Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/530

514 SAEACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Part HI, without considerable grandeur in parts. In all except detail, however, they must yield the palm to the next great example, the mosque with which the Sultan Hassan adorned Cairo in the year 1356. In some respects it is one of the most remarkable mosques ever erected in any country, and differing considerably from any other with which we are at jn'esent acquainted. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 965), its external form is very irregular, following on all sides the lines of the streets within which it is situated. This irregularity, however, is not such as to detract from its appearance, which is singularly bold and massive on every side ; the walls being nearly 100 ft. in height, and surmounted by a cornice, which adds another 13 ft., and projects about 6 ft. This great height is divided into no less than nine stories of small apart- ments ; but the openings are so deeply recessed, and the projections between them so bold, that, instead of cutting it up and making it look like a factory, which would liave been the case in England, the building has all the apparent solidity of a fortress, and seems more worthy of the descendants of the ancient Pharaohs than any AvorK of modern times in Egypt. Inte'-nally there is a court open to the sky, measuring 117 ft. bv 105, «r>rWsed by a wall 112 ft. in height. Instead of the usual colon- nades oi' arcades, only one gigantic niche opens in each face of the