Buildings of this shape are not confined to the valley of the Nile : the Bias Nimrud, of Belus, supposed to be the Tower of Babel, but now known to be a temple built by Nebuchadnezzar to the Seven Planets, in form of a step-shaped pyramid of different stages of appropriately coloured bricks 235 ft. high, with a perimeter of 2286 ft. The Mujellibe, also of pyramidal shape, is another edifice of brick work erected by the same monarch ; it is 140 ft. high, 600 ft. on the N., 657 on the S., 546 on the E., and 558 ft. on the W. side, and has a hollow shaft 60 ft. square. Xenophon, in his account of the retreat of the 10,000, also mentions a stone pyramid which he saw near the Tigris, about 45 miles S. of Mosul, about 200 ft. high. The tomb of Sardanapalus, at Tarsus, also appears to have been of pyramidal sbape, and the mausoleum at Halicarnassus terminated in a step-shaped pyramid of 24 steps, rising 42 ft. 6 in., surmounted by a colossal quadriga. The idea seems borrowed from the Egyptians, with whom the Carlene entertained at an early period political relations. Similar tombs, consisting of pyramids, supported on caw and columns or pilasters, have been found at Mylasa in Caria, at °Oran near Ben Izli in J'hrygia, at Celenderia in Cilicia, and elsewhere.
At Rome, within the walls of Aurelian, is a small pyramid 120 ft. high, and 95 ft. diameter, of marble face, formed of hewn atone upon a pavement of travertine, erected 20 or 30 years B.C. The door is on the N. side, and inside is a small sepulchral chamber with obliterated paintings on the walls and roof. It was erected in honour of C. Cestius, ono of the seven marshals, Epulones, who furnished the banquets of the gods, according to the directions of his will by his executor M. Agrippa. There is an inscription on the front and back of the monument recording the name and title of the deceased, and that the work was begun and ended by Pontius and Pothas in 360 days — the Roman lunar year. It is generally known as the pyramid of Cestius, and was evidently imitated from the Egyptian.
There are some temples of pyramidal form at Benares, and other places in the East Indies, which are said to be copies of the sacred mount Afene, and are called Hera Sringas, or " Peaks of Meru."
Pmidal structures called Leen tan, representing the mountain of used for sacrifice, exist at Pih-king, and have several stages ascended by flights of steps. Pyramidal temples have also been found at Suka in Java.
The Mexican pyramids called Teocallis, meaning "House of God," or " Temple," consist of pyramidal mounds of earth or stone, terraced, and mounted by steps, having on them the statues or altar of the god to whom they were dedicated, and where their bloody human sacrifices were performed. [MEXICAN ARCIIITECTURE.] Pyramidal structures called morals, of large size, are found in the Polynesian islands : a stone one at Atehuru, 270 ft. long, 94 ft. broad at base, and 50 ft. high, with a flat top reached by a flight of steps, the lowest 6 ft. high; the whole was cased with coral and basalt; another at Maeva was 120 ft. square. These structures were used as places of worship and burial. Easter Isle abounds in these morals. Colossal statues were often erected on the summits.
The pyramidal form in connection with sacred and sepulchral edifices appears to be distributed all over the world, and is nothing more than a geometrical mound ; the facility of forming it, and the grand sim plicity as well as the solidity and pleasing proportions of the figure, having caused it to be selected as best suited for primaeval archi tecture.
(Long, Egyptian Antiquities, vol. ii. in the Library of Entertaining Knowled5e ; Description de rEgypte, Antiguites, vol. v.; Sir G. Wilkin son, Topography of Thebes, 8vo, Lond., 1835; Col. Howard Vyse, Operations carried on at Gizeh in 1837, vols. & iii.. 8vo, 1840-1842 ; J. Glidden, Otia Algyptiaca, Lend., 1849, p. 20-51; R. Lepsius, Uebcr den Bau der Pyramiden, in the IlIonatsberichte der Akademie au Berlin, 1843, p. 177; K. J. Bunsen, Egypt's Place, 8vo, Loyd., 1824 ; R. Lepsius, Briefe aus yEgypten, 8vo, Berlin, 1852, p. 197-239 ; A. Marlette, Rev. Arch., 1860, p. 161; E. G. Squier, The Serpent Symbol, 8vo, New York, 1851, p. 72-106; also Jolowiez, Bibliotheca Egyptiaca, p. 204 & fell.)