viii. 7). Allusions to these towers are constant in the
Bible, and the Arabian historian El Masoudi further
tells us that this stone or tower was eight cubits high,
and was placed in an angle of the temple, which had
no roof. Turning to Phoenician temple construction,
we have a good parallel to the ruins of the Great
Zimbabwe at Byblos ; as depicted on the coins, the
tower or sacred cone is set up within the temple
precincts and shut of! in an enclosure {vide illustration,
p. 127). Similar work is also found in the
round temples of the Cabiri, at Hadjar Kem in
Malta, and the construction of these buildings bears a
remarkable resemblance to that of those at Zimbabwe,
and the round towers, or nuraghs, found in Sardinia
may possibly be of similar significance. MM. Perrot
and Chipiez, in their ‘ History of Art in Sardinia,’
speak of these nuraghs as forts or temples, around
which the primitive inhabitants of the island once
lived. They are £ truncated cones, built with stone
blocks of different sizes, narrowing to the top. The
stones are unhewn as a rule and laid on without
mortar.’ Here too we have a parallel for our monoliths,
menhirs of unhewn stone, and also for the phalli,
specimens of which are found carved on stone (p. 57,
figs. 49 and 50), and here too the intricate plan of
the fortresses suggests at once a parallel to those at
Zimbabwe; hence it would appear that the same
influence was at work in Sardinia as in South Africa.
In Lucian’s £He Syriá Deá,’ which we shall have
occasion again to quote when discussing our finds in
Chapter VI., we find a description of a temple at
Hierapolis, in Mesopotamia, in the propylasa of which,
he tells us (§ 16), £ there stood two very large phalli,
about thirty cubits high.’ Our tower at Zimbabwe
stood apparently twenty cubits high and ten in diameter.
He further says (§ 29), ‘ These phalli are
solid, for when a priest had to ascend he had to put
a rope round himself and the phallus and walk up.
Herr Mauch, in his account of Zimbabwe, alludes
to a sacrifice which took place here amongst the
natives in his day (1871). This ceremony seems to
correspond very closely to the sacrifice celebrated
elsewhere in this country to the spirits of their
ancestors. It is pretty evident that another tribe of
Kaffirs dwelt near Zimbabwe at that time, who
looked upon the circular building as sacred; whereas
the present people do not seem to look upon it with
any religious superstition, which will account for the
growth of vegetable matter inside only during late
years. This was further evidenced by our excavations
in this building; we found but little depth of
soil, very little debris, and indications of a Kaffir
occupation of the place up to a very recent date, and
no remains like those we afterwards discovered in
the fortress.
The rest of the circular building, as the plan
shows, is divided off into various smaller enclosures,
and in one spot we imagine, by comparison with the
temples on the hill, an altar stood; it is now only a
heap of rubbish. There are also three remarkable
monoliths erected in it, two near the north-western
entrance and one behind the altar. They are about