Chapter II: Part 2

EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS. This is the highest structure in the world, being three hundred metres or nine hundred and eighty-four feet in height, as against the five hundred and fifty-five feet five and one-eighth inches of the Washington Monument, which comes next in altitude among all the edifices of man. The tower was constructed by Alexander G. Eiffel for the Paris Exhibition of 1878. Its foundations are sunk to a depth of fifty feet in the sandy soil of the Champs de Mars, and the four massive piers, which form the first stage of the tower, are so planted as to distribute the enormous weight of the structure (sixty-five hundred tons) in the best way possible. In spite of this weight the general impression is one of grace and lightness. The summit is crowned by a cupola with an exterior balcony, whence a magnificent panorama of Paris and its surroundings is unveiled. Elevators carry passengers up to the summit, the time consumed by the ascension being from six to seven minutes.

TROCADERO, PARIS, FRANCE. The Eiffel Tower is not the sole remaining monument of the French Exposition of 1878. Overlooking the Champs de Mars is the Trocadero, which was begun in 1876 for the same exhibition. It is a fantastic structure in the Byzantine style. The central portion consists of a circular edifice one hundred and eighty feet high and one hundred and eighty-nine feet in diameter, crowned by a dome, and flanked with two minarets two hundred and seventy feet high. On each side extends a wing in the form of a curve, six hundred and sixty feet in length, giving the entire edifice the appearance of an imposing crescent. On a level with the spring of the dome is a terrace adorned with thirty statues. The view of Paris from the terrace or the towers is superb. Below the balcony, in front of the central building, gushes a large cascade, which descends to a huge basin one hundred and ninety-six feet in diameter. Afternoon concerts are often given in the elaborately decorated Salle des Fetes, which seats six thousand persons. There are also collections of sculptures and antiquities.

CHATEAU DE FONTAINEBLEAU, FRANCE. Fontainebleau is a small town thirty-five miles south-east of Paris. It is famous for the royal palace, which is situated in a magnificent park or forest, fifty miles in circumference, and covering an area of forty-two thousand five hundred acres. The building itself is said to occupy the site of a fortified chateau, built by Louis VII in 1162. But it was Francis I who transformed the mediæval fortress into a palace of almost unparalleled extent and magnificence. Henry IV did much towards its embellishment. Here his successor, Louis XIV, revoked the Edict of Nantes. It was a favorite residence of Napoleon I, whose sentence of divorce from Josephine was pronounced here. Louis Philippe and Napoleon III spent large sums in restoring it. The exterior of the building, with the exception of several pavilions, is only two stories in height. The interior is a splendid example of decorative work. Some of the greatest French and Italian artists of the epoch of its creation were employed upon it. Especially beautiful is the chamber of Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, and Queen-regent in his minority, who made Fontainebleau her favorite residence, and spent money lavishly in the decoration of her chamber.

GARDEN AND FOUNTAINS, VERSAILLES, FRANCE. The Palace of Versailles is in the town of the same name, ten miles from Paris, was built by Louis XIV in 1661, and became a royal residence in 1681. As such it has held a great place in the history of France. It is now used as a historical museum. The garden which surrounds it is justly celebrated for its extreme beauty. Among its chief marvels are the fountains, richly adorned with bronze statues, and from the centre of each rises a column of water to the height of forty feet, encircled by sixteen inclined jets of water, the whole forming a sort of basket. The water which feeds the fountains is brought from the Seine by the machine of Marly, constructed at enormous expense after the failure of the plan to turn the River d’ Eure from its course.

GRAND TRIANON, VERSAILLES, FRANCE. A charming residence near the palace of Versailles, built by Louis XIV in 1688 for Madame de Maintenon, but chiefly interesting for its associations with Marie Antoinette, whose favorite residence it was. Here she amused herself with her Swiss village, and here, as well as in the adjacent Petit Trianon, she and her court played at shepherds and shepherdesses. The Grand Trianon is built in the Italian style, with the rooms all on one floor. The interior is exquisitely furnished and adorned. In the surrounding gardens are cottages and artificial “mountains” (some nearly ten feet high) and glens and grottoes and pebbly-bottomed brooks.

BULL FIGHT, SEVILLE, SPAIN. The bull fight is the national sport of Spain. The sport has been described as a tragedy in three acts. First, the bull is let out and goaded to fury by the lances of the mounted picadores. If a picador is thrown or his horse is wounded the chulos rush in and attract the bull by waving their cloaks in front of him, saving themselves, if need be, by leaping over the palisade which encloses the circus. When the bull begins to flag the chulos attack him with barbed darts, called banderillas, which they stick into his neck. The third act introduces the matador, who enters alone. He holds in his right hand a naked sword, in his left a muleta or small stick with a piece of scarlet silk attached. The bull rushes blindly at the muleta. The matador, if he be skillful, plunges the sword into the left shoulder and the animal drops dead. Sometimes, however, he misses his first aim and then he has to try again. Sometimes he is wounded or even killed and then a new matador appears on the scene.

THE ALHAMBRA, GRANADA, SPAIN. Alhambra means the “Red Castle.” This fortress and palace of the ancient Moorish kings--“the pride of Granada and the boast of Spain”--is a vast and irregular collection of buildings built of bricks slightly reddened. The principal building was begun in 1248 and finished in 1314. Here the Moorish kings lived, surrounded by their court and nobility, a total population of some forty thousand souls. Its degradation dates from the day of the Castilian conquest, for the alterations and restorations made by the Spanish kings were without judgment. Philip V, early in the eighteenth century, was its last royal occupant. After his desertion the place was allowed to fall into decay until 1862, when the Spanish government took it in charge. Happily, the most important portions still exist, and present a bewildering array of pavilions, courts, colonnades, fountains, baths, gilded ceilings and every kind of Oriental decoration.

