Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/446

430 BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. Pakt II. formed so indestructible that whole towns remain perfect to the pres- ent day, as originally constructed in the first centuries of the Chris- tian era.^ One example must suifice to explain this curious mode of con- struction. The church at Tafkha is 50 feet square, exclusive of the apse. It is spanned by four arches, 7 feet 6 inches apart. On each side are galleries of flat slabs, resting on brackets, as shown in Woodcuts Nos. 860, 862, which again are suj)ported by smaller transverse arches. At one side is a tower, but this is roofed wholly by bracketing, as if the architect feared the thrust of the arch even at that height. The defect of this arrangement as an architectural expedient is the extreme frequency of the piers, 8 or 10 feet being the greatest distance practicable ; but as a mechanical expedient it is singularly ingenious. More internal space is obtained with a less ex])enditure of material and danger from thrust than from any mode of construction — wholly of stone — that we are acquainted with; and with a little practice it miglit no doubt be much improved upon. The Indian architects, as we shall presently see, attempted the same thing, but set about it in a diametrically opposite way. They absolutely refused to employ the arch under any circumstances, but bracketed forward till the space to be covered was so limited that a single stone would reach across. By this means they were enabled to roof spaces 20 or 25 feet span without arches, which is about the interval covered with their aid at Tafkha.2 Another circumstance which renders these Hauran examples interesting to the architectural student is that they contain no trace or reminiscence of wooden construction or adornment, so ajtparent in almost every other style. In Lycia it is absurdly so. In Egypt, in Greece, in India, in Persia — everywhere, in fact — we can trace back the principal forms of decoration to. a wooden original ; here alone all is lithic, and it is ])robably the only example of the sort that the whole history of architecture affords. If there are any churches in the Byzantine province of the age of which we are treating, whose naves are roofed by intersecting vaults, they have not yet been described in any accessible work ; but great tunnel-vaults have been introduced into several with effect. One such is found at Hierapolis, on the borders of Phrygia (Woodcut No. 864). It is divided by a bold range of piers into three aisles, the centre one ' A great deal of very irrelevant mat- ter has been written about these " giant cities of Baslian," as if their age were a matter of doubt. There is nothing in the Hauran which can by any possi- bility date before the time of Roman supremacy in the country. The very earliest now existing are probably sub- sequent to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. 2 The constructive dimensions of the porch at Chilumbrum (further on) are very similar to those of this church: both have flat stone roofs, but in the Indian, though a much more modern example, there is no arch.