62

HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.

Chap. III.

are 61 feet 9 inches in height, the entablature 25 feet 9 inches and the pediment pro-bably as much more: the whole height may have been 100 feet.

Tlie podium formed a magnificent platform for the reception of the temple: it standsupon a native rock raised on solid courses: throughout the whole plan to the level of the

Fig. 66.

G1RGENTI

floor these courses are alternately placed diagonally, and a perpendicular joint separatesthem from the wall of the peristyle.

The columns are constructed also in courses, witli a core alternately circular andoctangular; a key or dowel is inserted in their beds; but the writer could find no trace ofmetal cramps ; their diameter is 13 feet; the flutes are sufficiently large, as Diodorus observes, to receive a man within them: the echinus of the capital is formed of twostones only, each weighing at least 21* tons: these are united by plugs or dowels tothe centre stone of the abacus. The abacus is formed of three stones, two of which are11 feet 9 inches in length, 5 feet wide, and 2 feet 9 inches in depth: the centre stone is 11feet 9 inches long, 5 feet 9 inches wide, and 2 feet 9 inches deep.

The architrave is 11 feet in height, and is constructed of three courses of stone, eachbeing about 9 tons in weight; the distance from column to column on the lower courseis 17 feet 8 inches. It required great skill to construct this portion of the work, andthe engineer used all his ingenuity to accomplish it. The two stones forming thelower course are carried on a beam of hard wood, inserted into a dovetailed channel oftheir soffites, the ends of each stone resting on the abacus, acting as a corbel at the sametime.

The triglyphs are all of one stone, weighing 12^ tons each; the metopes arecomposed of two stones: on each side of the triglyphs remain the square holes whichsustained the scaffolding. Each end of these large stones had channels cut in them of theform of a horse-shoe, into which the ropes were placed, by which they were raised, for thestone was too soft in its quality to permit the use of either the lewis or the forceps.These triglyphs are 10 feet 2 inches in height, 5 feet 10 inches m width, and 4 feet 10inches in thickness. In the small portion of this temple remaining, parts of four distinctgiants are to be seen: built up in courses, each composed of twelve, alternately solid,divided by a vertical joint down to the legs, and occasionally connected with the pilasterbehind them; their height was about 25 feet when entire.

The temple to Jupiter was a compound of two others, or pseudo-peripteral, theperistyle being formed by columns inserted in the walls of the naos; the columns of theeast and west fronts were probably insulated as Diodorus expressly mentions porticoes.On the pediments were sculptured the war of the giants, and the siege of Troy : it was