CORDOVA, SPAIN. This is one of the most ancient and picturesque of Spanish towns. Its walls, built on a Roman foundation with Moorish superstructure, inclose a large area, dotted with Roman and Moorish remains. Chief among the latter is the cathedral, which looms up almost in the centre of our picture. It dates from the eighth century, and was formerly a mosque. Authorities generally agree that it is the finest specimen of a Moorish mosque in all Europe. The southern suburb communicates with the town by means of an ancient bridge across the River Guadalquiver, whose sixteen arches exhibit the usual combination of Moorish and Roman architecture. At one end of the bridge is an elevated statue of the patron saint, St. Raphael, whose effigy abounds all through the city. Our picture is taken from the southern suburb.

ROCK OF GIBRALTAR, SPAIN. An inaccessible rock, buttressed by an impregnable fortress, which juts out from the southern extremity of Spain, in Andulasia, gives to the English, who hold it, the virtual command of the Mediterranean. The rock is fourteen hundred and thirty feet high at its highest point; its length, from north to south, about three miles; its circumference about six. It is mainly composed of compact limestone and dense gray marble, varied by beds of red sandstone and tissues of osseous breccia. The north face is almost perpendicular, but the east side is full of tremendous precipices. It came into possession of the English by conquest during the war of the succession in 1704. Since then they have spent immense sums in its fortification, with so much success that they have retained it against the combined efforts of France and Spain. From the sea the rock presents a grim enough aspect with its immense cannon, its piles of balls and bombs, and its apparent lack of vegetation. But a closer view shows patches of fruit trees, together with a great variety of odoriferous shrubs.

MONTE CARLO, MONACO--THE CASINO. Monaco is a small principality on the Mediterranean, ruled by Prince Albert, of Monaco. It is chiefly famous for the notorious Casino at the small town of Monte Carlo, where alone in Europe public gaming is authorized by law. The first stone of the Casino was laid in 1858, and gambling tables had existed in Monaco two years previous to that date, but it was not till 1860, when M. Blanc, expelled from Homburg, took possession of the place, that Monte Carlo began to be famous. The gaming establishment is now in the hands of a joint stock company, with a capital of 15,000,000 francs, who leased the ground from the prince. It employs nearly one thousand people and is annually visited by about four hundred thousand visitors. The inhabitants of Monaco are not allowed at the tables. Their good will, however, is secured by their exemption from taxation and by the flood of paying visitors who are attracted hither. Monte Carlo is in itself a place of exquisite beauty, natural and artificial.

LAKE LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND. Not only in wild and picturesque scenery, but in its legendary and historical associations, this is one of the most interesting lakes in the world. In Switzerland it is alternatively known as the Lake of the Four Forest Cantons, because bounded by the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne. The mountain peaks surrounding it give it the form of a St. Andrew’s cross, whence comes that cross on the Swiss flag. Mounts Pilatus and Rigi stand at the north like sentinel outposts of the Alps. The beginning of the St. Gothard Pass over the Alps is at Fluelen to the south. The lake is intimately connected with the Tell legends, and at one of its most enchanting spots a small chapel, attributed to the fourteenth century, is said to mark the spot where he sprang out of Gessler’s boat as he was being carried away a prisoner.

MONT BLANC FROM CHAMOUNI, SWITZERLAND. This, the highest mountain in Europe, and, by common consent, the most magnificent in its scenery, rises at the southern end of the valley of Chamouni, fifteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-one feet above sea level. During the last century and a half it has been a favorite resort of tourists, and especially of scientists, as its glaciers and other marvelous features are full of interest and instruction. But it was not till 1786 that Balmat and Paccard made the first ascension, followed in 1787 by Saussure. Many accidents have happened here in the past. In 1870 a party of eleven, two of them Americans, all perished in the snow-crowned heights. Nowadays the ascensions are more numerous, and, with proper precautions, are considered absolutely safe, though very fatiguing, and occupying three days. The view from the valley of Chamouni is of extraordinary beauty. It has been celebrated by Coleridge in one of his most famous poems, and has been the theme of countless other pens. Not always is the “monarch of mountains” visible from Chamouni, as his imperial front is frequently hidden from the sight of his worshipers. But the photograph here presented is taken on a fortunate day, when there was no cloud about the throne.

MER DE GLACE, MONT BLANC, SWITZERLAND. This immense glacier fills the highest gorges of the chain of Mont Blanc, and extends over a distance of twelve miles into the Valley of Chamouni. It is formed by the masses of snow and ice which collect during the long winters. In appearance it is just what its name implies, a Sea of Ice, whose tumultuous waves seem to have been suddenly frozen, not while they were being lashed to fury by a tempest, but at the very moment when the wind had subsided and left them high indeed, but rounded and blunted in outline. Slowly--so slowly that the motion is imperceptible--it flows down the inclined plane between two mountains cracking, groaning and melting until it resolves itself into a torrent, known as the Arveiron. There are other seas of ice among the Alps, but this by pre-eminence is known as the Mer de Glace. It was in the study of this region that Agassiz conceived his glacial theory.

