent on 
 his forehead, the emblem of kingly power. His 
 face is turned toward the procession, which termi- 
 nates with a row of seventeen figures, consisting of 
 people of four different nations, in groups of four, 
 painted red, white, black, and then white. The 
 rear is brought up by a hawk-headed figure, the 
 emblem of the sun. The two first figures in the 
 procession are imperfect ; the two next, however, 
 are cmite distinct, and undoubtedly represent an 
 Asiatic people of the white class : this is clear from 
 the profile of the face, the beard, the hair, and the 
 complexion. Each figure has a feather in his head 
 by way of ornament, and a long lock coming down 
 on one side. Their clothing reaches from the neck 
 to the feet a long white robe, the ground of which 
 is diversified by a cruciform kind of pattern, such 
 as we see sometimes in our own printed calicoes. 
 
232 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Belzoni calls them Persians : Heeren calls them 
 Babylonians. For the present we feel inclined to 
 leave them without a name. Next we see four 
 Ethiopians, whose negro profile and thick hair can- 
 not be for a moment mistaken : they have rings in 
 their ears. Their white clothing extends from the 
 waist downward, and is attached to a belt which 
 goes over the left shoulder. The next group con- 
 sists of four Jews, with long beards, thick hair, and 
 a kind of bandage tied round the head and fastened 
 in a knot, one of the ends of which falls below the 
 ear. It is absolutely impossible for any modern 
 draughtsman to represent more faithfully the re- 
 markable physiognomy of this nation. The last 
 group of four are called by Belzoni Egyptians re- 
 turning from captivity, in conformity, to his notion 
 of this being a procession of conquered people. But 
 their thick bushy hair, short beards, and profile, 
 seem to us to show that they belong to a different 
 race, probably the Nubian ; though we are informed, 
 on good authority, that these figures are similar to 
 the figures of Egyptians throughout this tomb. It 
 seems to lis that Iieeren's idea of this being a pro- 
 cession of embassadors of different nations is a 
 more probable hypothesis than Belzoni's. The usual 
 scenes of triumph ; the hero in his war-chariot ; 
 the prisoners bound, and raving in the agonies of 
 despair, as on the walls of Karnak ; these and all 
 the other marks of cruel triumph are wanting in 
 this picture of the tombs. Here all is tranquillity 
 and peace. 
 
 One of the- tombs in the Biban el Molouk has been 
 called the Harpers' Tomb, from the figures of the 
 harpers in it, which were first described by Bruce. 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT II AL IC AKN AS SUS . 233 
 
 The direction of the excavation, after running a 
 considerable distance, turns to the right, making a 
 bend, after which it is continued in the original 
 direction. It consists, as usual, of a series of gal- 
 leries and chambers, the partitions between which 
 are the solid rock, which has been left standing in 
 the form of walls. The harpers, which are on the 
 walls of a small chamber, are only part of a large 
 picture or subject painted on the three walls of the 
 chamber. One harper, who wears a black dress, is 
 on the left wall ; the other, who wears a white vest, 
 is on the right, or opposite wall. Both have their 
 faces turned toward the deities represented on the 
 wall at the end of the chamber. 
 
 One of the harps has twenty-one strings. The 
 attitude of the harpers is easy, and free from con- 
 straint. The form of the instrument is elegant; it 
 does not appear from the drawing that it has a 
 pedal. The harpers are represented in different 
 attitudes. 
 
 In the chamber opposite to that of the harpers, 
 numerous articles of domestic use are represented 
 on the walls. The vases, many of which are, no 
 doubt, representations of metal vases, are remark- 
 able for the beauty of their form and the bright- 
 ness of the colors. Among them is' recognized the 
 modern quoulleh, or bardaque, which is used in 
 Egypt for cooling water, and appeal's, from its 
 occurring here and in the grottos of Eileithuias, 
 to have been well known in ancient times. It is 
 a vessel made of porous clay, lightly baked, and 
 rather thin. The water, which is constantly per- 
 colating through the small pours, forms a thick 
 dew or moisture on the outer surface, by the rapid 
 
234 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 evaporation of which the temperature of the vessel 
 and of the water which it contains is reduced con- 
 siderably below that of the atmosphere. 
 
 The manufacture of earthen vessels is also repre- 
 sented. We- see the clay of a dull-gray color, which 
 the workmen are fashioning into vessels of various 
 forms ; each workman has in front of him a low stand, 
 on which there is a flat board placed horizontally. 
 Some hold this with one hand, while the thumb of the 
 other hand is stuck into the middle of the vessel that 
 is forming. From this we infer that the circular 
 plate or board moved round on an axis. In another 
 place we see them baking earthen vessels in tall thin 
 furnaces, out of which the pots come of a red color, 
 and are carried off by a man in something like a 
 large pair of scales, the lever of which passes, as 
 usual, over his shoulders, like the pole of a milk- 
 man's pails. Over one of the pictures, which rep- 
 resents men making these clay vessels, the only 
 symbols marked are pots of three different kinds, 
 a language which, coupled with what is going on 
 below them, is expressive enough. It is rather 
 curious that the earthen vessels made in some parts 
 of Spain about Cadiz, for instance for cooling 
 water, bear a close resemblance in form to the barda- 
 que of modern Egypt, and the cooling vessel painted 
 in the grottos : their use is precisely the same. 
 
 The chamber contains also representations of 
 chairs and seats of the most beautiful and tasteful 
 forms. From the various colors employed, as we 
 may observe in the specimens of fresco-paintings 
 in the Museum, it appears that the chairs and sofas 
 were formed of various, and sometimes, perhaps, 
 costly materials. 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT HALIC AEN ASSUS. 235 
 
 Diodorus Siculus says, that forty-seven of these 
 tombs were entered on the sacred register of the 
 Egyptian priests, only seventeen of which remained 
 at the time of his visit to Egypt, about sixty years 
 B. C. The industry and enterprise of the indefati- 
 gable Belzoni have introduced us, as it were, into 
 an immediate intimacy with the sovereigns of Egypt 
 above thirty centuries ago. 
 
 All over the corridors and chambers the walls are 
 adorned with sculptures and paintings in intaglio and 
 relief, representing gods, goddesses, and the hero of 
 the tomb in the most prominent events of his life ; 
 priests, religious processions and sacrifices, boats, and 
 agricultural scenes, and the most familiar pictures 
 of every-day life, in colors as fresh as if they were 
 painted not more than a month ago ; and the large 
 saloon, lighted up with the blaze of our torches, 
 seemed more fitting for a banqueting-hall, for song 
 and dance, than a burial-place of the dead. All 
 travelers concur in pronouncing the sudden transition 
 from the dreary desert without to these magnificent 
 tombs, as operating like a scene of enchantment ; and 
 we may imagine what must have been the sensations 
 of Belzoni, when,wandering with the excitement of a 
 first discoverer through these beautiful corridors and 
 chambers, he found himself in the great saloon, lean- 
 ing over the alabaster sarcophagus. An old Arab 
 guide, who accompanied Belzoni, points out a 
 chamber where the fortunate explorer entertained 
 a party of European travelers who happened to ar- 
 rive there at that time, making the tomb of Pharaoh 
 (supposed to be the tomb of Pharaoh Kecho) ring 
 with shouts and songs of merriment. 
 
 It may be observed that all the tombs are of the 
 
 15 
 
236 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 same general character ; throughout possessing the 
 same beauty and magnificence of design and finish, 
 and on every one, at the extreme end, was a large 
 saloon, adorned with sculpture and paintings of ex- 
 traordinary beauty, and containing a single sar- 
 cophagus. " The kings of the nations did lie in 
 glory, every one in his own house ; but thou art 
 cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch." 
 Every sarcophagus is broken, and the bones of the 
 kings of Egypt are scattered. Among the paint- 
 ings on the wall are represented a heap of hands 
 severed from the arms, showing that the hero of 
 the tomb had played the tyrant in his brief hour on 
 earth. 
 
 Travelers and commentators concur in supposing 
 that these magnificent excavations must have been 
 intended for other uses than the burial, each of a 
 single king. Perhaps, it is said, like the chambers of 
 imagery seen by the Jewish prophet, they were the 
 scene of idolatrous rites performed " in the dark ;" 
 and as the Israelites are known to have been mere 
 copyists of the Egyptians, these tombs are supposed 
 to illustrate the words of Ezekiel: "Then said he 
 to me, Son of man, dig now in the wall ; and when 
 I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And he 
 said unto me, Go in and see the abominable things 
 that they do there. So I went in, and saw, and 
 behold, every form of creeping thing, and abomi- 
 nable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, 
 portrayed upon the wall round about." Ezekiel 
 viii, 8-10. 
 
 Amid the wrecks of former greatness which tower 
 above the plain of Thebes, the inhabitants who 
 now hover around the site of the ancient city are 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT H ALIO AKN ASSUS. 237 
 
 perhaps the most miserable in Egypt. On one side 
 of the river they build their mud huts around the 
 ruins of the temples, and on the other their best 
 habitations are in the tombs ; wherever a small 
 space has been cleared out, the inhabitants crawl 
 in, with their dogs, goats, sheep, women, and chil- 
 dren; and the Arab is passing rich who has for 
 his sleeping-place the sarcophagus of an ancient 
 Egyptian. 
 
 In the immediate neighborhood of Thebes, on the 
 western bank of the river, the whole mountain side is 
 excavated into innumerable cavern tombs for the vast 
 population of the city. The tombs are cut in the 
 rock, generally with their entrances facing the east ; 
 some have rock-hewn porticos in front, but the 
 greater part have only an outer doorway, and an in- 
 ner one, that has placed on each side a figure of the 
 watchful fox. This excavated tract of rock extends 
 full two miles in length. There are deep shafts or 
 wells, similar to those found in the pyramids, which 
 are approaches to deeper chambers, and to an end- 
 less number of winding recesses. 
 
 The caves are literally loaded with ornaments, 
 with allegorical and hieroglyphic figures, painted 
 with the freshest and most pleasing colors on a 
 coating formed of a kind of plaster. The caves are 
 much encumbered by rubbish, caused by the fre- 
 quent and constant rifling by the Arabs for gain, 
 and breaking up of the mummy-cases or coffins for 
 firewood. 
 
 "With the devout though degraded spirit of relig- 
 ion that possessed the Egyptians, they seem to have 
 paid but little regard to their earthly habitations ; 
 their temples and their tombs were the principal 
 
238 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 objects that engrossed the thoughts of this extra- 
 ordinary people. It has been well said of them, that 
 they regarded the habitations of the living merely 
 as temporary resting-places, while the tombs were 
 regarded as permanent and eternal mansions; and 
 while not a vestige of a habitation is to be seen, the 
 tombs remain monuments of splendor and mag- 
 nificence, perhaps even more wonderful than the 
 ruins of their temples. Clinging to the cherished 
 doctrine of the metempsychosis, the immortal part, 
 on leaving its earthly tenement, was supposed to 
 become a wandering, migratory spirit, giving life 
 and vitality to some bird of the air, some beast of 
 the field, or some fish of the sea, waiting for a 
 regeneration in the natural body. And it was of 
 the very essence of this faith to inculcate a pious 
 regard for the security and preservation of the 
 dead. The open doors of tdmbs are seen in long 
 ranges, and at different elevations, and on the 
 plain large pits have been opened, in which have 
 been found one thousand mummies at a time. 
 For many years, and until a late order of the 
 pacha preventing it, the Arabs had been in the 
 habit of rifling the tombs to sell the mummies to 
 travelers. Thousands have been torn from the places 
 where pious hands had laid them, and the bones 
 meet the traveler at every step. The Arabs use 
 the mummy-cases for firewood, the bituminous mat- 
 ters used in the embalmment being well adapted to 
 ignition ; and the epicurean traveler may cook his 
 breakfast with the coffin of a king. Notwithstand- 
 ing the depredations that have been committed, the 
 mummies that have been taken away and scattered 
 all over the world, those that have been burned, 
 
MAUSOLEUM AT HALIC AM ASSUS . 239 
 
 and those that now remain in fragments around the 
 tombs, the numbers yet undisturbed are no doubt 
 infinitely greater ; for the practice of embalming is 
 known to have existed from the earliest periods 
 recorded in the history of Egypt ; and by a rough 
 computation, founded upon the age, the population 
 of the city, and the average duration of human 
 life, it is supposed that there are from eight to ten 
 millions of mummied bodies in the vast necropolis 
 of Thebes. 
 
