y reproducing one and
the same type for twenty centuries; their temples were not all shaped in
the same mould. The type of the Mugheir temple differed sensibly from that
of the Khorsabad _Observatory_. One of the Kouyundjik sculptures reveals a
curious variant of the traditional theme, so far as Assyria was concerned,
in an arrangement of the staged tower that we should never have suspected
but for the survival of this relief (Fig. 34). The picture in question is
no doubt very much abridged and far from true to the proportions of the
original, but yet it has furnished M. Chipiez with the elements of a
restoration in which conjecture has had very little to say. This we have
called the SQUARE ASSYRIAN TEMPLE (see Plate IV. and Figs. 180-182).

[Illustration: PLATE IV. SQUARE ASSYRIAN TEMPLE

Restored by Ch. Chipiez.]

According to the relief the tower itself rises upon a dome-shaped mound in
front of which there are a large doorway and two curved ramps. From all
that we know of Assyrian buildings of this kind we may be sure that the
original of the picture was so placed. The form of the mound may be
described as reproducing the extrados of a depressed arch. This is the only
form on which flights of steps with a curve similar to that here shown
could be constructed. The design of the steps in our plate corresponds
exactly to that indicated more roughly by the sculptor; no other means of
affording convenient access to the base of the tower--at least outside the
mound--could have been contrived. Two doors were pierced at the head of the
steps through the large panels with which the lower stage of the tower
itself was decorated, and from that point, so far as we can tell from the
relief, the ascent was continued by means of internal staircases. The
sculptor has only shown three stages, but--unless the absence of anything
above has been caused by the mutilation of the slab--we may suppose that he
has voluntarily suppressed a fourth.[470] In any case the third story is
too large to have formed the apex of the tower. The general proportions
suggest at least one more stage for the support of the usual chapel. The
latter we have restored as a timber structure covered with metal plates,
skins, or coloured planks. The three stages immediately below the chapel we
have decorated with painted imitations of panels, carried out either in
fresco or glazed brick. As for the internal arrangements we know very
little. The great doorway with