THE MATTERHORN, SWITZERLAND. This famous Alpine height is situated in the canton of Valais, in Switzerland, overhanging the little village of Zermatt. It is fourteen thousand seven hundred and five feet high, and its peak is the sharpest and most acute in all the Alpine region, rising like a sort of triangular obelisk into the clouds. Its sides are so precipitous that the snow itself can hardly find a lodgment. For a long period it was deemed inaccessible to man. On the 14th of July, 1865, a party, consisting of Messrs. Hudson, Whymper and Hadow, with Lord Francis Douglas and three guides, succeeded in reaching the summit, but in the descent Mr. Hudson lost his footing, and all save Mr. Whymper and two guides, who escaped by the breaking of the rope, were precipitated to a depth of four thousand feet towards the Matterhorn Glacier. The ascent is now made several times annually. The rock has been blasted at the most difficult points and a rope attached to it.

RIGI-KULM, SWITZERLAND. The Rigi Mountain, five thousand nine hundred and five feet above sea level, or four thousand four hundred and seventy-two feet above Lake Lucerne, is not one of the highest mountains of Switzerland, but the beautiful and extensive view commanded from the Kulm, or summit, makes it one of the most popular. The famous Riggenbach cog-wheel railway brings travellers up to the Kulm, a small, bare space, whence the eye takes in a panorama of three hundred miles in circuit. Immediately below lie the lakes of Lucerne and Zug, their shores lined with picturesque little towns. Eight other lakes, including a bit of Zurich, may be counted in the distance. Snow-capped mountains--the Jungfrau, the Wetterhorn, the Schreckhorn, the grand snow-covered peaks of the Bernese Alps and countless other peaks of lesser note--stretch away on every side to the horizon. The railway up the mountain is of ordinary gauge. Along the centre runs a cogged track, into which a cog-wheel on the locomotive works, thus giving the power for the ascent. In going down the brakes are worked by atmospheric pressure. The construction of this five miles of line, which in its ascent overcomes about one mile of altitude, cost about $300,000.

THUN, SWITZERLAND. One of the most picturesque of Swiss towns is Thun, which is charmingly situated on the banks of the river Aar, three-quarters of a mile below its efflux from the lake. Many of the town’s buildings are very old. The Castle of Zahringen-Kyburg, whose large square tower forms a noted feature of the landscape, dates from 1182. The principal street is curious. In front of the houses projects a row of warehouses and cellars, on the flat roofs of which is the pavement for foot passengers, flanked with the shops. The view here presented is taken from the pavilion in the Bellevue Grounds, which overlooks the city, and commands the old-fashioned town, the lake, the Alps and the Valley of the Aar.

JUNGFRAU FROM INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND. The town of Interlaken, as its name indicates, is situated between two lakes (Brienz and Thun), in a valley about three miles wide, on either side of which rises a ridge of precipitous mountains six thousand feet high. The great attraction of the place is not the scenery either way along the valley, but a view that is caught through a depression in the mountains on the southern side, revealing the Jungfrau (“Young Maiden”) Mountain and her attendant galaxy of noble Alpine peaks, rearing their snow-crowned heads far above the horizon. The Jungfrau is the most imposing eminence in all the Bernese Alps. Surrounded by stupendous precipices, her surface is broken by valleys, ravines and glaciers, which from a distance look like creases in the mantle of snow that covers her enormous flanks. The first ascent of this mountain was made on August 3d, 1811.

CURSALON, VIENNA, AUSTRIA. This handsome structure, in the Italian renaissance style, was put up in 1865–67. With its surrounding gardens, it forms one of the most attractive spots in the city. Concerts are given here on Sundays and Thursdays, when large crowds are always sure to attend.

CATHEDRAL, MILAN, ITALY. The Milanese look upon this church as the eighth wonder of the world. In truth, it is a marvelous edifice. “Gothic art,” as Taine says, “here attains its triumph and its extravagance.” Nowhere else is it so pointed, so complex, so highly embroidered, so full of delicate detail. It differs from most Gothic cathedrals in being built, not of dark stone, but of beautiful, lustrous white Italian marble. Begun in 1386, it was not fully completed until 1805, at the direction of Napoleon. The design is said to be taken from Monte Rosa, one of the loftiest peaks of the Alps. Its ninety-eight sculptured pinnacles, rising from every part of the body of the church, certainly bear a striking resemblance to the splintered ice crags of Savoy. Next to St. Peter’s, at Rome, and the Cathedral at Seville, this is the largest church in Europe, covering, as it does, an area of fourteen thousand square yards.

PANORAMA OF VENICE, ITALY. No city in the world is more fascinating than Venice. Its very situation makes it unique, built as it is on a cluster of small islands, a hundred or more in number, in the lagoon of the same name. A long, narrow sand-bank, divided by several inlets, separates the lagoon from the Adriatic. The largest of the islands is the Isola di Rialto, which gives its name to the famous bridge. The Grand Canal winds through the city in a double curve, like the letter S, and divides it into two unequal parts. The one hundred and forty-six smaller canals and a perfect network of small streets and bridges form the other thoroughfares. The splendid churches, the vast treasures of art and the magnificent palaces, remind one of the glories of the past, and fill the present with a surpassing beauty. By the fifteenth century Venice had become the greatest republic in Europe and the focus of its commerce. The immense wealth of its merchant princes enabled them to gratify their artistic sense in the superb monuments still extant.

