. William H. Seward's travels around the world. e, Victorias sailor son. Weascended an easy flight of stone steps to a plateau one hundred andfifty feet above the sea. This esplanade as well as the entire islandis deeply shaded with the beautiful, round-topped Palmyra decrepit Irish soldier, with his family, in a bamboo shanty,thatched with banana and palm leaves, keeps watch and ward overthe place. Passing to the centre of the plateau and turning to theright, we confronted a work of human art, gigantic and is a subterranean temple. The builders, beginning half-way upthe mo
. William H. Seward's travels around the world. e, Victorias sailor son. Weascended an easy flight of stone steps to a plateau one hundred andfifty feet above the sea. This esplanade as well as the entire islandis deeply shaded with the beautiful, round-topped Palmyra decrepit Irish soldier, with his family, in a bamboo shanty,thatched with banana and palm leaves, keeps watch and ward overthe place. Passing to the centre of the plateau and turning to theright, we confronted a work of human art, gigantic and is a subterranean temple. The builders, beginning half-way upthe mountain declivity, and cutting down perpendicularly, haveremoved the mountain-face to the depth of thirty feet, and to thewidth of three hundred feet. The perpendicular wall thus disclosedis of basalt. This rock, they have hewn and chiselled away to thevery centre of the mountain, and wrought it into a temple withperfect architectural forms and just proportions. The excavationconsists of four chambers, the central one is majestic with gateways,. < z o wsh 0h WOz < h Z CAVES OF ELEPHANTA. 449 abutments, porches, columns, pilasters, cornices, and vaulted ceil-ings, as complete and perfect as if, instead of having been carved inthe rock, they had been detached from it, framed and erected onthe ground. While no architectural element is omitted, all are per-fectly finished. The broad pavement is as level and smooth as thatof the rotunda at Washington. The ceiling needs no preparation toreceive either fresco or gilding. The dome is spherical, while thecolumns upon which it rests, or seems to rest, have regular bases,bands, flutings, and capitals, though all alike are shaped from theundisturbed rock. We even thought it necessary to examine thelintels of the doors to see if they were not detached pieces of therock itself. Standing in the porch or within the temple, and look-ing inward, you confront the farther wall. In its centre, a deeprecess twenty feet square, reaching from flo
Size: 1264px × 1977px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury180, bookdecade1870, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
