Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/175

Bk. I. Gh. VI. NUEIA, 143 saniQ class and very similar in design to the large one. Its height, according to Lord Valentia, is 60 ft., its width at base nearly 10, and it is of one stone. The idea is evidently Egyptian, but the details are Indian. It is in fact an Indian nine-storied pagoda, translated in Egyptian in the first century of the Christian era ! The temple most like it in India is probably that at Budh Gya, That, in its present form, is undoubtedly more modern, but probably retains many of its original features. It also resembles the tower at Chittore,^ but towers are from their form such frail structures, that 45. Obelisks at Axmii. (From Lord Valentla's " Travels.") certainly nine-tenths of those that once existed have perished ; and it is only because they are so frequent still in China and other Buddhist countries that we are sure that the accounts are true which represent them as once as frequent as in the country of their birth. Be this as it may, this exceptional monolith exactly repre- sents that curious marriage of Indian with Egyptian art which we would expect to find in the spot where the two people came in con- tact, and enlisted architecture to symbolize their commercial union. 1 Woodcuts 982 and 1091 in the first edition of this History.