The roofs were flat, and the narrow, rude staircases
were made in the thickness of the walls. The Hindoos also constructed
huge reservoirs, and reared columns and square triumphal arches in honor
of their heroic victors; they are also known to have built bridges, the
piles of which, formed of enormous blocks, were connected by stones of a
single piece.
Passing into China we encounter a civilization whose antiquity rivals
that of India. However, there are no very ancient remains there. But
there is documentary evidence that the Chinese, several centuries before
the Christian era, built from the same designs that they use to-day.
Architecture being the expression of the needs, instincts, character and
traditions of a people, and the Chinese having in no way modified their
manner of living or their traditions, we can easily understand why their
architecture has undergone no modifications.
The Great Wall, running along the north of China proper, with a length
of fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred miles, is the only Chinese work
that can boast of its antiquity. It is attributed to the emperor Tsin
Hoang Ti [Che Hoang-te], who reigned in the third century before our
era, and who is said to have employed in its construction five or six
million men. The foundations are of hewn stone, the rest is of brick
faced with smoothly-joined stones.
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