This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846 edition. Excerpt: ...the foreground of our view, occurs also in the excavations of the neighbouring island of Salsette, and in the caves of Ellora. Heeren remarks, that the shape of the pyramid necessarily excludes the notion of the arch, though the form of the latter was well known to the Hindoos, of which we have an example in the large excavation of Salsette. Several Hindoo buildings, also, are of a cupola-shape, which would hardly be used among a people where the principle on which an arch is constructed was unknown. But as we are unacquainted with the antiquity of the structures to which we allude, and have no means of forming any opinion about them except from a mere drawing intended for picturesque effect, it is quite impossible to come to any safe conclusion. It is a strong argument against the Hindoos knowing anything of the construction of the arclt, that they did not employ it for bridges, where its convenience recommends it in preference to any other form. In Lord Valentia's Travels (vol. i. p. 442) we have a view of the remains of an antient bridge over the Cavery, at Sivasamudra. It is formed of large columns of dark granite, each about 2 feet in diameter and 20 long, set upright, like the posts of a door, and joined at the top by another beam corresponding to the lintel. When the bridge was used, we suppose planks were laid from one cross-beam to the next, after the manner of the bridge at Babylon, which Herodotus describes. The exquisite polish that we observe on most of the Egyptian figures in the Museum, and also on the large granite block brought from Thebes by Belzoni (commonly called an altar), is the more surprising when we consider the excessive hardness of the material. The finger, as it moves along the face of the colossus opposite to...