, will be found in the long
and important inscription translated by M. OPPERT, under the title:
_Annales de Sargon_ (PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 313).

[489] The sculptor has only introduced one; the other he has left for the
imagination of the spectator to fill in.

[490] Page 142.

Sec. 4.--_Comparison between the Chaldaean Temple and that of Egypt._

Although the ancients called them both by the same name, there are more
points of difference than of resemblance between the Egyptian pyramids and
the staged towers of Chaldaea. On the borders of the Nile we have the true
pyramid, the solid which bears that name in geometry. In Mesopotamia we
have a series of rectangular prisms placed one upon the other. At a
distance the gradual diminution of their size may give a pyramidal
appearance to the mass of which they form a part, but their walls are
vertical. Finally the contrast between the purposes of the two buildings is
still greater. The Egyptian pyramid is a tomb; its enormous mass is no more
than a monstrous development of the stone envelope to which the sarcophagus
was committed. No means were provided for reaching the summit, and its
height had, so to speak, no _raison d'etre_ or practical utility. In spite
of all the art lavished upon it a pyramid was hardly a building in the
proper sense of the word--it was a mere heap of building materials.

It was quite otherwise with the _zigguratt_, whose terminal platform
supported a richly-decorated sanctuary. Astronomers could make use of it
for observing the heavens under better conditions than were possible below;
chapels were also cut in the flanks of its lower stages, so that a
convenient means of approach to every story from top to bottom was
absolutely required. This necessity brought in its train the varied
arrangements of ramp and terrace of which we have endeavoured to give an
idea in our restorations. If we give rein to our imagination and allow it
for a moment to restore their crenellated parapets to the ramps and
terraces; if we set up the resting-places, rebuild the chapels and
pavilions and replace the statues; if we cover the sanctuary with its
vesture of bronze and gold, and the whole edifice with the surface
decoration to which the sun of Mesopotamia gave its fullest value, we shall
then understand how far superior, as an architectonic conception, the
Chaldaean _zigguratt_ was to the Egyptian pyramid. With its smooth and naked
face the latter was in so