The Press., 1915-09-08
ANCIENT TEMPLES
Mighty Structures of Old DWarfed
 by Modern Skyscrapers.
TOWER OF BABEL A MIDGET.


 1t Would Not Reach Two thirds of the
 Way Up to the Top of the Effel Tow
 CT, That Sways 9s4 Feet In the Air.
 Big Buildings and the Pyramids. 1t has long been the popular impres- sion that the modern effort to pierce the clouds with skyscrapers is but a feeble imitation of the work of those ancient sons of Noah whose memory is perpetuatel in the Bible. Reading ill the eleventh chapter of Genesis, where 1t 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 d matter of fact when the Lord halted building operations by 1 confounding the workers language and | scattering them broadcast over the | earth the summit of the tower was but one stade, or 6O6 feet 9 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 | it. The top was reached by q gradual 1 ly rising spiral ascent, and on the top | most tier was shrine wherein the god | Marduk was supposed to dwell. Dio- dorus says this shrine contained three colossal golden images-one of Bel, one 1 of Beltis 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 mor- tar. This slime, it is believed, was natural asphaltum obtained from near | by springs. Ages after the building opera tions 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 SUD- 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 | O SO LO OtO lGcL lOuS, duu Luc ou1uco SClll rises to height of 153 feet.
 The next structures in point of an tiquity are the pyramids of Egypt. These are the oldest and most mysteri- ous of mans works still existing. But they are not really so tall, considered ill the light of present day achieve ments. The greatest, known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu, was originally 4S1 feet f inches high second-that of Chephren or Khafra- was 472 feet high and roc feet wide. The third-that of Mycerinus or Men kaura-was never completed, but 1t stood, nevertheless, 215 feet high and 34G 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 dynasties of the builders covered a pe- riod of at least thousand years. The area of the Great Pyramid is more than | thirteen acres-above twice as great as that of St. Peters at Rome. The passages leading to the chambers con- l lection for thousands of years, only to be torn open at last and their contents ruthlessly made away with.
 Of modern edifices 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, it's fifty-five stories rising 75O feet into the air. The height of others is: Metropolitan Life building, New
 York; fifty stories, 700 feet 3 inches i; Singer building, New York, forty one stories, 612 feet 1 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. Pauls, London. 364 feet
 l The loftiest obelisks ever constructed are those mentioned by Diodorus Sicu- Jus, which rose 15S feet and were elev | en feet thick at the base and seven feet thick at the top. One of the worlds s | 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 | to the builders of the Eiffel tower and the Woolworth building, who have | pierced tic clouds without their lan- guage being confounded in the slight