of a circular or polygonal edifice surrounded by semicircular arches
in an oblique position. These may be taken for the foundation of the
steps and of the new platform. In the perspective elevation the same
edifice, forming a polygon, is shown as lifted up and resting on a
circle of inverted arches which rest on an other circle of arches in
the ordinary position, but so placed that the inverted arches above
rest on the spandrels of the lower range._

_What seems to confirm the supposition that the lifting up of a
building is here in question, is the indication of engines for
winding up, such as jacks, and a rack and wheel. As the lifting
apparatus represented on this sheet does not seem particularly
applicable to an undertaking of such magnitude, we may consider it
to be a first sketch or scheme for the engines to be used._

_G. Description of an unknown Temple._

759.

Twelve flights of steps led up to the great temple, which was eight
hundred braccia in circumference and built on an octagonal plan. At
the eight corners were eight large plinths, one braccia and a half
high, and three wide, and six long at the bottom, with an angle in
the middle; on these were eight great pillars, standing on the
plinths as a foundation, and twenty four braccia high. And on the
top of these were eight capitals three braccia long and six wide,
above which were the architrave frieze and cornice, four braccia and
a half high, and this was carried on in a straight line from one
pillar to the next and so, continuing for eight hundred braccia,
surrounded the whole temple, from pillar to pillar. To support this