The palaces ol Babylon ap|)car to have consisted of courtyards and long narrow chambers ; and as stone was not readily obtained, the question of how they were roofed has occasioned much dis- cussion. Diodorus (ii. 10) states that the hanging gardens of Babylon were suiiported by stone beams, 16 ft. long and 4 ft. wide ; but Strabo (xvii. 1. 5) says they were sui>]iorted by vaulted arcades. Sir II. I-ayard belicMd that there were only flat roofs at Nineveh similar to that of modem houses in Mosul and the neighbouring villnges, and states that he never ciime upon the slightest trace of a vault, while in almost every room that he excavated ho found wood ashes and carbonized timber, lie suggests that the long and narrow
rooms were roofed with beams of palm or poplar, resting on the summit of the walls (Layard, Nineveh, ii. 250).
That Hat roofs must have been extensively used is evident from the number of limestone roof rollers found by M. Place (Ninivf,, i. 293) in his excava- tions in tlie ruins of buildings where they had fallen with the roofs ; but I'lace as well as I'errot and Cliipiez (i. 163) are of opinion that thout;li the roofs wore flat they were in many cases su])iiorted by brick vaults, side by side with other Hat roofs of timber. Arches still standing in the city gates, and fragments of vaults found witliin the chambers of Sargou's palace at Khorsabad, give colour to this oi)inion. A vaulted storehouse for grain with a flat roof is sliown in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians (vol. ii. p. 135).
Strabo (xv. 3. 18), qnoting from some old authority on Susiana, states, ' In order to prevent the houses from becoming too hot, their roofs are covered with 2 cubits of earth, the weiglit of which compels them to make those dwellings long and narrow ; because although they had only short beams, they had to have large rooms, so as to avoid being sulToeated.'
What strikes one in considering the subject of roofs is the similarity of design in the countries north and south of Palestine (Assyria, Chaldoea, Egypt), the ditt'erence being due only to the material available. WUkinson (ii. 115) says that the roofs of rooms of houses in Egypt were sup- ported by rafters of the date tree, arranged close together, or more generally at intervals, with trans- verse layers of palm branches or planks. Many roofs were vaulted, and built, like the rest of the house, of crude brick. On the top of the house was a terrace, which served as well for a place of repose as for exercise durin" the heat ; it was covered by a roof supported on columns ; here they slept, using a mosquito net (Herod, ii. 95). The floors of the rooms were flat on the upper side, whether the rooms beneath were vaulted or supported on rafters. Strabo (xvii. 1. 37), in speaking of the labjTinth at Lake Moeris, tells us that the roofs of the dwellings here consisted of a single stone each, and that the covered waj's throughout the whole range were roofed in the same manner with single slabs of stone of extra- ordinary size, without the admixture of timber or of any other material. ' On ascending the roof, which is not a great height, for it consists only of a single storey, there may be seen a field thus composed of stones. Descending again and looking into the aulas, these may be seen in a line sup- ported by twenty-seven pillars, each consisting of a single stone.' Perrot and Chipiez (i. 109) give examples of a complete .system of construction, belonging exclusively to Eg5'pt, for stone buildings with stone roofs. The interior of the building is divided up by rows of vertical supports or monoliths, on which rest architraves or stone beams, and across from architrave to architrave are placed long flat stones forming the roof. This, however, seems to have applied only to temples, the palaces as well as the houses of the people having been of very light construction, of wood or crude brick.
At Luxor, Karnak, and the Kamesseum, the temples are provided with staircases by which these flat roofs may be reached. These roofs seem to have been n-eely opened to the people, just as with us one is allowed to ascend domes and belfries for the sake of the view over the sur- rounding buikling and country.
The flat roofs of houses in the East have been used from the earliest times for a variety of domestic and even public purposes. — For diwution and prayer. St. Peter went up upon the house- top to pray about the sixth hour (Ac W). They
were used also for idolatrous purposes. There were altars on the top of the roof • chamber (rt'^-l) of Ahaz in Jerusalem (2 K 23'-'). They burned incense to Baal on the roofs of houses in Jerusalem (Jer 19'^ 32-'") ; and there they also worshi[>ped the host of heaven (Zeph 1°). — For recreation and for sleep at night, it is custom- ary at the present day for the i)eople (especially the old) to take exercise morning and evening on the roof of the house ; and during the summer - time members of the family usually sleep on the roof, carrying their bedding up at night and down again in the morning. ' At night all sleep on the tops of their houses, their beds being spread upon their terraces, without any other covering over their heads than the vault of heaven. The poor seldom have a screen to keep them from the gaze of passengers' (Morin, Persia, 229). ' We supped on the top of the house for cool- ness, according to their custom, and lodged there likewise, in a sort of closet about 8 ft. square, of wicker-work, plastered round towards the bottom, but without any doors' (Pocock's Travels, ii. 6). Saul appears to have slept on the roof of Samuel's house in the unnamed city. ' And it came to pass, about the spring of the day, that Samuel called to Saul on the housetop, saying. Up, that I may send thee away '(IS 9-*) ; ' David walked upon the roof of the king's house at Jerusalem, and from the roof saw a woman washing herself ' (2 S 11-) ; ' Absalom spread a tent upon the top of the house ' (2 S IG-') ; ' Nebuchadnezzar walked upon the royal palace at Babylon ' (Dn 4^) ; ' Samuel communed ^vith Saul upon the top of the house' (IS 9-^) ; 'the people made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house ' (Neh 8'«).