  We examine how a d-dimensional mass hierarchy can be generated from a
d+1-dimensional set up. We consider a d+1--dimensional scalar, the hierarchon,
which has a potential as in gauged supergravities. We find that when it is in
its minimum, there exist solutions of Horava-Witten topology R^d X S^1/Z^2 with
domain walls at the fixed points and anti-de Sitter geometry in the bulk. We
show that while standard Poincare supergravity leads to power-law hierarchies,
(e.g. a power law dependence of masses on the compactification scale), gauged
supergravity produce an exponential hierarchy as recently proposed by Randall
and Sundrum.
