And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzling
loveliness, shone out the Temple of the Sun -- the peculiar pride
of the Zu-Vendi, to whom it was what Solomon's, or rather Herod's,
Temple was to the Jews. The wealth, and skill, and labour of
generations had been given to the building of this wonderful
place, which had been only finally completed within the last
fifty years. Nothing was spared that the country could produce,
and the result was indeed worthy of the effort, not so much on
account of its size -- for there are larger fanes in the world
-- as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and beauty
of its materials, and the wonderful workmanship. The building
(that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of garden
ground on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling-places of
the priests) is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome-covered
central hall, from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts,
each dedicated to one of the twelve months, and serving as the
repositories of statues reared in memory of the illustrious dead.
The width of the circle beneath the dome is three hundred feet,
the height of the dome is four hundred feet, and the length of
the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height of their
roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central dome
exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raised
heart.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259