 The indefatigable traveler, Dr. Lepsius, the result 
 of whose investigations has lately been published, 
 has deciphered the inscriptions on forty-five of the 
 tombs at the foot of the great Pyramid of Jizeh, 
 which until his exploration were of unknown date. 
 The most magnificent of these mausoleums, or rather 
 vaults in the rock, belonged to princes, kinsmen, or 
 chief officers of those kings near whose pyramids 
 they lie ; and in some cases there are regular 
 series of succession of father, son, and grandson, 
 supplying complete pedigrees of those distinguished 
 families that above four thousand years since formed 
 the nobility of the land. Among them, one in fine 
 condition was buried in the sand, which belongs to 
 a son of King Cheops. In these tombs we obtain a 
 knowledge of the oldest determinable civilization of 
 the human race. The architectural forms appear 
 matured, and sculptures of whole figures of all sizes, 
 in high and low relief, are in surprising abundance. 
 The painting, on the finest lime-coating, is often 
 beautiful beyond conception, and as fresh as if done 
 yesterday. 
 
 The same idea of monumental display over the 
 remains of the dead seems to have prompted the 
 
240 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 wonderful architecture of rock-hewn Petra. " Were 
 those excavations," says Dr. Ivitto,* " instead of fol- 
 lowing all the sinuosities of the mountain and its 
 numerous gorges, ranged in regular order, they 
 probably would form a street not less than five or 
 six miles in length. They are often seen rising one 
 above another in the face of the cliff, and convenient 
 steps, now much worn, cut in the rock, lead in all 
 directions through the fissures, and along the sides 
 of the mountains, to the various tombs that occupy 
 these lofty positions. Some of them are apparently 
 not less than from two hundred to three or four 
 hundred feet above the level of the valley. Con- 
 spicuous situations, visible from below, were gen- 
 erally chosen ; but sometimes the opposite taste 
 prevailed, and the most secluded cliffs, fronting 
 some dark ravine, and quite hidden from the gaze 
 of the multitude, were preferred. 
 
 " The ornamental architecture is wholly confined 
 to the front, while the interior is quite plain and 
 destitute of all decoration. The front of the mount- 
 ain is wrought into facades of splendid temples, rival- 
 ing in their aspect and symmetry the most celebrated 
 monuments of Grecian art. Columns of various 
 colors, graceful pediments, broad, rich entablatures, 
 and sometimes statuary, all hewn out of the solid 
 rock, and still forming part of the native mass, trans- 
 form the base of the mountain into a vast splendid 
 pile of architecture ; while the overhanging cliffs, 
 towering above in shapes as rugged and wild as 
 any on which the eye ever rested, form the most 
 striking and curious of contrasts." 
 
 Cyclop, v, ii, p. 726. 
 
C|* flans at ^teanhia> 
 
 That towering light which stood 
 
 Upon the mount's high, rocky verge, 
 Lay open toward the ocean flood, 
 
 Where lightly o'er the illumined surge 
 Many a fair bark, that all the day 
 Had lurk'd in sheltering creek or bay, 
 Now bounded on, and gave their sails, 
 Yet dripping, to the evening gales. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Alexandria. 
 
 dlnocrates the architect. 
 
 The Pharos. 
 
 The Island of Pharos. 
 
 Ancient Alexandria. 
 
 The Ptolemies Founders of the Pharos. 
 
 Dioclesian's Pillar at Alexandria. 
 
 The Emperor Claudius's Pharos at Ostta. 
 
 Tee Pharos of Cordouan. 
 
 The Pharos at Puzzoli. 
 
 The Pharos at Genoa, at Antium, and Ancona. 
 
 The Eddystone Lighthouse. 
 
 The Bell Eock Lighthouse. 
 
 The Inchcape. 
 
THE PHAROS 
 
 WATCH-TOWER, OB LIGHTHOUSE, AT ALEXANDRIA, IN 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 From the blue waters to the deep blue skies, 
 Earth-based sky-capp'd those stately structures rise. 
 The exulting warriors, as their swift keels glide 
 Proudly triumphant o'er the heaving tide, 
 Eye with delight their much-loved, long-sought home. 
 
 Alexandria owes its origin to Alexander the Great, 
 who, about B. C. 332, gave orders to Dinocrates, a 
 Macedonian architect, to erect a city between the 
 sea and Lake Mareotis; and the undertaking ap- 
 pears to have been one of the most noble this cele- 
 brated conqueror ever executed. Having journeyed 
 through Egypt, and seen the highly-productive state 
 of the country, and that it was watered by one of 
 the largest rivers of the world, which discharged 
 itself by seven mouths into the Mediterranean Sea, 
 he thought its only want was a convenient harbor. 
 Alexander, who was magnificent and liberal, found 
 among his countrymen engineers and architects 
 qualified to assist his bold ideas, and he had, what 
 is a rare quality among princes, the talent to select 
 the best man fitted to execute them ; and on this 
 occasion he appointed Dinocrates to the task of 
 building the new city. 
 
 The site selected was one for which nature had 
 done much, and which seemed capable of being made 
 
244 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 bv art all that was desirable. In the midst of the 
 capacious bay, on the shore of which the city was 
 marked out, and at some distance from the main- 
 land, lay the Island of Pharos, which acted as a 
 natural breakwater; the island was of an oblong 
 form. This Dinocrates united with the mainland 
 by an extensive causeway, or earth-wall thus 
 dividing the bay into two harbors. 
 
 Dinocrates was the architect and sculptor who 
 proposed to Alexander to carve Mount Athos into 
 a statue of the monarch, having in his left hand the 
 walls of a great city, and all the rivers of the 
 mountains flowing through his right hand into the 
 sea. Alexander declined the offer, but took him to 
 Egypt, and employed him in beautifying Alexandria. 
 He was also employed by the Ephesians in rebuild- 
 ing the Temple of Diana. He also began to build 
 a temple in honor of Arsinoe, by order of Ptolemy, 
 in which he intended to suspend a statue of the 
 queen by means of a loadstone. His death, how- 
 ever, put an end to the work. 
 
 To render the harbor safe of approach at all times, 
 Ptolemy Soter, who, on the death of Alexander, ob- 
 tained the government of Egypt, determined on 
 erecting a lighthouse on the eastern extremity of 
 the Isle of Pharos, the celebrity of which has given 
 the name to all other lighthouses. 
 
 This pharos was in height four hundred and fifty 
 feet, and could be seen at a distance of one hundred 
 miles. It was built of several stories, decreasing in 
 dimension toward the top, where fires were lighted 
 in a species of lantern. The ground-floor and the 
 two next above were hexagonal ; the fourth was a 
 square with a round tower at each angle ; the fifth 
 
$*ij| 
 
 THE PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA. 
 
JZ^&^-X*. 
 
 ^ 
 
 0? TEDS 
 
THE PHAKOS AT ALEXANDRIA. 247 
 
 floor was circular, continued to the top, to which a 
 winding staircase conducted. In the upper galleries 
 were contrived some mirrors, to show the ships and 
 objects at sea for some considerable distance. On 
 the top a fire was constantly kept, to direct sailors 
 into the bay, which was dangerous and difficult of 
 access. 
 
 The whole of this masterpiece of art was exqui- 
 sitely wrought in stone, and adorned with columns, 
 balustrades, and ornaments, worked in the finest 
 marble. To protect the structure from ocean storms, 
 it was surrounded entirely by a sea-wall. Ancient 
 writers say, the building of this tower cost eight 
 hundred talents, which is equivalent to 165,000, 
 if Attic talents; but if Alexandrian, double that 
 
 sum. 
 
 The building was not completed during the reign 
 
 of the first Ptolemy, but was finished in the reign 
 
 of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, who placed this 
 
 inscription upon it : " King Ptolemy, to the Gods 
 
 the Saviours, for the benefit of sailors." 
 
 Sostratus, the architect, wishing to claim all the 
 glory of the building, engraved his own name on the 
 solid marble, and afterward coated it with cement. 
 Thus, when time had decayed the mortar, Ptolemy's 
 name disappeared, and the following inscription 
 became visible: "Sostratus the Cnidian, to the 
 Gods the Saviours, for the benefit of sailors." 
 
 Of this remarkable tower not a vestige remains, 
 and history gives us no further information than we 
 have here ; of its gradual decay or of its violent de- 
 struction we have no record : but that such a struc- 
 ture as described stood there, there can be not a 
 shadow of doubt, from the fact that all buildings for 
 
248 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 like purposes among the Greeks and Romans bear 
 the designation from this. 
 
 The Island of Pharos consists of a saline, arid soil, 
 and dazzling white calcareous rock ; it is bordered 
 with reefs, especially on the west side. The Arabs 
 call it the Garden of Fig-trees, because figs are suc- 
 cessfully cultivated on 'this otherwise barren spot. 
 The island shows many traces of ancient building ; 
 and the fort erected at the new port, which has a 
 lighthouse attached to it, is connected with the 
 Island of Pharos by an artificial dyke, made in part 
 of ancient granite columns laid transversely. 
 
 The point of the new port opposite Pharos was 
 called Lochias, where are ruins of an ancient pier ; 
 and from thence southward is the spot where stood 
 the palaces of the Ptolemies, the theaters, and various 
 temples. Bordering on the old port stood the great 
 Temple of Serapis, an Egyptian deity, the celebra- 
 tion of whose mystic rites gave great offense to the 
 Christians. Theophilus, the Patriarch of Alexan- 
 dria, obtained permission from the Emperor Theo- 
 dosius (A. D. 390) to destroy the edifice, and he did 
 it so effectually that not one stone was left upon 
 another. 
 
 The Ptolemies embellished the city with the 
 spoils of other ancient towns of Egypt, and, con- 
 tinuing for several centuries to receive additions 
 and improvements, Alexandria was at one period 
 the rival of Rome in size, and it became the first 
 commercial city of the globe. It was what Tyre 
 had been before, the point of exchange between 
 the Eastern and Western world. Diodorus, who 
 visited Alexandria just before the downfall of the 
 Ptolemies, says, " that the registers showed a popula- 
 
THE PHAROS AT ALEXANDEIA. 249 
 
 tion of more than three hundred thousand free 
 citizens." 
 
 Inclosed within a double wall, flanked by lofty 
 towers, are the remains of old Alexandria, an al- 
 most shapeless mass of rubbish, in which lie frag- 
 ments of broken columns and their capitals, portions 
 of wall, cisterns half-choked up with earth, bits of 
 pottery and glass, and all other signs of complete 
 desolation. Of the two granite obelisks, commonly 
 and absurdly called Cleopatra's Needles, one is still 
 standing, the other is lying on the ground. From 
 their present position, it would appear that they 
 must have been placed at the entrance of a palace 
 or temple. They are of red granite, and the height 
 about sixty-three feet, exclusive of the base and 
 pedestal. The fallen pillar bears the name of 
 Thothmes : there were three kings of that name, 
 who reigned between 1550 and 1450 B. C, that is 
 to say, the period of Moses ; the exodus taking place 
 1495 B. C. It has also the name of Barneses, whose 
 date was about a century later. Near the obelisks 
 are remains of a tower called the Tower of the Ro- 
 mans. About the center of the inclosure stands 
 the Mosque of St. Athanasius, on the site of a Chris- 
 tian church erected by this patriarch during the 
 fourth century ; and on this very spot was the place 
 called Soma, (the body,) which was in the quarter 
 of the palaces, and contained the tomb of Alexander. 
 In this mosque the French found the beautiful sar- 
 cophagus of Theban breccia, now in the British 
 Museum. Owing to the difficulty of working it, 
 the Egyptians seldom used this stone ; and yet, hard 
 as it is, the surface within and without is covered 
 with sculptured hieroglyphics : the number of char- 
 
250 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 acters on it is near twenty-eight thousand. Dr. 
 Clarke wrote an able dissertation to prove that this 
 was the sarcophagus in which the body of Alexan- 
 der was placed. But Champollion reads the hiero- 
 glyphics, and states that it was the sarcophagus of 
 Arthout, 1170 B. C. ; and another authority makes 
 it Sethos, 1631 B. C. 
 
