the temple of Mugheir (Fig. 43). A high, rectangular plinth--decorated in
our restoration with glazed faience[459]--was interposed between the first
and second stage.[460] A rectangular chapel decorated, in all probability,
with metal plaques and glazed polychromatic bricks, crowned the whole.
Traces of this chapel have been found at Mugheir, and the wealth of its
decoration is attested by many pieces of evidence.[461] At Abou-Sharein
also there are vestiges of a small and richly ornamented sanctuary crowning
the second stage of a ruin whose aspect now bears a distinct resemblance to
that of the temple at Mugheir. The triple row of crenellations we have
given to this sanctuary or chapel was suggested by the altars and obelisks
(Fig. 107 and 111). Here, as at Nineveh, these battlements must have been
the one universal finish to the walls. The use to which we have put them is
quite in harmony with the spirit of Mesopotamian architecture, but there is
no direct evidence of their presence in these buildings. In this particular
our restoration is conjectural.

A glance at our longitudinal section (Fig. 169) will show that we have left
the main body of this great mass of sun-dried brick absolutely solid. It
was in vain that, at Mugheir, trenches and shafts were cut through the
flanks of the ruin, not a sign of any apartment or void of the most
elementary kind was found.[462]

This Mugheir temple rises hardly more than fifty feet above the level of
the plain. The restoration by M. Chipiez, for which it furnished the
elements, shows a height of 135 feet; judging from the proportions of its
remains the building can hardly have been higher than that. But it is
certain that many temples reached a far greater height, otherwise their
size could not have made any great impression upon travellers who had seen
the Egyptian pyramids. Even now the Birs-Nimroud, which has been undergoing
for so many centuries a continual process of diminution, rises no less than
235 feet above the surrounding country,[463] and Strabo, the only Greek
author who says anything precise as to the height of the greatest of the
Babylonian monuments, writes thus: "This monument, which was, they say,
overthrown by Xerxes, was a square pyramid of burnt brick, one stade
(606-3/4 feet) high, and one stade in diameter."[464]

The arrangement by which such a height could be most easily reached would
be the superposition of square masses one upon another, each mass bein