ST. MARK’S, VENICE, ITALY. This famous cathedral church is a strange jumble of all styles of architecture, Christian as well as Saracenic, yet both without and within breathing a rich and wonderful harmony. The present building, dedicated in 1085, takes the place of an older and simpler structure, that was destroyed by fire in 976. In front of the church, to the southwest, rises the Square Campanile, surmounted with the figure of an angel. To the east of the church the famous Piazzetta, or “Little Square,” extends to the Grand Canal, glorified by the Palace of the Doges, or ancient rulers of the city, which some architects look upon as the finest building in the world. It is from this Piazzetta that the picture is taken. The square in front of St. Mark’s is the grand focus of attraction in Venice, and in summer nearly the entire population congregate here.

GRAND CANAL, VENICE, ITALY. This is the main thoroughfare of the city of the sea. On either side of its serpentine length it is lined by marble-fronted palaces, whose very names awaken a thrill of historic or romantic recollection. Gondolas dart up and down among the waters, and, alas! the disillusionizing modern steamboat puffs its vicious way through the complaining waters. About half-way in its course the canal is crossed by the famous Rialto bridge, a single arch of unique and elegant construction, seventy-four feet in length, resting on twelve thousand piles. This was built in 1588, subsequent therefore to the period of Venice’s greatest glory. The ancient Rialto, which Shakespeare speaks of as the meeting place of the merchants, was not this bridge, but the Exchange which used to go by the same name, and was long the centre of trade and commercial life in this city.

THE DOGE’S PALACE, VENICE, ITALY. At right angles to the Piazza San Marco, at the south-east end, runs the Piazzetta or little square, whereon is situated the former residence of the Doges, an ancient seat of government. Ruskin calls this “the principal work of Venice.” Originally built in 800, five times destroyed and as many times rebuilt in a style of greater magnificence, the present structure dates from the fourteenth century. It is in the Moorish-Gothic style. The form is an irregular square; the west side, facing the Piazzetta (two hundred and thirty feet in length), and the south side, facing the sea (two hundred and twenty feet in length), are flanked by two colonnades, one above the other, with exquisite traceries. The mouldings of the upper colonnade are especially rich. The interior court of the building presents a wilderness of elegant columns, cornices, arches, carvings, sculptures and bas-reliefs. A magnificent collection of Venetian paintings is housed within these walls. On the east side the palace is connected with the prisons by the so-called Bridge of Sighs, which owes most of its fame to Byron’s sentimentality.

CATHEDRAL AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA, ITALY. The Cathedral of Pisa, begun in 1063, and consecrated in 1118, forms, with its Baptistery and Campanile, the most singular group of buildings in the world. Their beauty is equal to their singularity. The church itself is constructed entirely of white marble, with black and colored ornamentation. An elliptical dome covers the centre. The façade, adorned in the lower story with columns and arches, and in the upper story with four open galleries, is of exquisite and dainty beauty. So, likewise, is the Baptistery, a circular structure, surrounded by half columns below and a gallery of small, detached columns above, the whole crowned by a conical dome. But the strangest effect of all is produced by the Campanile, better known as the Leaning Tower, from the fact that it is thirteen feet out of the perpendicular. That this obliquity was accidental and due to the sagging of the foundations is now generally agreed. Aside from this peculiarity the Campanile would arrest attention by its winsome grace.

PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE, ITALY. There is no more picturesque bridge in the world than this. It spans the river Arno at a point where tradition asserts that a Roman predecessor used to exist. Certain it is, that bridges were built here and repeatedly demolished before Taddeo Gaddi erected the present structure of three arches. It is flanked by shops, which have belonged to the goldsmiths and jewelers since the fourteenth century, and is still the centre of their trade. Above the roofs of these shops runs the gallery of the Grand Duke, built as a secret passage between the Uffizi and the Pitti Palaces. The bridge itself might easily be mistaken for a continuous street by the stranger, except for the vacant space over the central arch, which gives a glimpse of the city and the river on each side.

PALAZZO VECCHIO, FLORENCE, ITALY. The ancient capitol of the Republic of Florence, and subsequently the residence of Cosmo de’ Medici, is known as the Palazzo Vecchio, or Old Palace. Begun in 1298, it is a striking example of the Florentine castles of the Middle Ages, with its enormous projecting battlements and its disproportionate bell tower, defiantly stuck upon the walls without regard to symmetry, and almost overhanging the battlements. It is situated in the Piazza della Signoria, the historic, as well as the commercial, centre of Florence. The court is adorned with a fountain and sculptured columns. In front of the entrance is Bandinelli’s group of Hercules and Cacus. At right angles to the left is the Loggia dei Lanzi, an open arcade, famous for its own beauty and for the sculptured master-pieces which it enshrines. A large and elegant fountain is on the right.

CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE, ITALY. This is generally known as the Duomo or Dome, though its official designation is Santa Maria del Fiore. Arnolfo di Cambio began it in 1298; he was succeeded by Giotto, and the dome was added by Brunelleschi. The latter is not only beautiful in itself, but is interesting as the first of the great domes of the modern world. A half-finished façade was destroyed by fire, and the deficiency was not supplied until 1875–1884. The interior is impressive, though almost entirely devoid of ornamentation. Outside the church, to the left, is the Campanile, an exquisite work by Giotto; so exquisite that Charles V declared it ought to be kept in a glass case. In front is the Baptistery, an octagonal building, surmounted by a dome. It was begun in 1352 and finished in 1358. Its chief attraction lies in the bronze doors, especially those by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which Michael Angelo eulogized as worthy to be the gates of Paradise.