 The history of the city is as remarkable as its 
 monuments : we can only indicate its great epochs. 
 From B. C 323 to B. C. 30, it was the residence of the 
 Greek kings of Egypt, the resort of all commercial 
 people, especially Jews, as well as the center of the 
 scientific knowledge of the age. By the Greek his- 
 torians Alexandria is said to have been fifteen miles 
 in circumference, containing a population of three 
 hundred thousand citizens, and as many slaves ; one 
 magnificent street, two thousand feet broad, ran the 
 whole length of the city, from the Gate of the Sea 
 to the Canopie Gate, commanding a view at each 
 end of the shipping, either in the Mediterranean or 
 in the Mareotic Lake ; and another of equal length 
 intersected it at right angles: a spacious circus with- 
 out the Canopie Gate, for chariot-races, and on the 
 east a splendid gymnasium, more than six hundred 
 feet in length, with theaters, baths, and all that could 
 make it a desirable residence for a luxurious people. 
 
 In the campaigns of Julius Csesar it sustained 
 much damage ; but still, from B. C. 30 to A. D. 640 
 it was a flourishing city under the Roman emperors. 
 Under the Eastern empire it adopted the Christian 
 faith, and became one of its strongholds ; and it was the 
 theater on which the Christians showed their deter- 
 mined hostility to all the works of pagan art. The 
 magnificent library, founded by the Ptolemies, and 
 
THE PHAEOS AT ALEXANDRIA. 251 
 
 which some accounts say at one period contained 
 seven hundred thousand volumes ; although it had 
 sustained a loss of more than half during the siege 
 by Julius Caesar, yet retained about two hundred 
 thousand ; when, on the city being captured by the 
 Saracens under the Caliph Omar, the whole of this 
 magnificent collection of the learning of past ages 
 was ordered to be burned, according to the story 
 currently believed of Omar's fanatical decision : 
 "If these writings of the Greeks agree with the 
 books of God, they are useless, and need not be 
 preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious, 
 and ought to be destroyed." Accordingly they were 
 employed to heat the four thousand baths of the 
 city ; and such was the number, that six months 
 were barely sufficient for the consumption of this 
 precious fuel. The historian Gibbon discredits the 
 statement ; but he does not suggest, which he might 
 with effect, that as we may reasonably conclude 
 most of these valued works were on parchment or 
 vellum, they could have been of no service for fuel. 
 However the collection may have been got rid of, 
 it is certain that in some way or other it was en- 
 tirely dispersed or destroyed. 
 
 At the time of its capture by the Saracens it was 
 impossible to overrate the variety and riches of 
 Alexandria, which is said then to have contained 
 four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four 
 hundred temples, theaters, and other public edifices, 
 with twelve thousand shops ; and there were then 
 forty thousand tributary Jews. From that time 
 like everything else which falls into the hands of 
 the Mussulman it has been going to ruin ; and the 
 discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of 
 
252 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Good Hope gave the death-blow to its commercial 
 greatness. At present it stands a phenomenon in the 
 history of a Turkish dominion. It appears once more 
 to be raising its head from the dust. It remains to 
 be seen whether this rise is the legitimate and per- 
 manent effect of a wise and politic government, 
 combined with natural advantages, or whether the 
 pacha is not forcing it to an unnatural elevation, at 
 the expense, if not upon the ruins, of the rest of 
 Egypt. It may appear to be somewhat presump- 
 tuous here to speculate upon the future condition 
 of this interesting country ; but it is clear that the 
 pacha is determined to build up the city of Alex- 
 andria if he can : his fleet is here, his army, his 
 arsenal, and his forts are here ; and he has forced 
 and centred here a commerce that was before 
 divided between several places. Rosetta has lost 
 more than two-thirds of its population, Damietta has 
 become a mere nothing, and even Cairo the Grand 
 has become tributary to what is called the regen- 
 erated city. 
 
 On the edge of the Libyan Desert, distant about 
 two miles from the city, were,the catacombs, which 
 are supposed to extend into the surface for many 
 miles. These great repositories of the dead are but 
 little known to the natives, and travelers have some 
 difficulty in finding them. The real entrance, which 
 was probably from above, is unknown ; but a forced 
 way has been made, and the first chamber entered, 
 which was designed as a repose for the dead, is now 
 occupied as a stable for the horses of one of the 
 pacha's regiments. After passing through other 
 chambers, there is an entrance to a circular room 
 of about thirty feet in diameter, with a vaulted 
 
THE PHAKOS AT ALEXANDRIA. 253 
 
 roof, admirable for its proportions : in this are three 
 recesses, with niches for the bodies, and in them 
 are skulls and moldering bones still lying on the 
 ground. 
 
 The pharos having its origin with the first Ptolemy ', 
 surnamed Soter or "Preserver," and its completion 
 under his son Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus or 
 "Brother-loving," some notice of these monarchs is 
 not out of place. Ptolemy I. was one of the ablest 
 generals of Alexander the Great. In the division of 
 the provinces, on the death of Alexander, Egypt was 
 assigned to Ptolemy, who soon took measures to erect 
 it into an independent kingdom. He obtained the 
 body of Alexander, which the council at Babylon had 
 intended to transport to Macedonia, and after it had 
 been carried to Memphis was finally deposited at 
 Alexandria. After wars with other Greek princes, 
 during a period of twenty years, Ptolemy was left in 
 the undisturbed possession of Egypt. From this 
 time, B. C. 301, to his death, Ptolemy devoted all his 
 energies to develop the resources and promote the 
 prosperity of his kingdom. Under his wise govern- 
 ment and that of his successor, Alexandria became, 
 as its great founder had anticipated, the first com- 
 mercial city in the world, and the place from which 
 Europe was supplied with the merchandise of the 
 East. His subj ects consisting of two distinct nations, 
 it was the policy of Ptolemy and his successors to 
 amalgamate the Egyptians and Greeks as much as 
 possible. Ptolemy, being a Greek, introduced Greek 
 habits and customs, as well as their religion, into 
 Egypt ; but, like his great predecessor, Alexander, he 
 carefully avoided offending the prejudices of his new 
 
 subjects, but he adopted, to a certain extent, the 
 
 16 
 
254 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Egyptian forms of worship. He introduced com- 
 plete religious toleration among all his subjects; 
 and conciliated their favor by the respect paid to 
 the ancient Egyptian priesthood, and also by con- 
 tributing largely to the restoration of the ancient 
 monuments of the country. The troubled state of 
 Palestine, as well as the growing commerce of 
 Alexandria, induced many Jews to settle there ; 
 and the same toleration was granted to them as to 
 the worshipers of Isis and Jupiter. He caused the 
 removal of the statue of Serapis from Pontus to his 
 capital, which was done with great solemnity, and 
 was doubtless intended to establish the worship of a 
 deity which might prove acceptable to both Greeks 
 and Egyptians. Ptolemy was a great encourager of 
 learning, and wrote a History of the wars of Alex- 
 ander, which supplied Arrian with materials for his 
 history. He extended his patronage to all kinds 
 of learning, independent of religious opinions, and 
 laid the foundation for that school and library after- 
 ward regularly established by his son. He died 
 B. C. 283, at the age of eighty-four, after a govern- 
 ment of forty years; and is by all ancient writers 
 represented as a prince of the greatest wisdom, pru- 
 dence, and generosity ; and JElian reports as one of 
 his sayings, "that it was better to make rich than 
 to be rich." 
 
 He was succeeded by his son, Ptolemy H., who 
 followed the example of his father in the encourage- 
 ment of learning, the study of the arts and sciences, 
 and also in maintaining, with great liberality, many 
 distinguished philosophers and poets. He establish- 
 ed the famous library, and he founded a museum for 
 the promotion of learning and the support of learned 
 
THE PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA. 255 
 
 men, which contained cloisters, a theater or lecture- 
 room, and a large hall, where the learned men all 
 dined together. Attached to the museum were 
 botanical and zoological gardens. The museum 
 was supported by grants from the public treasury. 
 It was under his auspices that the Hebrew Bible 
 was first translated into Greek. Josephus gives 
 an account of the entertainment at which Ptolemy 
 received the translators; which also affords us an 
 idea of the literary parties the king was accustomed 
 to give. 
 
 As the great treasures and resources of Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus were owing to his possessing the trade 
 with India and other parts, he used every effort to 
 extend the trade of Alexandria, and he obtained 
 possession of several parts of Arabia ; and one of 
 his admirals appears to have gone as far south as 
 Madagascar. Appian, who was a native of Alexan- 
 dria, informs us that, under the Ptolemies, the army 
 consisted of two hundred thousand foot-soldiers, 
 forty thousand horse, three hundred elephants, and 
 two thousand war-chariots ; besides a fleet of eight 
 hundred ships magnificently equipped, and two 
 thousand smaller vessels. Ptolemy II. died B. C. 
 247, after a reign of thirty-six years ; and, according 
 to Appian, after expending more upon public works 
 than all his successors, he left in the treasury, at his 
 death, seven hundred and forty thousand Egyptian 
 talents. 
 
 The ancient pharos, the Lantern of Ptolemy, no 
 longer throws its light far over the bosom of the sea, 
 to guide the weary mariner ; but even now one of the 
 monuments of Egypt's proudest days, the celebrated 
 Pillar, after the lapse of more than two thousand 
 
256 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 years, is one of the landmarks which guide the sailor 
 to her fallen capital. Standing on a mound of earth 
 about forty feet high, which contains remains of for- 
 mer constructions, it rises a single shaft of red granite, 
 sixty-eight feet long, which weighs at least two hun- 
 dred and seventy-six tons: it is surmounted by a 
 Corinthian capital ten feet high ; the entire height 
 of the column and its pedestal being ninety-four 
 feet; and independent of its own monumental 
 beauty, it is an interesting object, as marking the 
 center of the ancient city. It stands far outside the 
 present walls ; and from its base you may look over 
 a barren waste of sand, running from the shores of 
 the Mediterranean to the Lake Mareotis, the bounda- 
 ries of Alexandria as it was of old. According to a 
 Greek inscription on the plinth of the base, it ap- 
 pears to have been erected in honor of the Emperor 
 Diocletian, by a prefect of Egypt, whose name can- 
 not be deciphered, further than that it begins with 
 PO. These two letters are all the authority to 
 connect it with the name of Pompey, to which it is 
 now universally allied. Amid the broken materials 
 around its base we discover the center-stone on which 
 it rests ; this is a piece of yellowish breccia, with 
 Egyptian hieroglyphics on it, placed the wrong end 
 upward. 
 
 Next in point of magnificence to the Pharos at 
 Alexandria, was that which the Emperor Claudius 
 ordered a tower or lighthouse to be erected at 
 the entrance of the port of Ostia, for the benefit of 
 sailors. It was built on an artificial island, and was 
 a most classic form ; the three main stories were 
 ornamented with most beautiful marble columns of 
 
THE PHAEOS AT ALEXANDRIA. 257 
 
 the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. In it were 
 staircases and apartments for the use of the officers 
 and men to whom the care of the port was intrusted. 
 Fires were, at the approach of night, lighted in the 
 upper gallery of the tower, which could be seen for a 
 considerable distance. The sand and mud deposited 
 by the Tiber have for many centuries choked the 
 harbor of Ostia ; and the ruins of old Ostia are now 
 in the midst of a wilderness, nearly two miles from 
 the mouth of the river. The whole features of the 
 coast are now materially changed, and a wide marsh 
 lies in front of the port of Claudius. 
 
 The Pharos of Cordouan is the most superb as 
 well as the most important of modern times. Since 
 those of Alexander and Claudius there is, nor has 
 been, none equal to it. It is situate on a small 
 island, a bare rock, which is dry at low water, and 
 entirely covered at high water, at the mouths of 
 the Garonne and Dordogne, in France, and serves 
 as a sea-mark by day and a light-house by night ; 
 and but for the warnings it offers, the wrecks would 
 be numerous. There are but two passes, the one 
 called the Pas des Anes, between St. Saintonge 
 and the tower, and the other between the tower and 
 Medoc, called the Pas des Graves, both equally 
 dangerous to vessels that may be unfortunately sur- 
 prised by a heavy westerly wind. All around are 
 rocks, covered with but about three feet of water, 
 upon which the billows break with tremendous 
 violence, and rise to a prodigious height, rendering 
 access to the tower at all times very difficult. This 
 magnificent tower was commenced in the reign of 
 Henry II., in 1584, by Louis de Foix, who finished 
 it under Henry IV., in 1610. It is considered, by 
 
258 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 architects and engineers, not only the purest in 
 style, but the boldest in execution. 
 
