The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-08-27
ANCIENT TEMPLES
Mighty Structures of Old DWarfed
by Modern Skyscrapers.
TOWER OF BABEL A MIDGET.
Ii Would Not Reach Two thirds of the
Way Up to the Top of the Eiffel Tow
er, That Sways 984 Feet In the Air.
Big Buildings and the Pyramids.

er, That Sways 984 Feet In the Air.
Big Buildings and the Pyramids.
1t has long been the popular impress
sion that the modern effort to pierce
the clouds with skyscrapers is but
feeble imitation of the work Of those
ancient sons Of Noah whose memory
Is perpetuated In the Bible. Reading
ia the eleventh chapter of Genesis,
where it tells of the people attempting
to erect the Tower of Babel, whose
top may reach unto heaven 1t strikes
one that they must have gone farther
toward realizing their ambition than
we of today may ever hope to do.
But as a matter of fact when the
Lord halted building operations by
confounding the workers language and
scattering them broadcast over the
earth the summit of the tower was but
one stade, or COG feet inches, from
the level of the plain.
The Ziggurrat, or temple tower of
Babylon, is described by Herodotus as
having eight stages, each somewhat
narrower than the one directly beneath
1t. The top was reached by a gradual
ly rising spiral ascent, and on the top
most tier was a shrine wherein the god
Marduk was supposed to dwell. Dio-
dorus says this shrine contained three
colossal golden images-one OF Bel, one
of Belts and the third Of Rhea or Ish-
tar-together with two golden lions,
two enormous silver serpents and a
golden table forty feet long and fifteen
feet wide.
The tower, as the Bible sets forth,
was built Of brick, with slime for NOR
tar. This slime, it is believed, was
| natural asphaltum obtained from near
by springs. Ages after the building
operations had been interrupted by the
Makers wrath Nebuchadnezzar under
took, with Indifferent success, to restore
the ruins to their former state.
The modern ruins of Babel were sup
posed to be represented by the great
pile of Birs Nimroud, which stood In
Borsippa, eight miles from the ancient
city of Babylon. Its sides were from
375 to CAB feet long, and the edifice still
l1ScS W Il nSlSuJ VI Loo 1Gcl-
The next structures in point of an
tiquity are the pyramids of Egypt.
These are the oldest and most mysteri-
GUS of mans works still existing. But
they are not really so tall, considered
In the light of present day achieve
ments. The greatest, known as the
Great Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu,
was originally 4S1 feet 4 inches high
and 755 feet square at the base. The
second-that of Chephren or Khafra--
was 472 feet high and 706 feet wide.
The third-that Of Mycerinus or Men
kaura-was never completed, but 1t
stood, nevertheless, 215 feet high and
846 feet square at the base.
In all nearly seventy of these pyra-
mids have been located, and, inasmuch
as they all appear to have been royal
sepulchers, it is the belief that the
| dynastles of the builders covered Pc
riod of at least thousand years. The
area of the Great Pyramid is more than
thirteen acres-aboye twice as great
as that of st. Peters at Rome. The
| passages leading to the chambers CON
tanning the royal mummies defied de-
lection for thousands of years, only to
be torn open at last and their contents
ruthlessly made away with.
OF modern edifces the tallest by far
Is the great Eiffel tower of Paris,
| whose steel webbed structure pierces
the blue to a height of 9S4 feet Then
comes the Woolworth building In New
York, the loftiest office building In the
world, its fifty stories rising 75O
feet into the air. The height of others
is: Metropolitan Life building, New
York, fifty stories, roo feet inches;
Singer building, New York, forty one
stories, 612 feet / inch; Washington
monument, Washington, 555 feet; Co
logne cathedral spire, Cologne, Ger
many, 517 feet; Rouen cathedral spire,
Rouen, France, 492 feet; cupola of St.
Peters, Rome, 469 feet; st. PauI's,
| London, 1854 feet.
The loftiest obelisks ever constructed
are those mentioned by Diodorus Sicu-
lus, which rose 15S feet and were elev-
/ en- feet thick at the base and seven feet
thick at the top. One of the worlds 8
largest domes is that of the Roman
Pantheon, 142 feet In diameter and 143
feet high
The ancient peoples were great for
their methods of embalming, for their
art, their literature. their general cul-
ture. But when it comes to building
skyscrapers they will have to give way
J to the builders of the Eiffel tower and
the Woolworth building, who have
| pierced the clouds without their Ian
guage being confounded In the slight
est-San Francisco Chronicle.