THE CAPITOL, ROME, ITALY. Anciently, the Capitoline Hill, in Rome, was surmounted by the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the citadel of the city. Hence, here was the head of the Roman state and the shrine of their religion. But temple and citadel have vanished and in their place is a group of buildings erected by Paul III from the designs of Michael Angelo. On the right is the Palace of the Conservatori, on the left the Museum of the Capitol and between the two, occupying the third side of the square, is the Palace of the Senator, a modern Roman patrician with that title. The photograph shows the best approach to the square up the grand stair-case, known as La Cordonnata, which in its present form dates from 1736. At the foot of the stairs are two Egyptian lions, and at the summit, on the angles of the balustrades, two ancient colossal statues of Castor and Pollux, standing by the sides of their horses. These were found in the sixteenth century. In the centre of the square is the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius.

CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, ROME. Originally this famous structure was built by the Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The same emperor also erected the bridge now known as St. Angelo--anciently as the Pons Ælius--which crosses the Tiber opposite the castle. Tradition affirms that Gregory the Great in 589 changed the name in memory of a vision of the Archangel Michael, who appeared to him standing on the summit of the mausoleum. He built a chapel on the summit, but subsequently this was replaced by the statue still extant. During the Middle Ages this was the fortress of Papal Rome, and its history at that period is bound up in the history of the city itself. It has also served as a prison, and part of it was up to recent times still used for that purpose. It has suffered much from sieges and the ravages of time, and is now but the skeleton of the magnificent pile erected by Hadrian. No vestige remains of the shell of Parian marble which encircled it, while the statues were torn off to be used as missiles against the Goths, and later as cannon balls.

ST. PETER’S, ROME, ITALY. This is the largest and most magnificent of all Christian temples. It is built on the supposed site of the burial-place of St. Peter. As early as A. D. 90 an oratory was raised on the spot; in 306 this was followed by a basilica. The present edifice was begun in 1506, and after employing the talents of Bramante, Michel Angelo and other architects, was dedicated by Urban III in 1626. The magnificent dome was mainly the work of Michael Angelo, though his plan was somewhat modified by Giacomo della Porta. The impressive colonnades, which almost encircle the square and lead up to the front, were added in 1667. The façade is confessedly a failure. But nothing can mar the beauty of this extraordinary edifice. Although it occupies some two hundred and forty thousand square feet, the interior, from its exquisite proportions, does not at once impress the beholder with a sense of its vastness. That grows upon one by degrees. The Vatican, which adjoins St. Peter’s, is an equally enormous and beautiful building, which comprises the residence of the popes, an astounding museum of pictures and statues and a library of unexampled historic interest.

THE COLOSSEUM, ROME. This mammoth ruin, originally known as the Flavian amphitheatre, is the most magnificent relic of ancient Rome. Begun by Vespasian in A. D. 72, it was dedicated by Titus in A. D. 80 and was subsequently added to by Domitian. As the circus of the public games for nearly four hundred years, it was the scene of gladiatorial conflicts and of the persecution of the Christian martyrs. After the triumph of Christianity it fell into neglect, and suffered continuous spoliation as a quarry for the material of new buildings. Finally, in 1750, Benedict XIV rescued it in its present condition by dedicating it to the memory of the Christian martyrs who had suffered therein. A cross in the middle of the amphitheatre is continually visited by the pious. “As it now stands,” says Forsyth, “the Colosseum is a striking image of Rome itself, decayed, vacant, serious, yet grand, half gray and half green, exact on one side and fallen on another, with consecrated ground in its bosom.” Hillard calls it “a great tragedy in stone.” It was originally built to seat ten thousand spectators. There were three orders of architecture used in the four stories; the first, Doric; second, Ionic; third and fourth, Corinthian. In each of the lower tiers there were eighty arches. The height of the outer wall was one hundred and fifty-seven feet, the circumference one thousand six hundred and forty-one feet, the entire superficial area being six acres.

THE PANTHEON, ROME. This is one of the grandest, as it is the most perfectly preserved, of all the ancient monuments of Rome. Except for the ridiculous belfries superimposed by Bernini on the outside, it is to-day substantially in the same condition as when Marcus Agrippa in B. C. 27, after the establishment of universal peace, consecrated it to all the gods. In A. D. 608 it was dedicated as a Christian church by Pope Boniface IV, under the name of Santa Maria ad Martyres. The portico is of faultless beauty, and the interior, as the picture shows, is a perfect rotunda, impressive in its grand simplicity. The domed ceiling is lighted solely by an aperture twenty-three feet in diameter, the wall being supported by a huge bronze ring. An additional interest for moderns lies in the tombs of Raphael, Caracci and other painters who are buried therein, and more recently the remains of Victor Emmanuel have been added to those of the artistic brotherhood.

TOMB OF CECILIA METELLA, ROME, ITALY. The Via Appia of ancient Rome was one of the great avenues leading out from the city, and the principal line of communication with the South. It is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the censor, who began its construction in B. C. 312. Under Pius IX the ancient road was once more laid open. To-day it presents the appearance of an avenue, eleven Roman miles in length, lined on each side by ruins, mostly of magnificent tombs, which were built by the patrician families of ancient Rome to the memory of their dead. The best preserved of these is the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the wife of Crassus, a circular tower seventy feet in diameter, resting upon a quadrangular base. The battlements upon it are mediæval additions, made for the purpose of defense by the Caetanis.

FORUM ROMANUM, ROME, ITALY. The ancient Forum of Rome exists only in ruins. That it lay at the foot of the Capitoline and Palatine Hills in Rome is certain from the remnants that survive. But the exact area it occupied and the true situation of the various buildings which once covered it are matters of dispute and uncertainty. Conspicuous among the ruins are three beautiful Corinthian columns of white marble belonging to the temple raised to Vespasian by Domitian; eight granite columns belonging to the Temple of Saturn, a beautiful fragment, consisting of three Corinthian columns with a rich entablature, a solitary column which Byron calls,

The nameless column with a buried base,

but whose now excavated base reveals that it was erected to the Emperor Phocas, the arches of Septimus Severus and of Titus, and a profusion of columns, pavements, foundations and walls of other structures.