 The building consists of four stories ; the apart- 
 ments it contains are all highly decorated; exter- 
 nally, the lowest is of the Doric ; the second, the 
 Ionic ; the third, the Corinthian ; and the fourth, of 
 the Composite order. The base of the edifice is a 
 circle one hundred and thirty-five feet in diameter, 
 over the whole of which the constructions are of 
 solid masonry : upon this rises a circular platform, 
 one hundred feet in diameter, and upon this is con- 
 structed the tower. The lower floor is a vaulted 
 hall, twenty- two feet square and twenty in height ; 
 over this is the grand saloon, twenty-one feet square 
 and twenty in height, with vestibule, and various 
 conveniences for the residents. The third floor is 
 circular, with a hemispherical dome, and was in- 
 tended -f or a chapel ; its entire height is forty feet ; 
 this apartment was decorated with paintings and 
 mosaics. 
 
 The total height of the tower, above the surface 
 of the rock, is one hundred and sixty-two feet. 
 
 At Puzzoli, a city of Greek origin, which the 
 Romans strongly fortified about 200 B. C, and 
 erected there several magnificent temples, and other 
 public buildings, the remains of which attest its 
 former magnificence, being well situated on the 
 Bay of Naples, there they formed a considerable 
 port, by constructing a mole of such an extent as 
 made it famous throughout the world, as, being 
 carried so far out to sea, vessels of the largest size 
 could at all times discharge their cargoes. At the 
 end of the mole was erected a light-house, composed 
 of three stories, surmounted with a tower, upon the 
 
THE PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA. 259 
 
 top of which the light was exhibited. In a picture 
 discovered at Pompeii, there is a representation of 
 this mole and its pharos. Some remains of the mole 
 exist, but not a vestige of the light-house is left. 
 
 On the west side of the Bay of Genoa, upon an 
 extreme point of land, stands a light-house, a square 
 tower of several stories in height, and being based 
 upon a rock of some elevation, can be seen at sea 
 for several miles. 
 
 At the ancient port of Antium (now Meltuno) 
 was an artificial island, upon which was a pharos of 
 much note ; but of it not a vestige remains. 
 
 At Ancona, on the extremity of the mole, is a 
 light-house of the most solid construction, the work 
 of the celebrated Yanvitelli, who was employed in 
 the middle of the last century to improve the har- 
 bor. The Emperor Trajan had constructed a splen- 
 did mole, which yet remains, a solid mass of masonry, 
 rising to a considerable height above the sea ; and 
 beyond this Yanvitelli formed another mole, with 
 a triumphal arch, and at the extremity, the pharos, 
 all of the most solid and durable construction, 
 and equally creditable to him as a specimen of 
 civil engineering and as a sample of his architec- 
 tural taste. 
 
 Although inferior with regard to architectural 
 beauty and expensiveness of decoration to the Pharos 
 of Cordouan, yet, beyond all other light-houses in 
 utility, as well as being the most masterly work 
 of civil-engineering ever known, is the Eddystone 
 Zight-house, the Pharos of the British Isles, 
 standing, as it does, the guiding-star of one of the 
 most extensive stations of the greatest naval power 
 the world has ever known. 
 
260 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The Eddystone Light-house has not only the merit 
 of utility, but also symmetrical beauty, strength, and 
 originality ; and is of itself sufficient to immortalize 
 the name of the architect. It is built upon the 
 sloping side of a rock, which lies nearly south-west 
 from the middle of Plymouth Sound ; the nearest 
 point of land is Earn Head, which is about ten miles 
 distant. The rock derives its name from the set or 
 current of the tides which is observed there. An 
 eddy of the tides is a current setting in a contrary 
 direction to the main stream, and is occasioned 
 by some obstruction; this eddy may be either a 
 smoothness on the surface of the water, or a current 
 in an opposite direction to the tide, according to the 
 velocity of the stream or the size of the rock which 
 interposes to produce it. At full moon it is high- 
 water at the Eddystone at a quarter past five o'clock; 
 the tide sets easterly, or up-channel, and the ebb 
 tide sets westerly ; spring tides rise from sixteen to 
 eighteen feet, neap tides ten feet. 
 
 The first light-house erected on this rock was 
 constructed by Mr. Henry Winstanley, begun in 
 1696, and finished in 1700. While superintending 
 some repairs, during a terrible hurricane on a 
 November night, 1703, the unfortunate architect, 
 with his men, were with the entire building blown 
 into the ocean. Not a vestige, save some iron stan- 
 chions and a piece of chain, was left to tell the 
 tale of destruction. 
 
 In 1706 another light-house was commenced, un- 
 der the superintendence of Mr. John Rudyerd, a 
 silk-mercer of Ludgate-hill, London, who was aided 
 by two shipwrights from the Eoyal Arsenal of 
 Woolwich. This building, which, except five 
 
THE PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA. 261 
 
 courses of moorstone on the rock, was entirely 
 of wood, in Mr. Smeaton's opinion was constructed 
 in a masterly manner ; and, it appeared, perfectly 
 answered its end, until its entire destruction by fire 
 in December, 1755. 
 
 The present edifice, which Mr. John Smeaton 
 undertook to construct in 1756, is a circular tower 
 of stone, sweeping up with a gentle curve from its 
 base, and gradually diminishing to the top, some- 
 what similar to the trunk of a tree. The upper ex- 
 tremity is finished with a kind of cornice, and is 
 surmounted by a lantern, having a gallery round it 
 with an iron balustrade. The tower is furnished 
 with a door and windows, and staircase and ladders 
 for ascending to the lantern through the apartments 
 for those who keep watch. The tower is built of a 
 very hard species of granite and Portland stone, all 
 of which was furnished by the neighboring coasts : 
 the lantern is chiefly formed of copper ; it has six- 
 teen frames, in each of which are nine panes of glass ; 
 the light is a reflector-frame of Argand burners and 
 parabolic reflectors, formed of copper, covered with 
 highly-polished silver. 
 
 The building was completed in October, 1759, 
 having occupied three years and nine weeks in its 
 construction. It has stood ever since, and promises, 
 as far as human calculations may venture to sur- 
 mise, to stand for centuries. 
 
 The Bell-Bock (or Inchcape) Light-house is about 
 eleven miles from the nearest land, Redhead, in 
 Forfarshire, on the east coast of Scotland, nearly 
 opposite the mouth of the Tay. Prior to the erec- 
 tion of this pharos there were many wrecks annu- 
 ally on this rock, which is barely seen at spring 
 
202 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 tides, and was more dangerous from having deep 
 water all round it. The construction, which was 
 committed to Mr. Kobert Stephenson, began in 
 August, 1807, and was finished February 1, 1811. 
 Besides the light, there are two bells, which in thick, 
 foggy weather are tolled by machinery night and 
 day, at half-minute intervals. The design is on the 
 same principle as the Eddystone. 
 
C|* Colossus of Ifiljote, 
 
 Once more to distant ag6s of the world 
 Let us revert, and place before our thoughts 
 The face which rural solitude might wear 
 To the unenlighten'd swains of Pagan Greece. 
 For that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretch'd 
 On the soft grass through half a summer's day, 
 With music lull'd his indolent repose : 
 And, in some fit of weariness, if he, 
 When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear 
 A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds 
 Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetch'd, 
 Even from the blazing chariot of the sun, 
 A beardless youth who touch'd a golden lute, 
 And fill'd the illuminated groves with ravishment. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Early History of Rhodes. 
 
 The Statue of Apollo. 
 
 The City of Rhodes. 
 
 The Pythian Games. 
 
 Helius and Apollo. 
 
 Worship of Apollo. 
 
 The Oracles. 
 
 Apollo and the Daphnephoria. 
 
 Temples and Oracles of Apollo at Patara akd Delos. 
 
 Pindar's Ode to Diagoras the Rhodian. 
 
 Other Colossal Statues 
 
 In Egypt. 
 
 In India. 
 
 In Greece, etc. 
 
THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 
 
 The Colossus was a celebrated brazen image of 
 Apollo, of the enormous height of one hundred and 
 five Grecian feet, placed at the entrance of one of 
 the harbors of the city of Rhodes. Rhodes, or rather 
 Rhodus, is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, lying 
 nearly opposite the coast of Lycia and Caria, from 
 which it is about twenty miles distant. 
 
 The Island of Rhodes is about one hundred and 
 twenty miles in circumference it has a fertile 
 soil, it produces fine fruits and wines, and has an 
 atmosphere of great serenity, no day passing with- 
 out sunshine. From Homer we learn, the island 
 was occupied by a colony of Greeks from Crete and 
 Thessaly at an early period, and also that the wealth 
 and power of the inhabitants were considerable. 
 During the Peloponnesian War the Rhodians were 
 flourishing in commerce, arts, and arms, and extend- 
 ing their dominion over a part of the contiguous 
 continent. 
 
 The capital was situate on the east coast, at the 
 foot of a gently rising hill, in the midst of a plain 
 abounding with springs and profuse in vegetation. 
 The city was built in the form of an amphitheater, 
 and had numerous splendid buildings : among others 
 was the Halcum, or Temple of Apollo. 
 
 The Rhodians were for many centuries famous for 
 the study of the sciences, and for their encourage- 
 
266 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 ment of literature and the arts ; they were in unity 
 with all nations, and their merchants became so en- 
 riched that the whole city was supported by them. 
 
 Khodes, like the rest of Greece, submitted to 
 Alexander the Great ; but at his death the Rhodians 
 expelled his troops. Having derived great benefits 
 from their commerce with Egypt, they attached 
 themselves to Ptolemy Soter, and refusing to assist 
 Antigonus in his war with the Egyptian prince, he 
 sent his son Demetrius with a fleet to intercept the 
 trade between Egypt and Rhodes. 
 
 The Rhodians were successful in all their combats ; 
 at which Antigonus became so incensed that he fur- 
 nished Demetrius with additional ships and arma- 
 ments to besiege the city. The fleet consisted of 
 three hundred and seventy vessels, carrying forty 
 thousand soldiers, besides horse and auxiliary. Thus 
 commenced the first of those memorable sieges to 
 which Rhodes has at various times been subjected. 
 The courage of the defenders was only equaled by 
 the ingenuity with which the assailants plied every 
 engine of assault that the mechanical knowledge of 
 the age could suggest. 
 
 The Rhodians, having obtained succor from Ptol- 
 emy, were enabled to repulse Demetrius. They 
 forced him to accede to a peace on these terms 
 1 that they should be the allies of Demetrius against 
 every one but Ptolemy. Thus after twelve months' 
 siege ended the war, and the temple and walls were 
 rebuilt. 
 
 Demetrius, reconciled to the Rhodians, in ad- 
 miration of the courage they had displayed, pre- 
 sented them with all the engines he had employed 
 in the attack, and it was by the sale of these, for 
 
Y4^ 0* TH1 
 
 fajUYBRSITYj 
 
 osr 
 
 dilFOB^ 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES 
 
COLOSSUS OF ERODES. 269 
 
 three hundred talents, that they raised the famous 
 Colossus. 
 
 The Colossus was a statue of brass, erected in 
 honor of Apollo, the tutelary god of the island, for 
 the protection be was supposed to have afforded the 
 Rhodians in their recent conflict. It was the work- 
 manship of Chares, of Lindus, a pupil of Lysippus, 
 a celebrated sculptor and statuary of Greece, one 
 of whose great works was a chariot of the sun at 
 Rhodes. Chares, who was assisted by Laches, was 
 engaged on this work twelve years. 
 
 The height of the statue was one hundred and 
 twenty-five feet, and the thumb was so large that 
 few people could clasp it ; the fingers were larger 
 than most statues. It was hollow, and to counter- 
 balance the weight, and to render it steady on the 
 pedestals, its legs were lined with large stones. 
 There were winding staircases leading to the top of 
 the statue, from whence might be seen Syria and 
 the ships sailing to Egypt. It is generally sup- 
 posed to have stood, with distended legs, on the two 
 moles which formed the entrance of the harbor; 
 however, as the city had two harbors the entrance 
 to the one was fifty feet in width, and the other 
 but twenty feet it seems natural to suppose that 
 the Colossus was placed at the entrance of the 
 narrowest. 
 
 The statue was erected B. C. 300, and after hav- 
 ing stood about sixty years was thrown down by an 
 earthquake, which destroyed the walls and naval 
 arsenal at the same time. 
 
