width which any such arch has been hitherto found to span is about
fifteen feet.

The only pointed arch actually discovered is of burnt brick. The bricks
are of the ordinary shape, and not intended for vaulting. They are laid
side by side up to a certain point, being bent into a slight arch by the
interposition between them of thin wedges of mortar. The two sides of
the arch having been in this way carried up to a point where the lower
extremities of the two innermost bricks nearly touched, while a
considerable space remained between their upper extremities instead of a
key-stone, or a key-brick fitting the aperture, ordinary bricks were
placed in it longitudinally, and so the space was filled in.

[Illustration: PLATE 59]

Another mode of constructing a pointed arch seems to be intended in a
bas-relief, whereof a representation has been already given. The masonry
of the arcade in No. V. [PLATE XLIX., Fig. 4] runs (it will be seen) in
horizontal lines up to the very edge of the arch, thus suggesting a
construction common in many of the early Greek arches, where the stones
are so cut away that an arched opening is formed, though the real
constructive principle of the arch has no place in such specimens.

With regard to the uses whereto the Assyrians applied the arch, it would
certainly seem, from the evidence which we possess, that they neither
employed it as a great decorative feature, nor yet as a main principle
of construction. So far as appears, their chief use of it was for
doorways and gateways. Not only are the town gates of Khorsabad found to
have been arched over, but in the representations of edifices, whether
native or foreign, upon the bas-reliefs, the arch for doors is commoner