MILITARY ARCHITECTURE. Pre During the primitive eras of man's development his structural interests were cen tred in the fulfilment of the demands of simple shelter for worship and protection. Safety from attack was attained by the erec tion of domiciles in inaccessible places or in rearing lake dwellings on wooden piles, as in Switzerland. Aggregations of houses were in very early times surrounded by walls of earth or stone erected for the purpose of fortification Heroic Tiryns and Mycenm furnish typical examples of the military architecture of the Heroic Age of Greece. At Tiryns the pal ace of the ruler, reared on an Acropolis, is surrounded by massive walls in which are pas sages covered by stones successively corbelled until they meet. The masonry is formed of colossal stones put together without cement. At Mycenm there still exists the remains of a city gate of this period. The huge lintel of this gate is relieved of the superposed weight that the solid and very heavy wall would have brought to bear upon it, by a triangular opening which is filled with a most celebrated sculp tured group representing two rampant lions flanking a column. This triangular opening presented the weakest spot in the whole length of the wall and was embellished with the sacred lion form to protect it from the assault of superstitious assailants.
Civilization gradually traced her way from the flat alluvial areas of Mesopotamia to the valley of the Nile. Reinforced with the ele ments of progress and power of Egypt, through the medium nations of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, the laws of order and culture were transmitted to Greece. Greece, in her turn, taught imperial Rome the elements of universal government. As in the other arts, so in the problem of protecting her cities from the carefully planned destructive agency of man, the constructive experience of Egypt and the Orient was transmitted to succeeding civiliza tions. The first four links of the chain that binds the world together are the civilizations of Minoa, Mesopotamia and Egypt, Greece and Rome. Minoan protective art has been known to us by the remains at Cnossus, Mycenz and Tiryns, and the primitive walls and embryonic projects at Orchomenos, Delos and Phigaleia.
Egypt.— In Egypt the early fortifications consisted of a quadrangular double wall of sun-dried brick approximately 15 inches thick and at times 50 feet in height, Square towers of the same height as the walls occurred at intervals. Both walls and towers were crowned with parapets. At times the entrance was addi tionally protected with outworks consisting of a second lower wall and towers. Frequently there was a keep or citadel used as a last re sort for defenders. Lower Egypt was undoubt edly greatly influenced by the advanced systems of fortifications with which the Egyptians be came acquainted during their wars against the Hittites in western Asia.
Hittite.— The culminating type of the Hittite military system was the double-moated city of Kadesh, of which we have a lively illus tration in the battle scene from the great Kadesh reliefs of Rameses II on the walls of the Ramesseum. These carvings show the capital, Kadesh, situated on an island in the Orontes River. The city, protected by two moats, ap proached by two parallel draw-bridges, is en circled by a huge, high wall. The main gate ways are strengthened by increasing, at the place of their occurrence, the thickness of the wall, heightening the towers and providing rooms for the housing of a special gate guard. The relief shows the city to have been built in the form of a circle or ellipse. (Consult plan of Chateau-Gaillard, France). The plan at i once obviates the four danger points inherent in the rectangular city enceinte. The walls were surmounted by battlements and strength ened by auxiliary towers or buttresses, the top of which did not extend far above the main wall. At Senjirli extensive ruins of a fortified Hittite palace have been found. The entrance was planned as a fortress-like portico. Massive towers flanked the approaches. The guard room, the ceiling of which was supported by columns, intervened between the moat and the gate. The city was divided into sections, each separated from the other by protecting walls. (Consult plan of Haidra, Africa). It is a notable fact that the ancient Hittite protective city plan finds its reproduction in more or less complete form in the great fortified cities and towns of mediaeval Europe and Africa.