Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/222

204 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/ea. Fronting- these halls, towards the interior, was a walk ioo cubits by ten wide, Avith doors looking northward. The upper chambers were smaller than the lower, or those in the centre of the building, on account of the galleries which encroached upon them, for they -were three-storied chambers, with no pillars like those of the courts, and for this reason they receded from those on the ground floor and the central chamber, relatively to the pavement. Parallel to the walls an outer stone partition ran the length of 50 cubits. 1 For these chambers were 50 cubits in length towards the exterior court, but 100 cubits on the side facing the temple. The doorway to these halls was east when you approached from the outer court. Fronting the inner court and the holy houses, southward, were also chambers with a walk similar to that on the north, whose length and width were proportional to their dimensions and the doorways. And as the doors of these chambers were also those of the south chambers, similarly there was an entrance at the beginning of the walk, namely the avenue facing the corresponding enclosure, to the eastward as you reached it " (Ezek. xlii. 1-12). We shall refer to this passage when we come to consider the details of the plan ; for the present it will be enough for our purpose to point out the position that we assign to the block of masonry just described. Since these apartments are in front of the after space and face the 20 cubits of the internal court, it is evident that the temple square and the after court, taken separately, cannot yield the length of 100 cubits ascribed to these chambers ; and that the length specified must be understood to cover both areas. A glance at our trellis-plan will show the arrangement of these apartments, with a façade 50 cubits towards the temple terrace, and other 50 cubits towards the after space ; " they are comprised, as the text has it, between the inner precincts and the " pavement of the outer court " (Fig. 129). 2 The side buildings, ecclesiastical and secular, being nicely fitted in place, we come to the block 1 The 50 cubits are rightly taken as width of the chambers by Reuss. 2 Smend failed to grasp the meaning of the text ; the greater dimension of the side buildings being made to correspond with the north and south faces of the temple square. Reuss has more insight, note 56, but owing to his not having guessed the trellis-plan scheme, is scarcely less unsatisfactory. The length in question, according to him, should be put " no matter in what proportion " between the two courts. We submit that the proportion allowed by the prophet will be found in our restoration.