The conical caps of the two cavaliers closely resemble those which we see on the heads of many of the Cyprian statues; the parasol which shades the head of the great person in the first _biga_ is the symbol of Asiatic royalty; lastly, the fan-shaped plume which rises above the heads of all the chariot horses is an ornament that one sees in the same position in Assyria and in Lycia, whensoever the sculptor desires to represent horses magnificently caparisoned."[737] Sarcophagi recently exhumed in the vicinity of Sidon are said to be adorned with reliefs superior to any previously known specimens of Phoenician art.

As, however, no drawings or photographs of these sculptures have as yet reached Western Europe, it will perhaps be sufficient in this place to direct attention to the descriptions of them which an eye-witness has published in the "Journal de Beyrout."[738] No trustworthy critical estimate can be formed from mere descriptions, and it will therefore be necessary to reserve our judgment until the sculptures themselves, or correct representations of them, are accessible.
The metal castings of the Phoenicians, according to the accounts which historians give of them, were of a very magnificent and extraordinary character.

The Hiram employed by Solomon in the ornamentation of the Temple at Jerusalem, who was a native of Tyre,[739] designed and executed by his master's orders a number of works in metal, which seem to have been veritable masterpieces.

The strangest of all were the two pillars of bronze, which bore the names of "Jachin" and "Boaz,"[740] and stood in front of the Temple porch, or possibly under it.[741] These pillars, with their capitals, were between thirty-four and thirty-five feet high, and had a diameter of six feet.[742] They were cast hollow, the bronze whereof they were composed having a uniform thickness of three inches,[743] or thereabouts.

Their ornamentation was elaborate.
A sort of chain-work covered the "belly" or lower part of the capitals,[744] while above and below were representations of pomegranates in two rows, probably at the top and bottom of the "belly," the number of the pomegranates upon each pillar being two hundred.[745] At the summit of the whole was a sort of "lily-work"[746] or imitation of the lotus blossom, a "motive" adopted from Egypt.