CYCLOPEAN ARCHITECTURE, or MASONRY, the name which has come to be generally used for a wall of large irregular stones, unhewn and uncemented. The term originated in Greece, where structures of this kind were fabled to have been the work of the Cyclopes, or one-eyed giants. The walls of Tiryns, near Nauplia—alluded to by Homer—are au example of the ruder style of Cyclopean masonry. They are of irregular unshapen stones, from 6 to 9 ft. long, from 3 to 4 ft. wide, and from 2 to 3 ft. deep; the interstices are filled up by small stones, but no mortar is used. The walls of Mycenrc and of Epirus are examples of more advanced C. A.: here, the blocks, although irregular in Sin and shape, are fitted carefully to each other, showing close joints and a smooth surface. These structures are now commonly believed to have been reared by the Pelasgians (q. v.), probably more than a thousand years before the Christian era. They are found not only in Greece, but in Italy and Asia Minor.
The next stage of Cyclopean masonry shows an approach to horizontal courses, as in the walls of several towns in Greece, and of some in Etruria. Lastly, the name of Cyclo pean work is applied, but perhaps not quite accurately, to a kind of masonry which obtained among the Etruscans (q.v.), where the blocks are both squared and laid in hori zontal courses, but are not cemented. In some cases—as in the walls of Cosa, in Tuscany, believed to have been first a Pelasgian, and then an Etruscan city—the lower part is of irregular polygonal blocks, the upper part of squared stones in horizontal courses. In
at least one instance—a wall in the Peloponnesus—a foundation of excellent ashlar is sur mounted by irregular polygonal blocks of the usual Cyclopean type.
Masonry, partaking more or less fully of the Cyclopean character, is to be found in Persepolis, and elsewhere in Asia, in several parts of western Europe, and in some parts of America. The walls of Cuzco, and the ruins of what is called the house of Manco Capac, on an island in the lake of Titicaca, In Peru, are interesting examples of the C. A. of time new world. Instances of Cyclopean work on a smaller scale are to be found ih the British islands, in the walls of the primitive " duns " or hill-forts, or in the " cashels" or precincts of early religious houses. Among Irish examples, may be men tioned the Grianan of Ailech, in the county of Donegal; ''Staigue Fort, in the county of Kerry; Dun IEngus, on one of the isles of Arran, on time w. coast of Galway;. the Giant's Sconce, near Coleraine; and time Rock of Cashel. Among Scotch instances, may be named the Laws, in the parish of 31onifieth, not far from Dundee, and the ruins on St. Columkille's island, near Migsted, in Skye. In the Bibliotheque Mazarine, at Paris, there is an interesting set of models of the Cyclopean buildings of Greece and Italy, by M. Petit-Radel, the author of Recherches sur les ATonumens Cyclopetns.