 The Rhodians after its fall, and the injury their 
 city had sustained, solicited help from the kings of 
 Egypt, Macedonia, and other countries, to enable 
 
270 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 them to restore it. So great was the commercial 
 importance of Rhodes that their appeal was promptly 
 answered by munificent gifts ; the various powers of 
 Asia Minor coming forward with ready zeal to serve 
 a city whose fleets protected the seas against pirates 
 and extended commercial communication ; and thus 
 their city was restored to all its magnificence ; but 
 the oracle at Delphos forbade them to raise the 
 Colossus.. 
 
 The statue having remained in ruins for the space 
 of eight hundred and ninety-four years, in the year 
 672 A. D. it was sold by the Saracens, who were 
 then masters of the island, to a Jewish merchant of 
 Edessa, who loaded nine hundred camels with the 
 metal. Now allowing eight hundred pounds weight 
 to each load, the brass thus disposed of amounted 
 to seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds 
 weight. 
 
 In the middle of the Hippodrome, at Constan- 
 tinople, there is a kind of pyramid constructed of 
 pieces of stone, which, as we learn from an inscrip- 
 tion on its base, was formerly covered with plates of 
 copper. The following is the translation of the 
 inscription, which is in Greek : 
 
 "This four-sided wonder among lofty things, 
 which through time has sustained much injury, 
 Constantius, now our master, the son of Romanus, 
 the glory of the monarchy, repaired it in such a way 
 as to make it to what it originally was. The Colos- 
 sus of Rhodes was a stupendous object; and this 
 copper colossus is a wonder here." 
 
 The character of Rhodian art was a mixed Greco- 
 Asiatic style, which seems to have delighted in exe- 
 cuting gigantic and imposing conceptions; for be- 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 271 
 
 sides tlie celebrated Colossus, three thousand other 
 statues adorned the city ; and of these one hundred 
 were on such a scale of magnitude, that the presence 
 of any one of them would have been sufficient to 
 ennoble any ether spot. The architecture of Rhodes 
 was of the most stately character ; the plan was by 
 the same architect who built the Piraeus at Athens, 
 and all designed with such symmetry that Aristides 
 remarks, " It is as if it had been one house." The 
 streets were wide and of unbroken length, and the 
 fortifications, strengthened at intervals with lofty 
 towers, did not appear, as in other cities, detached 
 from the buildings which they inclosed ; but by 
 their boldness and decision of outline heightened 
 the unity and conception of the groups of architec- 
 ture within. The temples were decorated with 
 paintings, by Protogenes, Zeuxis, and other artists 
 of the school of Rhodes. The celebrated picture of 
 Ialysus, who was a celebrated huntsman, and be- 
 lieved by the Rhodians to have been the son of 
 Apollo, and the founder of their city, which in after- 
 time was taken to Rome, was the object of universal 
 admiration. 
 
 Pindar, in one of the most beautiful of the Olym- 
 pian odes, records the myth, that it was raised by 
 Apollo from the waves. The coins of Rhodes are 
 very numerous, and show good workmanship. The 
 most common type is a radiated head of the sun, 
 and the reverse a flower, said by some to be a pome- 
 granate, and by others a rose, which may be con- 
 sidered a type allusive to the name of the island, 
 from the Greek word rhodon, signifying a rose. 
 
 The island was abandoned by the Saracens in the 
 
 earlv part of the eighth century of our era, and again 
 
 17 
 
272 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 restored to the dominion of the Greeks. At the 
 commencement of the fourteenth century it was oc- 
 cupied by hordes of Greek and Mussulmen corsairs, 
 when, in 1310, Villaret, grand master of the Knights 
 of St. John, made himself master of the island, and 
 it became the place of residence of the order. Five 
 years after their settlement they sustained a formida- 
 ble siege from Othman, sultan of the Turks, and 
 they succeeded in repulsing him. From this period, 
 during about two hundred years, they continued to 
 resist the constantly increasing power of the Turks, 
 adding to the advantages of a position naturally 
 very strong, the most skillfully designed fortifications 
 that could be devised, and making the numerical 
 superiority of the infidels of little avail, by their 
 more efficient weapons, their admirable organization 
 in the field, their armor, and last, but not least, their 
 incredible valor. They even carried the war into 
 the enemy's own territories, and in 1311 took 
 Smyrna, and maintained it as an outpost. In 1365 
 they made a descent upon Egypt, and plundered 
 Alexandria, then in possession of the Turks, At 
 the close of this century they sustained a severe loss 
 at the battle of Nicopolis ; and in 1101, Tamerlane, 
 Emperor of the Turks, deprived them of Smyrna. 
 From this time Rhodes was thrice besieged by the 
 Turks, the last seige, in June, 1522, being con- 
 ducted by the Sultan Solyman in person. The Chris- 
 tian princes of Europe, thinking probably that it 
 was hopeless to attempt the defense of so distant an 
 outpost, abandoned Rhodes to its fate : the gallant 
 defenders held out till they were nearly all buried 
 in the ruins of their fortifications. The grand master 
 entered into a capitulation in December, and the 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 273 
 
 knights evacuated Rhodes upon honorable terms. 
 The island has ever since remained a province of 
 the Turkish empire. 
 
 The greatest length of Rhodes from north to south 
 is about twelve leagues; its breadth is six leagues. 
 The whole of the western coast is indented by deep 
 bays formed by projecting headlands, and capable of 
 affording considerable protection to shipping. In the 
 center of the island is the Artemira Mountain, which 
 commands a magnificent view of the Archipelago, 
 the woodland scenery of the island forming a rich 
 foreground, sloping down to the coast, and the dis- 
 tance being bounded on the Asiatic side by the pic- 
 turesque outline of the Lycian hills. The air is mild 
 and healthy, and loaded with fragrance from the 
 numerous orange and citron groves, and also from 
 a vast quantity of aromatic herbs, which everywhere 
 abound. The fig-tree and the vine still flourish here, 
 and corn is grown, but only enough for the inhab- 
 itants. In ancient times the inhabitants exported 
 many articles of commerce ; but Turkish misrule has 
 here, as everywhere else, counteracted the natural 
 advantages of situation, soil, climate, and products. 
 
 Of the city of Rhodes there are no remains earlier 
 than the time of the knights ; but all their works are 
 interesting specimens of the military architecture of 
 the middle ages : the castle of the order, containing 
 the cells of the knights ; the cathedral, with its 
 curiously carved wooden doors, and with the arms 
 of England and France on its walls, is in a perfect 
 state : the portcullises and draw-bridges are still 
 extant. There are also remains of several other 
 churches. The suburbs of the town are represented 
 to be very beautiful, the inhabitants of the higher 
 
274 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 classes reside there ; the Christians live in a quarter 
 by themselves, called Villagio Novo. 
 
 The Colossus was, as stated, an image which, by- 
 some ancient writers is represented to have personi- 
 fied the sun, and that it was crowned by a figure of 
 that luminary, surrounded with rays. By later 
 Grecian writers it is called a figure of Phoebus- 
 Apollo. By Homer and Hesiod the sun was a dif- 
 ferent personage ; the name given to that deity is 
 Helius ; and there is little doubt that it was Helius 
 that the Colossus was intended, to represent, as will 
 hereafter be seen. 
 
 Apollo, (Phoebus- Apollo,) one of the principal 
 gods of the Grecian heaven, was the son of Zeus and 
 Leto, (Jupiter and Latonia,) and, according to He- 
 rodotus, is the Egyptian Horns, the son of Dionysus 
 (Osiris) and Isis. At the command of his father, 
 Del os was raised from the sea for the place of his 
 birth, and there also was born his sister Diana. 
 His functions were immediately proclaimed to the 
 assembled goddesses, who watched his birth : " The 
 harp, the curved bow be mine ; and I will proclaim 
 to men the unerring counsel of Zeus." 
 
 Leto promised, in return for the shelter afforded, 
 that her son should honor that humble island before 
 all other places : and it was held especially sacred 
 to him, and became the principal seat of his worship. 
 At his birth Apollo destroyed with arrows the ser- 
 pent Pytho, whom Juno had sent to persecute her 
 brother. Apollo was the god of the fine arts, of 
 medicine, music, poetry, and eloquence, of all of 
 which he was deemed the inventor : he also invented 
 the flute. He had received from Jupiter the power 
 of knowing futurity, and he was the only one of the 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 275 
 
 gods whose oracles were in general repute through- 
 out the world. He was not, as some represent, the 
 inventor of the lyre ; but it was given to him by 
 Mercury in exchange for the caduceus, with which 
 Apollo was wont to drive the flocks of Admetus. 
 Apollo is a leading personage in mythological fic- 
 tion, and a favorite with the poets, who have engaged 
 him in a great variety of adventures ; he was also 
 the president and protector of the muses. 
 
 Apollo is generally represented in the prime of 
 youth and manly beauty, with long hair ; hence the 
 Romans were fond of imitating his figure, and there- 
 fore in their youth they were remarkable for their 
 fine head of hair, which they always cut short at the 
 age of seventeen or eighteen ; his brows were bound 
 with the sacred bay-tree, and bearing either a lyre or 
 his peculiar weapon the bow ; in many instances his 
 head is surrounded by beams of light. He was the 
 deity who, according to the notions of the ancients, 
 inflicted plagues, and in that moment he appeared 
 surrounded with clouds. His worship and power 
 were universally acknowledged ; he had temples in 
 every part of the world ; the principal were at Delos, 
 Delphi, Claros, Tenedos, Cyrrha, and Patana ; the 
 most splendid, certainly, was that at Delphi, where 
 every nation and individual made considerable pres- 
 ents when they consulted the oracle. After the bat- 
 tle of Actium, Augustus built a splendid temple to 
 Apollo on Mount Palatine, which the donor also en- 
 riched with a valuable library. 
 
 Apollo and the sun have often been confounded 
 together, and a careful examination of the ancient 
 poets will prove them to be different characters and 
 deities; but from an elementary deity, as Helius 
 
276 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 was, representing the sun, another race, with a new 
 theocracy, transferred the attributes of the former 
 deity to the god of their own mythology. When 
 once Apollo was addressed as the sun, and repre- 
 sented with a crown of rays on his head, the idea of 
 identity was adopted ; and thence arose the mistake. 
 The oriental origin of the god is shown in his name, 
 for which no etymology can be found in the Greek ; 
 the Cretan form for Helius was Abelias, and from 
 thence to the Doric Apellinem : thus we have the 
 Asiatic root Bel, or Hel, an appellation for the sun in 
 the Semetic languages. There is a striking similar- 
 ity between Apollo and the Crishna of the Hindoos, 
 both are inventors of the flute; the victory of 
 Crishna over the serpent recalls to mind that of 
 Apollo over Pytho. Nor does the legend of Apollo 
 betray a resemblance merely with the fables of India. 
 A very strong affinity exists in this respect with the 
 religious systems also of Egypt and Greece : we find 
 that Orus, or Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, as- 
 sisted his mother in avenging his father, by attacking 
 the serpent-headed Typho ; Oris also was skilled in 
 medicine, learned in futurity, and was also the em- 
 blem of the sun. 
 
 Miiller in his history of the Dorians, maintains 
 that the worship of Apollo was originally peculiar to 
 the Dorian race, who were at all times his most zealous 
 votaries ; and the Khodians, as we have shown, were 
 a colony of Dorians. 
 
 The slaying of the serpent Pytho by Apollo seems, 
 in truth, to be symbolical of one system of religion, 
 probably that of the sun, supplanting another and 
 more ancient one. 
 
 Apollo, like the sun, was supposed to be con- 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 277 
 
 stantly visiting his various abodes throughout the 
 year. In the JEneid we read 
 
 Such as, when wint'ry Legeia and the streams 
 
 Of Xanthos fair Apollo leaves, and looks 
 
 On his maternal Delos, and renews 
 
 The dances ; while around his altars shout 
 
 Cretans, Dryopians, and the painted race 
 
 Of Agathyrsians ; he along the tops 
 
 Of Cynthus walking, with soft foliage binds 
 
 His flowing hair, and fastens it in gold ; 
 
 His arrows on his shoulders sound. 
 