BAY OF NAPLES AND MOUNT VESUVIUS, ITALY. Naples, in itself one of the least interesting of Italian cities, attracts the attention of the tourist by its transcendent beauty of situation and by the historical and picturesque interest of its surroundings. The Bay of Naples is the most glorious spot in the Mediterranean. Its circuit is more than fifty-two miles, including the islands of Ischia, at the north-west, and of Capri, at the south entrance. At its opening, between these two islands, it is fourteen miles broad, and from the opening to its head, at Portici, the distance is fifteen miles. On the north-east shore, east of Naples, is an extensive flat, whence rises Vesuvius, the most famous of European volcanoes, at the base of which are several villages and the classic sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The Italian proverb, “See Naples and die,” is a tribute to the beauty of the city and its environment.

POMPEII, ITALY. The volcanic eruption which overwhelmed Pompeii on August 24th, A. D. 79, has afforded us our most important, indeed, almost our only source of acquaintance with the domestic life of the ancient Romans. To be sure it represents one definite epoch of antiquity only, that of the glories of the early empire when Pompeii became the favorite retreat of Romans of the wealthier classes. But the study of the various phases of life at this epoch forms a pursuit of inexhaustible interest. The ashes from Vesuvius completely covered over the town to the depth of about twenty feet until the year 1748, when the accidental discovery of some statues led to the excavations. They have been continued up to the present time, and will not be completed for half a century more.

ACROPOLIS, ATHENS, GREECE. This famous building, at once the citadel, the sanctuary, the treasury and the museum of art of the ancient Athenian people, crowns the summit of the rocky height which abruptly rises three hundred and fifty feet out of the plain in the midst of the city, inaccessible on all save the western side. The walls, built on the edge of the perpendicular rock, form a circuit of nearly seven thousand feet. These are of immense antiquity. They were founded by the Pelagians, and the work was continued by Themistocles, Cymon, Valerian, and later, by the Venetians and the Turks. Here are the remains of three temples, the Temple of Victory, the Erechtheum and the Parthenon, the latter the architectural glory of Athens, the only octastyle Doric temple in Greece, and in its own class the most beautiful building in the world. It was built in the time of Pericles, and was once adorned with masterpieces of sculpture of which it was long ago plundered.

THE BOSPHORUS, FROM CONSTANTINOPLE, TURKEY. No city in the world occupies a more magnificent natural position than the capital of Turkey. It is made up of three cities, each distinct and different from the others. Stamboul, the old city, lies upon a tongue of land of triangular shape, having the sea of Marmora on the south, the Bosphorus on its eastern apex and the Golden Horn on the north. Its seven hills are crowned with domes and minarets and fantastic houses, backed by the dark foliage of the cypress and other trees in the cemeteries beyond the walls. To the north is the European quarter, Galata being the business centre, while Pera is studded all over with the splendid residences of the foreign ambassadors, &c., and lined along its shores with the palaces and gardens of the Sultan and the adjoining mosques. Skutari, the Asiatic quarter of Constantinople, is on the eastern side of the Bosphorus. Nowhere else is there a picture so bright, so varied in outline, so gorgeous in color, so heterogeneous in its component parts.

THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE, TURKEY. This is the principal place of Mahommedan worship in the world. Anciently a Christian temple, built in 532 by Justinian, it was converted into a Moslem mosque in 1453 by Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The building is in the form of a Greek cross, two hundred and seventy feet long by two hundred and forty-three wide, surmounted by a flattened dome one hundred and eighty feet high, with several smaller domes and minarets. The style of architecture is Byzantine. The exterior is not as imposing as the interior, which even now is rivaled by few Christian churches, and at the time of its erection made this masterpiece of Byzantine architecture the greatest temple in the world. Well may Justinian have exclaimed: “I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!” The changes made by the Moslems are greater inside than out. In the interior the mosaics have been partially covered up and replaced by inscriptions from the Koran, but there is no structural change. Outside most of the older annexes have been swept away and replaced by Turkish buildings, lofty minarets rise at each corner, and the crescent replaces the cross on the dome.

THE SPHINX, EGYPT. This unique monument, situated near Cairo, in the neighborhood of the Pyramids, is one of the most characteristic and probably the oldest of Egyptian remains. As such it is the oldest monument in the world. Recent researches show that it is more ancient than even the Pyramid of Cheops. Originally it was a recumbent figure, representing an andro-sphinx, or man-headed lion, one hundred and eighty-eight feet nine and one-half inches in length, hewn out of the solid rock. Steps led down to its front, where there was a sanctuary and tablets. But the sands covered all save the head, shoulders and back, which rose from the surrounding desert with a startling and almost fearsome abruptness. In this condition the monument was allowed to remain for centuries. But more recently excavations have been started to restore it to its pristine state, and before long the entire colossal figure will be bared to view.

PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH, EGYPT. Gizeh is about twelve miles from Cairo. It contains the largest and most famous of those mysterious sepulchral monuments known as Pyramids, which the ancient Egyptians were fond of raising. Three of these are especially famous--the Great Pyramid called the “Splendid,” which is the mausoleum of Cheops, and is four hundred and fifty feet nine inches high; the scarcely inferior Pyramid of Chepheren, and the Pyramid of Mycerinus, which is much smaller. These mountains of masonry, built of stones whose huge size perplexes modern engineers to account for the method of their handling, were designed by the kings of the early Egyptian dynasties as their tombs. Their leading idea was durability, and by concealment of the entrance, and tortuous and complicated passages, they strove to baffle the vandal. Yet all these tombs have been shamefully profaned.

RUINS OF KARNAK, EGYPT. Most guide-books advise the traveller in Egypt to leave Karnak to the last, as the crown of his explorations. It is, indeed, the most marvelous ruin along the Nile. Yet, though in ruins, it preserves all its original character. It lies amid the ruins of Thebes. It was intended for a temple. But it is not so much a temple as a city of temples, of palaces, courts, columns and obelisks enclosed by a great wall of circuit about a mile and a half in circumference. The Great Hall alone, which is the largest of all the monuments, measures three hundred and forty feet by one hundred and seventy. The Temple of Amenophis, here represented, is one of the finest of the smaller remains.

CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, JERUSALEM. This church, situated on a hill called Acra, purports to be built over the site of Calvary and the actual tomb of Jesus. Not only that tomb itself, but the tombs of Joseph and Nicodemus, the places where the Saviour appeared after His resurrection to Mary Magdalene and to Mary, His mother; where Constantine’s mother found the true cross, &c., &c., are pointed out to visitors. Not everybody accepts the genuineness of the site. But, at least, it was for the reconquest of the Holy Sepulchre that the Crusades were instituted, and for fifteen hundred years kings and queens, knights and pilgrims have knelt and prayed here. The church is a Byzantine structure, which was commenced in 1103 A. D., was partly destroyed by fire in 1808, and has since been restored. Some parts of it, however, are said to date back to the Empress Helena.

GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE, JERUSALEM. No spot in the whole world could have more interest for the Christian traveler than the Garden of Gethsemane, the scene of our Lord’s agony on the eve of His crucifixion. It is known that it was a garden or orchard belonging to a small estate at the foot of Mount Olivet, somewhere on the east slope of the Kedron Valley and about half a mile from Jerusalem. But whether the present enclosure which is pointed out as the identical garden be so or not is a matter which archæologists have not yet settled. Certainly, the garden is very old and very venerable; its few olive trees date back to an unknown antiquity, and it may very well have been extant in almost its present condition in the time of Christ.

RUINS OF BAALBEK, SYRIA. Baalbek,--the city of Baal or the Sun, the Heliopolis of the Greeks, once famous as the most magnificent of Syrian cities, which passed successively under the rule of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, was plundered by the Arabs in A. D. 639, by the Christians and others during the Crusades, and was finally sacked and dismantled by the Tartars, under Tamerlane.--Baalbek to-day exists only as a mass of ruins; but its very ruins are of the utmost magnificence. The most imposing are the remains of the Great Temple. But the most beautiful is the Circular Temple--a semi-circular cella surrounded on the outside by eight Corinthian columns. Within there is a double tier of smaller pillars, the lower row being Ionic and the upper Corinthian. In modern times, and, indeed, up to the present century, this was used as a Greek church, but it is now deserted and choked with débris.

TAJ MAHAL, AGRA, HINDOSTAN. This magnificent mausoleum is the glory of Indo-Mussulman architecture. It was built by the Emperor Shah Jehan for himself and his favorite wife, Nourmahal, who died in child-birth in 1629. For twenty-two years twenty thousand men were employed in its construction, the total cost reaching $16,000,000. Built of white marble, it forms a quadrangle of one hundred and ninety square yards, surmounted by a lofty dome, with smaller domes at each corner and four graceful minarets one hundred and thirty-three feet high. The great central hall is paved with squares of various-colored marbles, while the walls, tombs and screens are ornamented by exquisite mosaic work. The elegance and delicacy of the design and the elaborate perfection in every detail of the workmanship are alike marvelous. It seems almost like a castle built in a dream, a fabric of mist and sunbeams, which would dissolve at a touch. Yet it has resisted the encroachments of time and the barbarian despoiler, and has come down to our day almost perfect.

PEARL MOSQUE, AGRA, HINDOSTAN. The very name of the building is a tribute to its beauty. It is undoubtedly the most elegant mosque of Indian-Mahometan architecture. Although it gives the general impression of lightness, grace, delicacy, it is by no means a small building. Externally it is two hundred and thirty-five feet east and west by one hundred and ninety feet north and south. The court yard is one hundred and fifty-five feet square. The mass is also considerable, as the whole is raised on a terrace of artificial construction, by the aid of which it stands well out from the surrounding buildings. Its chief beauty consists in its court yard, which is wholly of white marble from the pavement to the summit of its domes. The interior is a bewildering maze of columns of exquisite proportions.

EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. The Yosemite Valley is one of the most marvelous natural parks in the world. About nine miles in length and from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and a quarter in width, it is sunk almost a mile below the level of the surrounding country. High granite walls rise sheer and inaccessible on each side. Cataracts of the wildest and strangest beauty abound. Flowers of every hue cover the ground. Where all is wonderful it might seem hard to select. Yet by common consent the surpassing feature of the valley scenery is the great cliff, known as El Capitan or The Captain. “It is doubtful,” says Professor J. D. Whitney, “if anywhere in the world there is presented so squarely cut, so lofty and so imposing a face of rock.” Not indeed that it is the highest of the gigantic brotherhood. Its three thousand three hundred feet are exceeded in its own vicinity by over thousands of feet. But no other rock, here or elsewhere, has so majestic and awe-compelling a presence.

