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Both pillars and columns rose direct from the parapet; except on the east front, where a flight of ten or twelve steps, enclosed between two walls of the same height as the platform, led up to the cella. The two columns at the head of the steps were wider apart than those of the opposite face, and through the space thus opened was seen a richly-decorated door.
No means were provided for reaching the summit, and its height had, so to speak, no raison d'être 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.
The necklace round the throat of the right-hand dragon should be noticed. It is surprising that stone lintels are so rare, especially as the corresponding piece, if we may call it so, namely, the sill or threshold, was generally of limestone or alabaster, at least in the more important and more richly-decorated rooms. Decorated lintel, 6 feel long and 10 inches high.
Bare stems, except in the palms, are unknown in this richly-decorated temple of Nature; climbing blade-plants with sword-like leaves of gold-striped verdure, huge orchids like many-coloured birds and butterflies fluttering in the wind, wreathe trunk and branch with fantastic splendour, and matted creepers weave curtains of dense foliage from spreading boughs.
So he wandered through richly-decorated marble halls, through carved galleries and spacious corridors, without seeing a living creature, until he came to a sleeping-room hung with silver tissue, and there, on a white satin bed, lay the headless body of a young and beautiful girl!
Then he took from one of them a magnificent war bonnet of white eagles' plumes, and from another a robe of soft doeskin adorned with beautiful designs in coloured beads and porcupine quills and needlework in brilliant silk. From a third he took a chief's staff of office, and from a fourth a pair of richly-decorated moccasins.
The reredos is lined by beautiful glass mosaics, and the semi-dome is mosaic work to match. This sounds a mere catalogue, but it is quite impossible to give any idea of this singularly richly-decorated chapel without descending to detail. The tattered colours used at the Crimea and Waterloo hang from their staves on the pillars.
From the conversation of two Ionian mercenaries behind him he learnt that the family of Amasis had been to the temple to pray for the dying king. The procession was headed by richly-decorated priests, either wearing long white robes or pantherskins.
The cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine are in a little church outside the town the chapelle ronde, as the splendid little mausoleum is designated, its imposing monuments of black marble and richly-decorated octagonal dome, making up a solemn and beautiful whole.
From the conversation of two Ionian mercenaries behind him he learnt that the family of Amasis had been to the temple to pray for the dying king. The procession was headed by richly-decorated priests, either wearing long white robes or pantherskins.
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