Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/43

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DIANA'S TEMPLE AT EPHESUS. 27 Survey it is clear that the plinth first found was that of the second column back from the angle on the south side, an im- portant point. Again, on p. 267, he says : " We found in the west front the plinth of a column of the Old Temple as well as part of the base of one of the inner columns, consisting of the plinth and lowest circular stone." The former of these is prob- ably that first mentioned, the latter is shown by the Austrian Survey to be that directly to the south of the south-west anta. " The position of these points," he, says, " corresponds as nearly as I could ascertain with the columns of the last temple, giving a satisfactory proof that the temples were built on the same plan and of the same size." The Austrian Survey, in addition, gives some slight indication of the position of one of the columns between the antae. In another place Wood says : " In January 1873 I obtained particulars relating to the position of the columns at the west end." We can now see how he was able to get the dimensions for the remarkable spacing of the columns of the west front, which he gives as follows : From the left to the centre, 19 feet 4 inches, 20 feet 6 inches, 23 feet 6| inches, 28 feet 8J inches. This may be compared with the Austrian Survey, which gives in metres, 6.16, 6.16, 7.20, 8.75. These spans are immense ; the nearest parallel case was found in the Temple of Sardis, where the openings, following the same order, were 16 ft. 3 in., 17.8, 21.7, 25.4. Wood broke up the cella with an opisthodomos to the east, but from the exactly central position of the great basis for the statue, and from the uniform disposition of certain rough masonry piers along the foundations of the side walls, it seems more likely that the cella was undivided in this way. Such an arrangement would further allow of an eastern door, entering the cella, for even if we are driven to suppose that the great altar and the principal door of entrance were to the west, I can hardly think that there was no central eastern door.* The Austrians endeavoured to find the basis of the great altar to the west, but without success, never- theless, they too consider it certain that the temple faced west. Wood concluded that the piers spoken of above were Byzantine, but as they contained fragments of the Old Temple, and were

  • The temple of the Dioscuri at Naucratis, however, faced west .