Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2) With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition

The height of the temple thus repaired is said to have been one thousand two hundred feet. The stones of which it was built were all of marble, forty cubits long, twelve thick,...

This is one of the largest edifices ever built for the purpose of Christian worship; but though built by Constantine, it is evident, from the barbarous style of art which pervad...

Mahmoud was now king of Persia. But, some time after, fearing a revolt of the people of Isfahan, he invited all the nobles of the city to a feast, and the moment they arrived, a...

The sepulchres of the kings of Judah consist of a series of subterranean chambers, extending in different directions, so as to form a sort of labyrinth, resembling the still mor...

For the following particulars we are, principally, indebted to Mr. Rich, several years British minister at Bagdad. "The town of Hillah, enclosed within a brick wall, and known t...

To the west of this, at about two hundred yards distance, are the remains of a small temple, with three Corinthian pillars, still standing. Not far from this are two colonnades,...

[65] The theatre of the ancients was divided into three principal parts; each of which had its peculiar appellation. The division for the actors was called in general the _scene...

At the time Barthelemy has named, the temple was beginning to be rebuilt[236]. All the citizens had contributed, and the women had sacrificed their jewels. No change was made in...

Astyages, king of the Medes, was succeeded by Cyaxares, uncle to Cyrus. Cyaxares, learning that the king of Babylon had made great preparations against him, sent for Cyrus, son...

The state of the city is deplorable. The emirs of the house of Harfoushe had already greatly impaired it, when an earthquake, in 1759, completed its destruction; insomuch, that...

This name it retained in the time of Adrian, and Greek medals were struck here in honour of that emperor as well as of Trajan. Its ruins are thus described by Belzoni:--"On the...

The Corinthians and several other allies, especially the Thebans, insisted that it was absolutely necessary to destroy the city without hearkening any further to a treaty. But t...

In one or two spots may be observed square platforms of large stones, many of which are chiselled over with the finest Arabic characters. These, however, are evidently tomb-ston...

This city was, subsequently, called Babel; and the temple of Belus being the oldest temple recorded in history, it has been generally supposed, that it was no other than the tow...

Alexander, in his way to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, observed, opposite to the island of Pharos, a spot which he thought extremely well adapted for the building of a city. He,...

Though the ancient boundaries, however, cannot be determined, heaps of rubbish are on all sides visible; whence every shower of rain, not to mention the industry of the natives...

Near the Piræan gate is still to be seen, in a state of admirable preservation, the ground-plot and entire town of the Pnyx, or place of _parliament_ of the Athenians, as it was...

"He set out from Cairo on the 6th of February, 1818, went to the Kaia Bey, and gained permission; the Bey having first satisfied himself that there was no tilled ground within a...

As Balbec has never been the seat of a monarch, antiquaries are greatly at a loss to conceive how the expense of these magnificent structures could have been supplied by private...

The Corinthian order having been invented at Corinth, we cannot refuse ourselves the satisfaction of quoting a passage from Dr. Brewster's treatise on Civil Architecture:--"The...

After having divided their immoveables, he undertook likewise to make the same equal division of all their moveable goods and chattels, that he might utterly banish all manner o...

"How majestic, and how perfect in its preservation," says Dr. Clarke, "rises the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus; and how sublime the whole group of objects with which it is ass...

Capua, once the chief city of Campania, was founded by Capys, who is described as having been the father, or rather the companion, of Anchises. It was at one time so opulent, th...

The Castalian spring, however, still exists, and equally clear as in ancient times. It is ornamented with ivy, and overshadowed by a large fig-tree, the roots of which have pene...

He did not march directly, and with his front to the enemy, but in a column upon the hills, with his left wing foremost, as if he did not intend to fight that day. When he was o...

Some trifling fragments of edifices, and the traces of its triple walls, are all that remain of the Byrsa's splendid fanes and palaces; though many pieces of rare marbles have b...

Antigonus had built a city at a small distance from the spot on which Antioch was afterwards erected, and this he called after his own name, Antigonia. After his death Seleucus,...

We must now pass to the war, which soon after occurred between the Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia. In this war the Carthaginians were, in the end, worsted. Scipio...

The British consul at Rhodes states, that a fine colossal statue of marble is still standing in the centre of the orchestra belonging to the theatre, the head of which the Turks...

This ruin Dr. Chandler considers as scarcely to be paralleled in its claim to remote antiquity. The situation on a lonely mountain at a distance from the sea has preserved it fr...

These curiosities consist not only of statues, busts, altars, inscriptions, and other ornamental appendages of Grecian opulence and luxury; but also comprehend an entire assortm...

Fallen, fallen, a silent heap; their heroes all Sunk in their urns:--Behold the pride of pomp, The throne of nations fallen; obscured in dust Even yet majestical.--The solemn sc...

Wheler visited the ruins of Paloeopoli, the ancient metropolis of the island. "It stood," says he, "on a promontory to the south of the present city, separated from it by a litt...

Of this celebrated city, which, according to Diodorus Siculus, was not less than seven leagues in circumference, and contained a multitude of beautiful temples, not one stone re...

[141] For these the curious reader may turn to the fine work of Messrs. Daukins and Wood. There are several plates of these ruins, also, in Pococke's and Bruce's travels. When a...

"I admire the language of politicians," says Rollin. "To hear them talk, it is always reason and the strictest justice that determine them; but to see them act, makes it evident...

[308] "Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which th...