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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF VAULTS*

Neither the Egyptians nor the Greeks made useof the arch or ceiling composed of stones, which,by acting against each other, are supported by thesame force by which they would otherwise fall.Their ceilings were formed of stones of an extraor-dinary size, either bearing the whole length from onewall to another as lintels, or tailed down in the man-ner of the steps of a stone staircase. The archi-trave of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus , theTemple of Latona at Buttis, and the Tomb ofOsimand in Egypt , have been cited as extraordinaryexamples ; the latter being covered with stone eightcubits long, the foot of the statue of this Osimandeswas seven cubits long. The Egyptian cubit wasabout 22 English inches long.

Herodotus , ( Euturpe , cap. 2.) says, that the Laby-rinth, a few miles south of the Lake Moeris , consistsof twelve courts, roofed with solid marble, and withinthe wall there were 1500 dwellings roofed withdifferent kinds of valuable stones. The Egyptianswere certainly unacquainted with the construction ofvaults by voussoirs; and that knowledge was un-necessary, while they possessed the stones they used,and could raise them of any size. That which is ina great measure a substitute for the insufficiency andimperfection of materials, would be to them an uselessart. An architect who had the means of covering aroom with a single stone would not employ an hun-dred for that purpose.

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