 In the festival of the Daphnephoria, which the 
 Thebans celebrated every ninth year in honor of 
 Apollo, we see an astronomical character. It took 
 its name from the laurel or bay-tree, which the finest 
 youth of the city carried in solemn procession, the 
 tree beina; adorned with flowers and branches of 
 olive. To the olive-tree, decorated in its turn with 
 laurels and flowers intertwined, and covered with a 
 purple vail, were suspended globes of different sizes 
 types of the planets ; the top was surmounted by 
 a brazen globe representing the son or Apollo ; one 
 in the center representing the moon ; all being or- 
 namented with crowns or garlands, the number of 
 which was a symbol of the year. The olive-bough 
 was carried in procession by a beautiful youth chosen 
 from some illustrious family, both of whose parents 
 must have been living at the time. The youth was 
 dressed in rich garments, his hair hung loose and 
 disheveled, his head covered with a golden crown. 
 He was preceded by one of his nearest relations, 
 who bore a rod adorned with garlands, and followed 
 by a train of virgins with branches in their hands ; 
 thus the procession advanced as far as the Temple 
 of Apollo, where supplicatory hymns were sung. 
 
278 SEVEN WONDEKS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The festival owed its origin to the following circum- 
 stance : " By the advice of an oracle the ^Etolians, 
 who inhabited Arne and the adjacent country, 
 abandoned their ancient possessions and went in 
 quest of a settlement ; they invaded Boeotia, at that 
 time pillaged by an army of Pelasgians. The festival 
 of Apollo being near, both nations, who religiously 
 observed it, laid aside hostilities, and, according to 
 custom, cut down laurel boughs from Mount Heli- 
 con, and walked in procession in honor of the 
 divinity. On the day of the solemnity, Polemates, 
 the Boeotian general, in his sleep saw a youth who 
 presented him with a complete suit of armor, and 
 commanded the Boeotians to offer solemn prayers 
 to Apollo, and with laurel boughs in their hands 
 walk in procession every ninth year. Three days 
 after, the Boeotians made a sally on their besiegers, 
 and compelled them to abandon their enterprise. 
 Polemates thereupon instituted this novennial fes : 
 tival in honor of Apollo." On the altar burned a 
 flame, the agitation, color, and crackling of which 
 seemed to reveal the future a species of divination 
 peculiar to the sacerdotal order, and which pre- 
 vailed also at Olympia in Elis, the center of most 
 of the sacerdotal usages of the day. By a natural 
 allusion to the movements of the planets, and the 
 mysterious harmony of the spheres, the god of the 
 sun also became the god of music. However, as 
 soon as this Apollo, whether his origin is to be 
 traced to the banks of the Nile, or the plains of 
 India, assumes a station in the Greek mythology, 
 the national spirit labors to disengage him of his 
 astronomical attributes. Henceforward every mys- 
 terious or scientific idea disappears from the Daph- 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 279 
 
 nephoria,- they become only commemorative of the 
 passion of the god for a young female, who turns a 
 deaf ear to his suit. A new deity, Helius, discharges 
 all the functions of the sun ; and in his quality of 
 the son of Uranus and Terra, is placed among the 
 cosmogonical personifications ; he has no part to 
 play in the fables of the poets, being only twice 
 named by Homer ; he has no priests, worship, or 
 solemn festival celebrated in his praise. There- 
 upon, Apollo, freed from every attribute of an ab- 
 stract nature, appears in the Hall of Olympus, and 
 becomes the tutelary god of the Trojans, the pro- 
 tector of ./Eneas and Parvis, and the lover of Daphne. 
 According to the Grecian mythology, Helius, 
 or the Sun, was the brother of Eos or Aurora the 
 Dawn, and, like his sister, dwelt on the eastern side 
 of the earth. Homer does not relate how Helius 
 and Eos passed from west to east during the night ; 
 but according to other poets, he and his horses were 
 received into a golden basin or cup, which carried 
 him during the night along the ocean-stream round 
 the earth to the place where he was to set out again 
 in the morning. Thus Stesi chorus: 
 
 Helius Hyperionides 
 
 Into the golden cup went down ; 
 
 That, having through the ocean pass'd, 
 
 He to the depths of sacred gloomy night might come, 
 
 Unto his mother and his wedded wife, 
 
 And to his children dear. 
 
 Mimnermus says : 
 
 Helius is doom'd to labor every day ; 
 
 And rest there never is for him 
 Or for his horses, when rose-finger'd Eos 
 
 Leaves ocean and to heaven ascends. 
 
280 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOULD. 
 
 For through the wave him beareth his loved bed, 
 
 Hollow and form'd of precious gold 
 By Hephaestus' hand, and wing'd ; the water's top 
 
 Along it bears the sleeping god, 
 From the Hesperides' to the -^thiops' land, 
 
 Where stand his horses and swift car 
 Until forth goeth morn-producing Eos ; 
 
 Then Helius mounts another car. 
 
 In Ovid we have a splendid description of the 
 palace of Helius, in which he sat enthroned in state, 
 surrounded by the Days, Months, Years, Seasons, 
 Ages, and Hours. The Greek poets provided him 
 with a baiting-place in the West, to refresh him- 
 self and feed his wearied steeds with ambrosia be- 
 fore setting out for the East. Nonnus describes his 
 dwelling on the western ocean, where Phosphorus 
 (light-bringer) takes the reins from the god, washes 
 the horses in the waves of ocean, and leads them to 
 their glittering crib ; while Helius, greeted by the 
 Hours, rests himself, and then, attended by these 
 deities, drives his chariot round to the eastern 
 ocean. His park and gardens are thus described 
 by Claudian : 
 
 Thus having said, his gardens all bedew'd 
 
 With yellow fires, he enters, and his vale, 
 
 Which a strong-flaming stream surrounds, and pours 
 
 Abundant beams upon the water'd grass, 
 
 On which the sun's steeds pasture. There he binds 
 
 With fragrant wreaths his locks, and the bright manes 
 
 And yellow reins of his wing-footed steeds. 
 
 Helius was the parent of Phaeton, whose wild 
 attempt to guide the solar chariot had near set the 
 world on fire. Helius, as a god whose eye was over 
 all things, was invoked as a witness to solemn oaths. 
 By artists he is represented driving his four-horse 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 281 
 
 chariot, his head surrounded by rays ; and by his- 
 torians we are told that the chief seat of his worship 
 was the island of Rhodes. 
 
 The Pythian games were instituted in honor of 
 Apollo, near the temple at Delphi ; and, according 
 to the received opinion, by Apollo himself, in com- 
 memoration of his victory over the serpent Pytho. 
 They were originally celebrated once in nine years, 
 but afterward every fifth year. The gods them- 
 selves were among the number of combatants. 
 The first prizes were won by Pollux in boxing ; by 
 Castor in horse-racing ; by Hercules in the pancra- 
 tium ; by Zetes in fighting with armor ; by Calais 
 in running ; by Telamo in wrestling ; and by Pelius 
 in throwing the quoit. These illustrious conquerors 
 were rewarded by Apollo himself, who was present 
 with crowns of laurel. Some writers suggest that 
 at first it was only a musical contention, in which he 
 who sung best the praises of Apollo obtained the 
 prize, either of gold or silver, or a garland ; and that 
 Hesiod was refused admission to these games, be- 
 cause he was not able to play on the harp or lyre, 
 which was required of all such as entered the lists. 
 The songs sung were called "the Pythian modes," 
 and represented the fight and victory of Apollo over 
 Pytho. These games were afterward introduced 
 into Rome, and there called Apollinares Ludi. 
 
 The temple and shrine of Apollo at Delphi may 
 lay claim to the highest antiquity, from mention 
 made of them by Homer, and from the accounts given 
 us by Pausanias and Strabo. The Homeric Hymn 
 to Apollo informs us, that when the Pythian god 
 was establishing his oracle at Delphi, he beheld on 
 the sea a merchant ship from Crete : this he directs 
 
282 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 to Orissa, and appoints the foreigners the servants 
 of his newly-established sanctuary, near which they 
 settled. This story, stripped of the language of 
 poetry, means that a Cretan colony founded the 
 temple and oracle at Delphi. Strabo says it was first 
 consulted only by the neighboring states ; but that 
 after its fame became widely spread, foreign princes 
 and nations eagerly sought responses from the sacred 
 tripod, and loaded the altar of the god with rich 
 and costly offerings. Pausanias tells us, that the 
 most ancient temple of Apollo at Delphi was formed 
 out of branches of laurel, and that those branches 
 were cut from the tree which was at Tempe. To this 
 primitive temple succeeded two others one of wax 
 and another of brass which finally gave place to a 
 more stately edifice of stone, by Trophonius and 
 Agamedes. This temple was accidentally destroyed 
 by fire B. C. 548. The council of the Amphictyons 
 undertook to build another for the sum of three 
 hundred talents, for which the Delphians were to 
 pay one fourth ; and the remainder was contributed 
 by other cities and nations. (The Amphictyons 
 were twelve deputies, who represented the respective 
 nations of Greece, and were instituted to unite the 
 various communities in a common bond of amity, 
 and make them vigilant for the tranquillity and 
 happiness of their common country ; they were also 
 the protectors of the Delphic oracle, and guardians 
 of its treasures, and adjudged all differences between 
 the Delphians and those who came to consult the 
 oracle. Their decisions were held sacred and in- 
 violable, and even arms were taken up to enforce 
 them.) The new temple was built of Porine stone, 
 with a front of Parian marble ; the architect was 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 283 
 
 Spintliarus of Corinth. The vast riches that were 
 there accumulated led Xerxes, after he had forced 
 the pass of Thermopylae, to attempt the seizure 
 of Delphi and its treasures; but the enterprise 
 failed, owing, as it was reported by the Delphians, 
 to the manifest interposition of their deity, who 
 terrified the barbarians, and, by a panic, scattered 
 their bands. Subsequent to this event, the Phocions, 
 to defray the expenses of the war they were then 
 waging with the Thebans, plundered the temple to 
 the enormous amount of ten thousand talents, (equal 
 to 2,250,000.) At a still later period it was ran- 
 sacked of its treasures by the Gauls under Brennus. 
 In the time of Strabo the temple was greatly im- 
 poverished. Nero carried off five hundred statues 
 of bronze at one time, and Constantine removed the 
 sacred tripods to adorn the Hippodrome of his new 
 city, as well as the statues of Apollo and the Heli- 
 conian Muses. Among the tripods was the famous 
 one which the Greeks, after the battle of Plataea, 
 found in the camp of Mardonius ; the brazen column 
 which supported this tripod is still to be seen at 
 Constantinople. 
 
 The answers of the god were delivered to those 
 who came to consult the oracle by a priestess named 
 Py thia, who was supposed to be suddenly inspired by 
 the sulphureous vapors which issued from an orifice 
 of a subterraneous cavity within the temple, over 
 which she sat bare on a three-legged stool, called a 
 tripod. The effect of the vapor caused the priestess 
 to be convulsed ; and, with eyes sparkling and her 
 hair on an end, she spoke the oracles often confused, 
 amid bowlings and cries, which were set down in or- 
 der by the priest. The priestess was always required 
 
284: SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 to be dressed in the garments of a virgin, and was 
 bound by the strictest laws of temperance and chas- 
 tity. The Pythia was only consulted one month in 
 the year about the spring. It was required that 
 those who consulted the oracle should make large 
 presents to Apollo ; and thence arose the opulence, 
 splendor, and magnificence of the celebrated temple. 
 Sacrifices were also offered to the divinity ; and if 
 the omens proved unfavorable, the priestess refused 
 to give an answer. 
 
 The sacred tripod, as already stated, was placed 
 over the mouth of a cave, whence proceeded the 
 exhalation. The cavern was of great depth ; but no 
 traces of the sacred aperture remain at the present 
 day : but from a passage in Strabo, that " the navel 
 of the earth was in the Temple of Apollo," some 
 travelers are of opinion that it ought to be searched 
 for in the very middle of the ancient city. 
 
 In the remains of several heathen temples, though 
 in ruins, there are traces of the secret ways of access, 
 which the priests possessed, undiscovered by the 
 spectators. Dr. E. D. Clarke found such in a temple 
 at Argos ; also a secret chamber in an oracular cave 
 at Telmessus. A private staircase still exists, leading 
 to the Adytum in the Temple of Isis at Pompeii. 
 
 Among the discoveries of Layard, at Khorsabad, 
 are sculptured several forms of tripods, and also the 
 triangular altar. 
 
