unsuitable to the topographical
and climatic conditions that prevailed in their native land. They
achieved their highest results by means of correctness of proportion and
dignity of outline, giving far more attention to the exterior than to
the interior of their buildings, and in this respect differing greatly
from the Egyptians, who endeavoured to impress the spectator chiefly by
the vast extent and massiveness of their temples and palaces.

[Illustration: Doric Capital]

Recent discoveries on the site of Knossos in Crete of the remains of a
many-roomed palace, and elsewhere in the same island of circular stone
tombs, all of which betray strong Oriental influence, confirm the
opinion of archaeologists that it was in the islands of the AEgina Sea
that the first works of architecture properly so called were erected in
Europe. On the mainland of Greece, notably at Mycenae and Tiryns, exists
relics of many buildings, including at the former the noble Lion Gate
that gave access to the Acropolis, and at the latter the residence of a
chieftain, which maintain the continuity between the earliest and the
latest phase of Greek architecture, and may justly be said to presage
the triumphs of the Golden Age.

[Illustration: Column from the Parthenon]

From first to last Hellenic architecture was characterised by unity of
purpose, its grandest forms being essentially the same in general
principle as its earliest efforts, the mud walls with timber pillars
upholding a flat wooden roof, having been gradually transformed into
stately colonnaded structures in costly materials, that to this day
remain absolutely unrivalled in their exquisite beauty of proportion and
the close correlation of every detail with each other and the whole.

[Illustration: Portion of a Doric Entablature]

The grand temples of Greece were built either of stone or of marble. As
a general rule they are set on a platform to which a long flight of
steps lead up, and are enclosed within an outer wall or a continuous
colonnade. Their plan is extremely simple: a parallelogram, formed in
some cases entirely of columns, in others with walls at the side and
columns at the ends only, encloses a second and considerably smaller
pillared space known as the cella or naos, that enshrined the image of
the god to whom the building was dedicated, and was entered from a
pronaos or porch, and with a posticum or back space behind it, sometimes
supplemented by a kind of second ce