The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-10-28
ABOUT WALLED CITIES.
GREAT FCRTIFICATloNs OF
GRANITE I'M EUROPE.
4 q
The Wonderful Walls Of Babylon and
Ninevah Have Never Been APP
preached - Mighty Earth
Ramparts In Egypt.

The walls of Rome are standing
monuments of the city's history from
the earliest times to within the last
half century; but owing to the extra
ordinary character ard variety of
their antiquarian objects. they hardly
come in for that share of the visitors
attention which they deserve.
Yet an inspection OF them with
their ancient and medieval gates the
many>styles Of their construction. each
pointing to particular period OF
their history. their size, and strength.
their odd little hooks and corners, and
their picturesqueness. is a journey
which convinces the stranger that they
would form the chief attraction OF
any othe- city but Rome
Indeed. as is not surprising. Italy
is nest Of ancient walled towns and
we may note alIv.degrees Of grandeur.
from the still formidable looking
zones which surround Geneva La Su-
perba or Firenze La Bella, to the
quaint little lines of Notifications
which zig-zag up the vine-clad hill
sides of the north coast of the Medi-
terranean. surrounding in many in
stances mere villages but speaking
eloquently to us of those hard.
stirring times when the hand of every
man was against his neighbour.
With very few exceptions. the old
| cities of Belgium aud Holland have
levelled the walls which have played
such grand parts in the national his
tories, and they are converted into
promenades. after the manner of
Chester and York.
The walls of Antwerp and Malines
have been replaced by boulevards.
The old bastions of Amsterdam still
remain. but the citizens OF Arnheim
and Utrecht and Hoorn and Zwolle
and Harlem and Leyden disport them
selves on fine evenings upon the ne
of Notifications famous in the most
stirring pages Of what is perhaps the
most stirring of European histories.
When we turn to conservative
Spain we find none of this moderniza-
ton. Still around Avila run the
granite walls built eight hundred
years ago. with their eighty six
towers and gates.
The walls of Cadis are three miles
in extent Active. progressive BARGE
Iona has swept away her ramparts;
but Segovia retains hers. with their
ninety towers. Merida has hers with
their eighty-four gates; the splendid
granite walls of Burgos yet remain
20 do those of Cordova, Leon; Toledo
and Salamanca
The first glimpse we get of an
Eastern walled city unfolds at once
memories Of our childhood days
<hich have. perhaps never been
awakened since our childish books
which impressed themselves 50 Wv
idly upon our minds are reproduced
in the bright colors Of old when we
are brought face to face with the
quaint battlements and the dark gate
ways with the accessories of bright
burning sunshine and turbaned
figures. and professions of camels.
and the llstless calm of the tropical
Land. Such old cities we see in India
still walled in the old fashion. and
still peopled by the figures of the
Biblical picture books.
Closely akin to them are those
walled towns standing on the canals
OF mid China. passing through which.
say at the close of day. when every
tower and every roof stands out
clearly cut against the brilliant
c0> -
by grotesque figure armed with
spear and probably wearing armor.
the illusion is complete and for the
moment we find it hard to realize
that we are travelling at the end of
the nineteenth century.
Even IN much. changed Japan there
are old cities watch still retain their
walls OF tho age OF feudalism. and in
the very heart Of the capital the I'm
per.al Palace is surrounded by the
same quaint Notifications which in
Old troublous times made it an inn
perium in imperio. although the walls
are crumbling and the gates are never
shut and the moats have been
abandoned to the lotus and to carp of
monstrpus size and fabulous age. But
as builders Of walled cities the AS
syrians and the Egyptians tower above
the engineer architects of far more
recent times. Such works as the
walls OF Lachish. of Babylon and of
Nineveh have never even been
planned within historical days.
The site of many once famous
Egyptian city is only to be traced by
the line of mighty earth-rampart
which. when pierced by the pick and
spade OF the explorer reveals masses
Of masonry SO gigantic in their ruin.
that one can hardly estimate what
their size must have been when per-
feet
BY the side OF them the fortifica-
tiohs of Paris which but little more
than twenty years ago wlthscood for
long months the attacks of the most
perfect military force of moLern
times. appear puny and Insignificant
just as the gfeatest'of modern royal
palaces sinks into n0thingness when
measured alongside the Pillared hall
of s'eti at Ka-hak. or Sargon's palace
at Khorsabad.
But every year sees diminution in
the Importance OF the walled city as
military .obst4cla Nuremberg is TO
lose her walfs.so that the modern
idea OF defence by separate fortresses
can be carried out.