 In the collection of the Townley Gallery in the 
 British Museum there is a bass-relief representing a 
 warrior seated, consulting the oracle of Apollo. The 
 god stands before him, resting his right hand upon 
 a lyre, through which is seen a raven, a bird which 
 has been noticed as an accompaniment of Apollo. 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 285 
 
 Scarcely any important enterprises were undertaken 
 by the ancients until the oracles of the gods had been 
 consulted, and in no instances were they resorted to 
 with more zeal than at the commencement or during 
 the prosecution of a war. Alexander the Great 
 consulted the Pythian oracle before he waged war 
 with the Persians ; and Pyrrhus did not venture to 
 assist the people of Tarentum against the Romans 
 until he had received a favorable answer from the 
 oracle. 
 
 At Patara, a town of Lycia, on the eastern side 
 of the mouth of the Xanthus, there was a temple and 
 oracle of Apollo, where the god resided for the six 
 winter months, the rest of the year residing at 
 Delphi. The worship of Apollo was spread through- 
 out Lycia. At Xanthus there was a grove sacred 
 to Latona, near the ancient temple of the Lycian 
 Apollo. 
 
 In the same collection may be seen another bass- 
 relief, representing a father and two sons consulting 
 the oracle of Apollo. They are clothed alike in the 
 Roman military costume, and each has his right hand 
 upon his breast, to express his reverence of the god. 
 Apollo is seated on the cover of the tripod, on which 
 the priestess of the oracle usually sat when delivering 
 the response of the god, whose sentiments she was 
 supposed to be privy to. In this sculpture Latona 
 and Diana, the mother and sister of Apollo, stand 
 between him and the warriors, the former holding 
 in her left hand the offering which has been made 
 to the god, and which appears to be frankincense. 
 
 The small island of Delos, in the iEgean Sea, cele- 
 brated as being the birthplace of Apollo and Diana, 
 and which at one time contained one of the richest 
 
286 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 cities of Greece, was the sacred island of Apollo. It 
 abounds with remains of ancient structures, covering 
 the ground to such an extent that it admits of little 
 or no culture ; and there was a famous colossal statue 
 of the god, some remains of which, yet in existence, 
 are of gigantic size : although said to have been cut 
 from a single block of marble, the thigh is nine feet 
 in circumference. By an inscription we are told 
 it was dedicated by " the Naxians to Apollo." By 
 Homer's Hymn to Delos, it appears that at that early 
 date it was celebrated for a great festival to Apollo. 
 There was an altar said to have been erected by Apollo 
 at the age of four years, and made by the horns of 
 goats killed by Diana. Upon this altar it was not 
 lawful to sacrifice any living creature. The god there 
 delivered his oracles in the summer, in a plain man- 
 ner, and without any ambiguity or obscure meaning. 
 The temples were overthrown, and the entire island 
 laid waste by the soldiers of Mithridates, and has 
 remained from that time one scene of desola- 
 tion. 
 
 The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was the most 
 celebrated among the Grecian nations; and the 
 importance the Greeks and Eomans attached to 
 oracular responses, leads to an inquiry into the dis- 
 position and habits of all people, from the earliest 
 ages of the world, to gratify their curiosity regarding 
 the future, and the desire to penetrate into its mys- 
 teries. Among nations that have made but little 
 advancement in civilization and intelligence, this 
 craving desire for diving into futurity exerts a 
 powerful control over the minds of men in every 
 stage of society ; and in combination with a belief 
 that the gods had the ability to afford the knowledge 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 287 
 
 so eagerly longed for, we see the origin of the oracles 
 of the pagan world. 
 
 It may even be said that among the Jews we find 
 several kinds of oracles. Those delivered viva voce, 
 as when God spoke to Moses face to face. Prophetical 
 dreams, as when God foretold to Joseph his future 
 greatness. The response of Urim and Thummim, 
 which accompanied the ephod worn by the high- 
 priest. This manner of inquiring of the Lord was 
 often used from Joshua's time to the erection of the 
 Temple, after which they consulted the prophets. 
 The most famous oracle of Palestine was that of 
 Baal-zebub, King of Ekron, which the Jews them- 
 selves consulted ; there were also the oracular Ter- 
 aphim, the ephod of Gideon, and the false gods of 
 Samaria, which had their oracles. 
 
 The Hebrews, living thus in the midst of an 
 idolatrous people accustomed to receive oracles, 
 and to have recourse to diviners, magicians, and 
 interpreters of dreams, would have been under a 
 more powerful temptation if God had not afforded 
 them certain means of knowing some future events, 
 by prophets, in their most urgent necessities. And 
 thus, when Moses had forbidden the Israelites to 
 continue the practice, he promised to send them a 
 prophet of their own nation, who would instruct 
 them in the truth. 
 
 The most ancient oracle on record is, probably, 
 that given to Rebekah in Genesis xxv. But the 
 most complete is that of the child Samuel ; the place 
 was the residence of the ark, the regular station of 
 worship ; the manner was by a distinct and audible 
 voice ; the subject of the highest national im- 
 portance no less than a public calamity, with the 
 
 18 
 
288 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 ruin of the first family in the land. This communi- 
 cative voice, issuing from the interior of the sanc- 
 tuary, was properly an oracle. It may also be said 
 that the highest instances of oracles are those voices 
 which, being formed in the air by a power superior 
 to nature, bore testimony to the celestial character 
 of the Divine Messiah,- as at his baptism, and again 
 at his transfiguration. " And this voice from heav- 
 en," says Peter, " we heard." Nothing can exceed 
 the sublimity, grandeur, and majesty of these ora- 
 cles, and they could not but forcibly impress the 
 minds of the witnesses. These communications 
 were marked by simplicity and distinctness ; remote 
 from ambiguity and double-meaning, they spoke 
 out their purport explicitly. 
 
 In the early period of the Christian Church the 
 gifts of prophecy and inspiration were frequent ; 
 after that time the greater part of the heathen ora- 
 cles fell into contempt and silence : but it appears, 
 from the edicts of the Roman emperors, that oracles 
 existed and were consulted so late as A. D. 358. 
 After that period few resorted to them, and there 
 was then no interest to retain them. Toward this 
 consummation Christianity powerfully contributed, 
 by the superior enlightenment it everywhere car- 
 ried, and by the display which it made of the false- 
 hood and folly of the superstitions it was designed 
 to overthrow. 
 
 Thus, throughout all time, in never-ceasing change, 
 until the final accomplishment of God's divine law, 
 
 Worlds on worlds are rolling over 
 
 From creation to decay, 
 Like the bubbles on a river, 
 
 Sparkling, bursting, borne away; 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 289 
 
 But they are still immortal. 
 Who, through birth's orient portal, 
 And Death's dark chasm hurrying to and fro, 
 
 Clothe their unceasing flight 
 
 In the brief dust and light 
 Gather'd around their chariots as they go ; 
 
 New shapes they still may weave, 
 
 New gods, new laws, receive ; 
 Bright or dim as they, as the robes they last 
 
 On death's bare ribs had cast. 
 
 A power from the unknown God ; 
 A Promethean conqueror came, 
 Like the triumphal paths he trod 
 The thorns of death and shame. 
 A mortal shape to him 
 Was like the vapor dim 
 Which the orient planet animates with light ; 
 Hell, sin, and slavery came, 
 Like bloodhounds mild and tame, 
 Nor prey'd until their lord had taken flight. 
 The moon of Mohammed 
 Arose, and it shall set : 
 While blazon'd as on heaven's immortal noon 
 The cross leads generations on. 
 
 Swift as the radiant shapes of sleep 
 
 From one whose dreams are paradise, 
 Fly, when the fond wretch wakes to weep, 
 And day peer's forth from her blank eyes ! 
 So fleet, so faint, so fair, 
 The powers of earth and air 
 Fled from the folding star of Bethlehem ; 
 Apollo, Pan, and Love, 
 And even Olympian Jove 
 Grew weak, for killing truth had glared on them : 
 Our hills, and seas, and streams 
 Dispeopled of their dreams, 
 Their waters turn'd to blood, their dew to tears, 
 Wail'd for the golden years. 
 
 The celebrated statue called the Apollo Belvedere, 
 which is universally allowed to be one of the finest 
 
290 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 specimens of sculpture extant, was found among the 
 ruins of ancient Antium, in Italy. It was purchased 
 by Pope Julius II., and by him placed in the Bel- 
 vedere of the Vatican; whence its name. It is 
 supposed to be the work of Agasius the Ephesian. 
 It is a standing figure, more than seven feet high, 
 and represents the god naked, except the cloak, 
 which is fastened round his neck, and hangs over the 
 extended arm. The left hand and fore-arm were 
 lost, and were restored by G. Angelo de Montorsoli, 
 a pupil of Michael Angelo; so that the original 
 action can only be conjectured. It was supposed 
 to represent tne god at the moment of having 
 discharged an arrow at the serpent Python, watch- 
 ing the effect of his weapon : and accordingly, in 
 the restoration, part of a bow was placed in the 
 left hand. Lord Byron beautifully describes the 
 statue : 
 
 The lord of the unerring bow, 
 The god of life, and poetry, and light, 
 The Sun in human limbs array'd, and brow 
 All radiant from his triumph in the fight ; 
 The shaft has just been shot the arrow bright 
 With an immortal's vengeance ; in his eye 
 And nostril beautiful disdain ; and might 
 And majesty flash their full lightnings by, 
 Developing in that one glance the Deity. 
 
 Pindar, in his seventh Olympian ode, which is 
 addressed to Diagoras the Khodian, on his victory 
 with the csestus in the seventy-ninth Olympiad, em- 
 bodies so much of the mythical history of Ehodes, 
 that it forms an appropriate conclusion to the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 This beautiful ode, which was said to have been 
 written in letters of gold, and suspended in the 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 291 
 
 Temple of Minerva, commences with a highly 
 poetical simile drawn from domestic life, which 
 introduces the praise of the victor and his race. 
 He then proceeds to the story of Tlepolenlus, an 
 ancestor of Diagoras, who departed for Ehodes at 
 the command of Apollo ; the shower of gold which 
 Jupiter caused to descend there ; then follow the 
 fables respecting the origin of Ehodes, the birth of 
 Pallas, the ancient sacrifices, and the gifts imparted 
 by her to favored Khodians, especially their skill in 
 statuary. Then succeeds a digression on the con- 
 secration of the island to the Sun (Hyperionides.) 
 After a panegyric on Tlepolemus and Diagoras, the 
 ode concludes with an invocation to Jupiter, to 
 whom divine honors were paid on Atabyrius, a 
 mountain of Ehodes, propitiating his continued 
 favor for both poet and victor ; and a moral reflec- 
 tion on the mutability of human fortune. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians in statuary, as in all 
 other achievements of the hand of man, in mag- 
 nitude of proportion, far outstrip every other people 
 of the world. 
 
 I met a traveler from an antique land 
 
 Who said, " Two vast and sunkless legs of stone 
 
 Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, 
 
 A shatter'd visage lies, whose frown 
 
 And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 
 
 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 
 
 Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, 
 
 The hand that mark'd them, and the heart that fed : 
 
 And on the pedestal these words appear : 
 
 ' My name is Oxymandius, king of kings ; 
 
 Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair !' 
 
 Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 
 
 Of that colossal wreck boundless and bare 
 
 The loose and level sands stretch far away." Shelly. 
 
292 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 In the remains of the large edifice called the Mem- 
 nonium is the great colossal statue of red granite 
 broken off at the waist, the upper part lying on its 
 back. In its fall it carried with it the whole temple- 
 wall within its reach. The features are entirely 
 obliterated by the hand of man ; and to the same 
 cause we must attribute the destruction of the statue. 
 The left foot, which is entire, measures six feet ten 
 inches across ; it is sixty-two feet round the shoul- 
 ders ; and the length of the nail of the second toe 
 to its insertion is twenty-three inches. The hiero- 
 glyphic characters engraved upon the arm are large 
 enough for a man to walk in. There is in the 
 British Museum a colossal fist of red granite, which 
 is said to have belonged to this statue ; by whom it 
 was broken off is unknown, but it was surrendered 
 to the British among other antiquities obtained by 
 the French in Egypt. 
 
 Belzoni obtained from this place a colossal head, 
 which has sustained much injury, which is now in 
 the British Museum. The height of this fragment 
 is eight feet. Norden, a traveler, who saw the 
 statue entire, in 1737, gives a measurement of 
 twenty feet, and that it was of a single piece of 
 black granite. The material of which the statue 
 is made is a fine kind of Syene granite of one entire 
 mass, but of two colors. The head has, with great 
 judgment, been formed out of the red part of the 
 granite, while the dark part was appropriated to 
 the breast, and probably also to the rest of the 
 body. The figure was in a sitting posture, like 
 most of the Egyptian colossal statues ; for Belzoni 
 found it near the remains of its body and chair. 
 From the size of the fragment we should judge 
 
COLOSSUS OF ERODES. 293 
 
 the entire height was twenty-four feet. The weight 
 of the mass is estimated at between ten and twelve 
 tons. 
 