BIG TREES, CALIFORNIA. Rigid scientists call these trees _Sequoia gigantea_. In England they are sometimes known as Wellingtonia, in America as Washingtonia. But the pride of science and of patriotism have had to bow to the will of the populace, which has been satisfied with the simpler and therefore more energetic title of Big Trees. They are confined to the western portion of the California range, occurring in detached groups or groves at an altitude of from four thousand to five thousand feet above the sea. Some of these vast vegetable columns are upwards of thirty feet in diameter, and from three to four hundred feet in height. One of the trees in the Mariposa Grove, represented in the accompanying engraving--some twenty-five feet in diameter--stands directly arching the roadway, and a miniature tunnel has been cut through it which admits of the passage of a four-horse stage coach.

GEYSERS, YELLOWSTONE PARK, WYOMING. The Geyser region in the Yellowstone occupies some thirty square miles. Within this comparatively limited area is a most stupendous exhibition of hot springs, water geysers, mud geysers and steaming caldrons of boiling water. No two of the geysers are alike. The Grotto simply churns and makes a great noise. The others go off at various intervals; some every hour, some all the time and some once a month; some on alternate days, yet the day they are active going over ninety minutes. Nor is their style of action the same. Some play with labored pumping, others throw an unbroken stream; some wear themselves out in a continuous effort, others subside only to recommence again repeatedly. An eruption may extend from two to twenty minutes, the approximate time occupied by the Grand, or even to one hour and twenty minutes, a period that the Giant has been timed to play. The Grand is the largest geyser in the world, shooting a vast column of water over two hundred feet into the air.

GRAND CANON, YELLOWSTONE PARK. The Yellowstone Park is one of the great natural marvels of the world. Within a compass of one hundred square miles there are here gathered the loveliest valleys, the grandest canons, the most marvelous mountains, lakes, rivers, springs and cascades. In addition there are all sorts of natural phenomena: Sulphur mountains, a mud volcano, petrified forests and over ten thousand active geysers, hot springs, salfataras and boiling pools. Greatest of all the sights is the Grand Canon, a ravine varying in depth from one thousand to two thousand feet. The shelving sides of precipitous crags slope down, presenting an endless variety of form and color, until they meet at the bed of the Yellowstone River, which flings itself impetuously along to meet the lake. “A great gulch let down into the eternities,” such is the opinion of De Witt Talmage on this miracle of nature.

CLIFF-DWELLINGS, NEW MEXICO. Cliff-dwellers is the name given to more or less savage people in the past who inhabited dwellings built on projections from the face of cliffs, or cut out of the solid rock. Sometimes the houses are four stories high, and divided into many rooms. Often they are not to be distinguished from the rest of the cliff. Such dwellings are found in various parts of the world, but nowhere are they so abundant and so interesting as in Arizona, New Mexico and California. It is generally supposed that the American cliff-dwellers were the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians. In some respects the cliff-dweller appears to have been better off than his modern descendants; the canon walls sheltered him from cyclones and the overhanging shelves of rock protected him from attack from above. A series of cliff villages, lining the walls of Walnut Canon, in Northeastern Arizona, for a length of five miles, was discovered in 1884.

MASONIC TEMPLE, CHICAGO. For a long time it was held that Philadelphia had the finest Masonic Temple in the world. Now that honor belongs to Chicago. But it has only belonged to it since 1890, when the gorgeous new building was begun at the corner of State and Randolph Streets. The site measures one hundred and seventy feet on State Street and by one hundred and fourteen on Randolph. Every inch of this space is covered by the building, whose twenty stories tower up to the height of two hundred and sixty-five feet. It rests on cement and iron foundations, and its superstructure is of steel. The first three stories are faced with red granite from Wisconsin, the remainder with gray brick that is indistinguishable from the granite. An immense granite arch in the centre of the State Street front forms the entrance, and opens into an interior court, faced from bottom to top with different colored marble. The first eleven stories are fitted up for shops, from the eleventh to the sixteenth inclusive are business offices, while above the sixteenth floor everything is devoted to Masonry.

NIAGARA FALLS. The most stupendous cataract in the world is that formed in the Niagara River, four miles below Grand Island. Here the current begins to grow narrow and develops into rapids, which continue for about a mile, with a descent of fifty-two feet, until the river plunges over a mighty chasm. Goat Island, at the very verge of the cataract, divides it into two sheets of water--the Horse-shoe, or Canadian fall, with a descent of one hundred and fifty-eight feet, and a width of about twenty-six hundred and forty; and the American fall, one hundred and sixty-two to one hundred and sixty-nine feet deep, and about one thousand wide. The volume of water thus precipitated is about fifteen million cubic feet a minute. Nearly nine-tenths of this passes over the Canadian fall. For some distance below the Falls there is still water, the mass which has hurled itself into the abyss sinking and only reappearing two miles below, where the whirlpool rapids begin.

THE THOUSAND ISLANDS, CANADA. This, the largest group of river islands in the world, lies in an expansion of the River St. Lawrence at its emergence from Lake Ontario. New York State is on one side and the Province of Ontario, Canada, on the other. The name is not an exaggeration. On the contrary, the group consists of about fifteen hundred rocky islands, remarkable for their great and varied beauty. They are of all shapes and sizes, some just peeping above the surface of the waters, others extending several miles in length, some wild and bare and rocky, others covered with the most luxuriant foliage. Hence, a trip through the St. Lawrence River at this point is full of the most bewildering yet enchanting surprises.