The old notion that the round arch was a discovery of the Roman, and the pointed of the Gothic architecture, has gradually faded away with our ever-increasing knowledge of the actual state of the ancient world; and antiquarians were not, perhaps, very much surprised to learn, by the discoveries of Mr.Layard, that the Assyrians knew and used both kinds of arch in their constructions.

Some interest, however, will probably be felt to attach to the two questions, how they formed their arches, and to what uses they applied them.
All the Assyrian arches hitherto discovered are of brick.

The round arches are both of the crude and of the kiln-dried material, and are formed, in each case, of brick made expressly for vaulting, slightly convex at top and slightly concave at bottom, with one broader and one narrower end.

The arches are of the simplest kind, being exactly semicircular, and rising from plain perpendicular jambs.

The greatest width which any such arch has been hitherto found to span is about fifteen feet.
The only pointed arch actually discovered is of burnt brick.