 It is universally agreed that this is one of the finest 
 specimens of Egyptian colossal sculpture now known 
 to exist ; and if we admit it to be a work of genuine 
 Egyptian art (of which there can be no doubt) we 
 may consider it a favorable specimen of what that 
 nation could accomplish. For so hard and unwieldy 
 a mass to be wrought even into any resemblance to 
 the human form, and polished to so high a degree^ 
 would of itself be a labor worthy of admiration ; 
 but that the proportions of the parts should have 
 been so well preserved, and that beauty should have 
 been impressed on this colossal face, proves that at 
 least some kinds of sculpture were once carried to a 
 high degree of perfection in Egypt; though they 
 may not be of that description of art which our ear- 
 liest associations teach us to admire. In the colossal 
 statues of Egypt calmness and repose are the most 
 striking characteristics ; but this figure shows some- 
 what more. It represents a young man : the breast 
 is broad and well-defined. The beard, united in one 
 mass, adheres to the chin. The line of the eyebrows 
 perhaps does not project enough above the eyeball ; 
 the tip of the nose, too, is perhaps too much rounded, 
 and the ears, as usual in Egyptian statues, are placed 
 too high ; but even with these defects, and with lips 
 too thick for our notions, the face is full of softness, 
 tranquillity, and beauty. 
 
 This statue has received the name of the younger 
 Memnon, partly because it was found in the temple 
 to which the name of Memnonium has been given ; 
 partly, also, because it is supposed to belong to the 
 
294 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 same class with the statues so celebrated under the 
 name of Memnon. 
 
 In the plains of Thebes are two colossal statues 
 seated on their chairs ; they are about fifty feet high, 
 and seated each on a pedestal which is six feet in 
 height, eighteen long, and forty-four broad. The two 
 statues are but forty-four feet asunder, and face the 
 same point of the compass, south-south-east. In size, 
 character, and proportion they are very similar ; the 
 one to the south is of a broken block of stone, the 
 northern has been broken at the waist. On the 
 pedestals which support them are carved a variety 
 of hieroglyphical representations, with the usual 
 mystic symbols ; and on the sides of the thrones on 
 which they are seated, two priests are represented 
 tightening with their hands and feet bands of lotus- 
 stalks, which are apparently to keep upright a plat- 
 form on which the thrones themselves are supposed 
 to be placed. These two statues, though so muti- 
 lated, are deserving of particular attention, because 
 they still present us with the whole effect produced 
 by the largest colossi in their original position ; the 
 impression is not destroyed by the injuries they 
 have sustained. 
 
 At Ipsambul, in Lower Nubia, in front of the 
 great rock-cut temple, the indefatigable Belzoni, 
 after clearing away the accumulated sand of centu- 
 ries, brought to the light of day four enormous sit- 
 ting colossi, which, excepting the great sphinx, are 
 the largest in existence, the height of them being 
 fifty feet : two only are exposed, the others are par- 
 tially buried in the sand. They are in front of the 
 temple. All travelers represent these figures to be 
 the most beautiful colossi that any of the Egyptian 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 295 
 
 ruins present ; the assemblage of grace in the fea- 
 tures, which are still in high preservation, evinces a 
 beauty of expression that is the more striking, as it 
 is the more unlooked-for in statutes of such dimen- 
 sions. On the top of the door of the temple is a 
 figure of Osiris, twenty feet high, with colossal hie- 
 roglyphic figures beside it : on the top of the temple, 
 over a frieze, is a cornice, on which is a row of 
 twenty-one sitting monkeys, eight feet high. 
 
 There is a smaller rock-cut temple at Ipsambul ; 
 the approach to it being free from sand, shows the 
 whole front, which is close to the River Nile, and 
 twenty feet above its usual level. The whole depth 
 of the front is seventy-six feet. The front of the 
 temple is inclosed in a square border or frame, 
 which is covered with hieroglyphics, as are likewise 
 the doorway in the center, and the jambs, that sepa- 
 rate six colossal statues thirty feet high. Two of the 
 figures are females, and both supposed to represent 
 Isis. The four others, which are male figures, have 
 each a smaller figure by its side : one of these rep- 
 resents Osiris. The name of Rameses appears in 
 numerous places on the border. The date of this 
 king was B. C. 1355. At Essaboua, on the Nile, 
 are the remains of a very ancient temple, partly 
 rock-cut and partly constructed, approached by an 
 avenue of sphinxes, thirty feet wide, and two colos- 
 sal figures in front ; and at the entrance are ruins 
 of four colossal figures. This is supposed to be of 
 prior date to Thebes. 
 
 There is in the British Museum a colossal statue 
 in a complete state, which, although not a fifth part 
 of the size of those just described, will convey to 
 the mind some idea of those eaormous figures. The 
 
296 SEVEN WONDERS OP THE WORLD. 
 
 height of it is nine feet six inches. It is supposed to 
 represent Anranoph III., or Memnon, a sovereign of 
 Egypt, 1430 B. C. Considering the early period at 
 which it was executed, it is not without merit as a 
 work of art. In the British Museum may also be 
 seen a colossal Egyptian head which was found at 
 Karnak. It is of red granite polished to a degree of 
 smoothness, and is perfect, except the left ear and 
 part of the chin, which are broken off. It is sur- 
 mounted by a sort of miter, and the entire height of 
 head and miter is ten feet. There is also a colossal 
 arm, which, doubtless, originally belonged to this 
 figure ; and judging from the appearance of the arm 
 we may conclude they formed part of a standing 
 statue of the height of twenty-six feet. In front of 
 the cap appears the serpent, the Egyptian emblem 
 of royalty. 
 
 But all these colossi are dwarfs compared with the 
 great sphinx at Jizeh. By Pliny we are told : " The 
 sphinx is in front of the Pyramids an object more 
 wonderful than they and a kind of rural deity to the 
 neighboring people. They think King Amasis was 
 buried in it, and that it was conveyed to the spot ; 
 but it is made of the natural rock, and polished 
 smooth." The size from the chin to the top of the 
 head is said to be twenty-eight feet, and the body is 
 above one hundred feet long. This figure, which 
 for ages has been buried in the sand, was by Cavig- 
 lia, after great labor, laid bare to the foundation. 
 The paws, which are about fifty feet long, are con- 
 structed of masonry, but the rest of the body is cut 
 out of the rock. On the stone pavement, in front 
 of the sphinx, and between his paws, there was 
 found a block of granite fourteen feet high, seven 
 
COLOSSUS OF ERODES. 297 
 
 broad, and two thick : the face of which is adorned 
 with sculptures in bass-relief, and long inscriptions 
 well executed. 
 
 In the British Museum there is a colossal statue, 
 the head of which is gone. This figure was formerly 
 placed upon the summit of a monument situate on 
 the south side of the Acropolis of Athens. This 
 edifice, known as the Choragic Monument of Thra- 
 syllus, was constructed 320 B. C. ; and, by an in- 
 scription remaining on it, we learn that it was raised 
 by Thrasyllus to perpetuate the memory of a victory 
 obtained by his tribe at the festival of Bacchus, 
 while Thrasyllus was leader of the chorus. The 
 figure is, by artists and connoisseurs, decided to 
 represent Bacchus, the god of joy. 
 
 In the British Museum may also be seen a colossal 
 head, which probably belonged to a copy of the fa- 
 mous statue of Hercules, by Gly con, which was found v 
 in the baths of Caracala at Rome. The head is of 
 the finest class of Greek sculpture, and was dug up 
 at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, where it had been 
 buried by the lava ; it was obtained by Sir ~W. 
 Hamilton, and by him was presented to the Mu- 
 seum. The bust measures two feet six inches in 
 height. 
 
 In the interior of the Island of Java there are 
 remains of very large temples, with marble statues 
 of their gods eight feet high. At Chandisevu are 
 most splendid remains of a temple, the entrance to 
 which is guarded by eighteen gigantic watchmen. 
 
 The great statue at Sumnat inHindoostan, twenty- 
 six feet high, was made of marble, inlaid with gold 
 and precious stones, as were also the fifty-six mon- 
 strous pillars of the hall in which it stood. 
 
298 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WOKLD. 
 
 Among the Greeks colossal statues were not un- 
 common. Pausanias mentions several that were 
 thirty feet high. The people of Elis set up a bronze 
 statue of Jupiter, twenty-seven feet high, in the 
 sacred grove near Olympia. The colossus which 
 Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plains of Dura was 
 " an image of gold, [probably gilt,] whose height 
 was three-score cubits." And the colossal statue of 
 Belus, which Herodotus mentions as having once 
 existed at Babylon, was of solid gold, and twelve 
 cubits high. 
 
 Among the colossal statues of modern times, we 
 may notice the very remarkable and spirited group 
 of Peter the Great at St.Petersburgh, by Falconet, 
 a French sculptor. The emperor is on horseback, 
 his steed is in the act of charging, and is on his hind 
 legs ; the figure of the emperor is over eleven feet 
 in height, that of the horse is seventeen feet. The 
 group is in bronze, and was cast at a single jet; the 
 weight of it is thirty-six thousand six hundred and 
 thirty-six pounds. It stands upon a rock of granite, 
 weighing fifteen hundred tons, which was conveyed 
 a distance of four miles. 
 
 Within the last two years the world has seen, in 
 the production of Schwanthaler's colossal statue of 
 Bavaria, a specimen of contribution of our own day 
 to gigantic form. This stupendous work of art aw- 
 ful in its Titanic proportions, and its calm majestic 
 beauty the result of ten years' constant anxiety 
 stands on a broad meadow to the west of Munich, 
 a portion of the great plain that stretches away 
 to the feet of the Alps. It rests on the edge of what 
 appears at first to be an artificial terrace, but it is 
 in fact a huge step, where the plain suddenly de- 
 
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. 299 
 
 scends into that lower plain on which stands the 
 city of Munich. The figure of this colossal virgin 
 of the German world with her majestic lion by 
 her side is fifty-four feet high, and is placed on a 
 granite pedestal, thirty feet in height; so that the 
 beautiful Doric temple of the Ruhmeshalle, or Hall 
 of Fame, of white marble, before which the statue 
 is placed, seems dwarfed into insignificance. 
 
 At the end of the long walk in "Windsor Park, 
 there is placed on the top of a hill an artificial group 
 of massy stone, so placed as to represent a rock, a 
 colossal equestrian statue of George the Third, by 
 Wyatt: the horse and rider are twenty-six feet in 
 height ; the total elevation, including the rock, is 
 fifty feet. The approach from the castle is through 
 a vista of lofty trees, so that the spectator does not 
 realize the colossal dimensions of the statue till he 
 close unto it. 
 
 With the conclusion of his labors, the compiler of 
 this volume congratulates his readers on the im- 
 proved spirit of an age in which the constant 
 developments of human progress compare with the 
 seven wonders of ancient times as does reality with 
 fancy ; as does a substantial utility with showy 
 ornament. 
 
 Indeed, the present age, at least in enlightened 
 countries, rises above the past as does a heaven- 
 inspired Christianity above a groveling heathenism, 
 so that now, instead of honoring the pagan cus- 
 tom of heaping up huge piles to incumber the earth, 
 we only accord our admiration to achievements which 
 benefit our race and confer real blessings on man- 
 kind. 
 
 The age of pyramids and colossal statues is past ; 
 
300 SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 but now we have steamboats, railroads, and tbe 
 magnetic telegraph. Instead of wondering now at 
 a single watch-tower, with fires fitfully burning on 
 its top, we may find the coasts of all oceans nightly 
 illuminated with light-houses, scientifically con- 
 structed, and made to reflect their rays upon the 
 sea for the benefit of passing and approaching mar- 
 iners. 
 
 "What is still better, instead of a blind and de- 
 grading idolatry to paralyze the moral feelings of 
 men and nations, the best capacities of our natures 
 are now cultivated and developed by those enter- 
 prises of benevolence which seek to enlighten and 
 bless the world by diffusing everywhere abroad the 
 knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, the 
 Saviour of mankind. 
 
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