Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 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 EiffeI Tow
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 a
feeble imitation of the work of those
ancient sons of Noah whose memory
in the eleventh chapter of Genesis,
where it tells Of the people attempting
to erect the Tower Of Babel, "whose
top may reach unto heaven" it 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 feetp9 inches, from
the Jewel 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 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, 1t 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
pile of Birs Nimroud, which stood in
Borsippa, eight miles from the ancient
city of Babylon. Its sides were from
375 to 643 feet long, and the edifice still
rises to q height of 153 feet
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,
and 755 feet square at the base. The
secoltdz~that Of Chephren or Khafra-
was 472 feet high and 7O6 feet wide.
The third-that of Mycerinus or Men
kaura-was never completed, but it
stood, nevertheless, 215 feet high and
346 feet square at the base.
In all nearly seventy of these pyra-
mids have been located, and, inasmuch
us they all appear to have been royal
sepulchers. it is the belief that the
dynasties of the builders covered Pc
riod of at least thousand years. The
y
thirteen acres-above 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 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. its fifty-five stories rising 750
feet into the air. The height of others
is: Metropolitan Life building, New
York. fifty stories, 700 feet 8 inches;
Singer building. New York, forty-one
stories, 612 feet / inch; Washington
monument. Washington, 555 feet; Co
logne cathedral spire. Cologne, Ger
many, SIT feet: Rouen cathedral spire,
Rouen, France. 492 feet; cupola of St
Peters, Rome, 469 feet; St Paul's.
London, 1854 feet
The lOftieSt oDellSkS 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
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 1t comes to building
skyscrapers they will have to give way
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.