586 
broken columns, aud other vestiges. of . 
the most classic arehitecture ; besides 
the quantities which have rolled down 
the steep in huge masses upon the plain 
pencath ; indicating by their forms, that 
they are the fragments of what,must 
have been a yery majestic portico. .'To 
the eastward, isa continued Jine of solid 
foundation wall-work, as well as imnu- 
merable piles of broken pedestals, ca- 
pitals, &e. Our guide told me, that not 
longer than twelye months ago, an al- 
most entire column stood erect in this 
quarter, but the inbabitants of the 
village thonglit they had occasion for it, 
and, tumbling it dewn, carried away 
parts of the broken shaft to apply to 
their own purposes. 
The material of which these relies 
are composed, is a hard marble, of a 
blueish tint, elegantly marked with 
white veins. The style appears fo have 
been of the most majestic simplicity, 
no traces of ornamented friezes, or any 
other laboured involvement of decora- 
tion, being to be found any where. 
ROCKY PLATFORM OF BE-SITOON. 
This huge mass of crags, which rises 
so stupendously over our present quar- 
ters, from the spet where I stood to view 
its ancient chiselling, presents a nearly 
perpendicular face of fifteen hundred 
feet. The lower part of it (at Heaven 
knows how distant a time,) has been 
smoothed to a height of one hundred 
feet, and to a breadth of a hundred 
and fifty; bepeath, which projects a 
rocky terrace of great solidity, em- 
bracing, the same extent from end to 
end, of the smoothed cliff above, and 
sloping gradually ina shelving direction 
to the level of the ground below. Its 
base, to some Way up, is faced with large 
hewn stones; and vast numbers of the 
same, some in a finished and others ina 
progressive state, lic scattered about in 
every direction, evidently intended to 
build up, and complete the front perpen- 
dicalarly to Hs higher level. ‘The obser- 
vations I made on the several cleyated 
terraces on the smoothed mountain-base 
at Persepolis, lead me to think, that this 
unfinished projection from the rock was 
begun, not as a foundation for a palace, 
(which is the idea of the natives, and 
that Khosroo Purviz erecied it-for his 
beloved Shirene,) but as a platform fora 
temple; it being too circumscribed for 
the variously diverging apartments of 
the one, but amply sufficient for the’ 
usual space allotied 10 the other. ~ And, 
besides, EF should deem it of a date far 
anterior to the Sassauian monarch, 
Sir R. Ker Porter’s Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, &c. 
Amongst. these evident, materials for 
building some great structure, it is said 
that.no remuants of a columnar shape 
haye.cyer been found ; and a peculiarity 
so, singular,, in. a, country where the 
finest architectural fragments of, th sort 
are seen on almost every pe Ly to 
haye been an ancient site; might, proba- 
bly, suggest to, the, naliyves the. distin- 
guishing name. of Be-Sitoon “ without 
pillars,” Moat ag : 
Abont fifty yards from, this, rocky 
platform, more towards the bridge, and 
at the foot. of the mountain, bursts, a 
beautifully clear stream. Just oyer, its 
fountain-head, ona, broad, protruding 
mass of the rock, the remains of an im- 
mense piece of sculpture are still visible, 
but so lamentably defaced, that) it; is 
almost impossible to make out any, one 
continued outline, ‘The whole has beer 
contained in an enormously. extensive 
frame-work excavation, within which 
many now. shapeless, projections, are 
scen; but, by close, attention, parts of 
the rude forms of several colossal figures. , - 
may be traced. The most apparent, are 
seven in a range,, which haye formerly, 
stood out from the roek in something, 
more than bas-relief, and their hearded 
visages are tolerably distinct; but alt 
that is observable, shews that the. work 
has been done by the very, coarsest 
chizel. The principal cause of the ge- 
neral mutilation of this specimen of 1¢- 
mote antiquity, must have arisen from 
subsequent additions, without reference , 
to it, having been made on, the same 
spot. First, a large and deep tablet lias 
been excavated in the very middle of 
the sculpture, for the purpose of con- 
taining a Greek inscription; and, se- 
condly, a few years ago, this was almost 
entirely obliterated by another in. the 
modern character of the, country, re- 
lating to some royal grants for the road. 
The neighbourhood of fountains seems 
to haye been a favourite spot with the 
ancients, for places of seclusion, or, com- 
memorating ereetions, whether . they 
were temples, or monuments of any 
kind ; and the situation of thisstream, so, 
immediately under the great mutilated 
bas-relief on the rock, could not fail re- 
calling to. my recollection, a_ similar 
spring that gushes over the sloping cliff 
which sustains fhe mysterious tablets of 
Gunj Namhal, in the bosom of Orontes. 
Mr. Macdonald Kinnier, in bis. yalu- 
able, Geographical Memoir of the Per- 
‘sian Empire, makes an interesting no- 
tice of this fountain of the bas-relief, ia 
remarking on the sculpture itself. On 
the 
