CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



583 



Satn. 



Semarks. 



Juilt of 

 .ncic. 





Cersepolis. 



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! he pa- 

 ct. 



ctcrip- 



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LJTIS 



LIU. and 

 UV. 



at an advanced state of society. The most incredible 

 circumstances respecting these cities, are what relates to 

 their walla. Those of Nineveh are said by Diodorus to 

 Lave bsen 200 feet high, and of a breadth sufficient to 

 admit three chariots abreast. Those of Babylon are 

 said by Herodotus to have been 350 feet high, 80 feet 

 thick, aud 60 miles in circumference; Diodorus says, six 

 chariots might pass abreast. Others remark, that they 

 were 50 cubits high, after being in great part demolished 

 in the reign of Darius Hystaspes j that there were 25 gates 

 on each of the four sides, opposite the ends of as many 

 streets ; and that these streets were 150 feet in breadth. 

 It is conceivable, that walls of the height of the London 

 monument might have, during the long existence of a 

 rich empire, been raised to protect so great a city as Ni- 

 neveh; but it requires a much greater stretch of thought 

 to conceive them, as in the case of Babylon, to be raised 

 to a height equal to that of the cross which terminates 

 the dome and cupola of St Paul's cathedral in London. 

 Yet when we recollect, that Nebuchadnezzar was intoxi- 

 cated with conquest, in possession of unbounded power 

 and riches, and ambitious of creating a metropolis for all 

 Asia, upon a scale which should far surpass every city 

 the world had seen, we shall hesitate in condemning as 

 improbable even the descriptions of Herodotus. 



All these mighty works were built with bricks. It is 

 probable that, being situated in rich plains, proper stones 

 were not easily procured. The excavations from the 

 protecting ditches on the outside of the walls, furnished 

 clay for bricks, and they were laid in mortar of bitumen. 

 They are the earliest specimen of cementitious building 

 we know of, and was no doubt the result of working 

 with bricks. 



Le Brun, after much elaborate discussion, concludes, 

 that Persepolis was built by Darius and Xerxes ; and 

 Strabo says, that after the kings of Persia had ornament- 

 ed the palace of Susa, they did the same to Persepolis 

 and Parasgade. No traces of any city remains. The 

 rui.ij are usually named the House of Darius, or Chil- 

 menar, that is, the Forty Columns. (See Plate CLIII.) 

 Travellers, probably misled by this, have said that there 

 were only 40 columns : but Le Brun discovered the tra- 

 ces of 205. He found 19 standing in January 1705. He 

 asserts that there it no appearance of any thing belong- 

 ing to a temple ; but that it ccrtaiiily is the remains of 

 the palace destroyed by Alexander. He traced the fa- 

 9ade 600 paces from north to south, and 3OO from east 

 to west. 



The door- ways or entrances which remain, have a per- 

 fect resemblance to those which are between the great 

 moles at the entrances into the Egyptian temples. (See 

 Plates CLIII. and CL1V.) They have tapering out- 

 lines ; and the crowning member is a large cavttto, simi- 

 larly fluted. The columns are of more slender pro- 

 portions than the Egyptian, being about 13 diameters 

 high; that is 72 feet high, and 17.7 diamettr. Each 

 hat a moulded base, 4.3 high, and 24.5 in circumference. 

 Their capitals occupy about one-fourth of the whole 

 height of the column. The shaft does not diminish, and 

 in this bears a resemblance to those at Tentyra. The 

 capital at Tentyra, also, by having fir&t four heads of 

 Itis, with a sort of drapery, and above that an ornament- 

 ed square member of considerable height, occupies a 

 space much greater in proportion to the column, than 

 the vase capitals. But the Persepolitan capita! occupies 

 a still gi eater proportion of the whole l.tight. It is 

 possible, as alleged by some historians, that these co- 

 lumus, ai,d the numerous sculpture* at Ptrsepolis, have 

 been executed after the time of Cambyset, by Egyptian 



workmen ; or that the idea of constructing columns of Practice, 

 this magnitude of stone, may have been suggested by V ***~Y~^*' 

 those of the Thebaid. But the Persians, detesting the 

 Egyptian mythology, and instead of temples, being enga- 

 ged in constructing palaces, they adopted representations 

 of the ornaments with which they had been accustomed to 

 decorate the posts and walls of the public apartments at 

 their splendid festivals. The Persepolitan capitals there- 

 fore convey the idea of rich silks and feathers having 

 been tied round the upper part of tall wooden posts ; 

 and, as has just been shewn in the case of India, rich 

 silks, feathers, and precious stones, have always been the 

 materials with which eastern monarchs formed their most 

 gorgeous decorations. By inspecting the Plate of Per- 

 sian capitals it will be seen, that they exhibit distinct re- 

 presentations of the spirals of the volute, said to have been 

 invented long after by the Ionian Greeks. 



The appearance of the tall slender columns, and their 

 not having been any fragments forming parts of a roof 

 found amongst the ruins, has led some to conjecture, 

 that Susa being the winter palace, Persepolis was a sum- 

 mer residence only, with a temporary covering. The 

 roof may, perhaps, have been slightly constructed of 

 wood ; and the interior covering and decorations being 

 silks, &c. may have been occasionally fixed up and remo- 

 ved as the court was present or absent ; but economy 

 never having been attributed to Persian princes, even this 

 circumstance does not wear an air of great probability ; 

 and much less that roofs and partition-walls were alter- 

 nately fixed up and removed. Respecting the nature of 

 the partition-walls, and the forms and dimensions of the 

 apartments, we are left quite in the dark. 



The sculptures upon the terraces and sides of the stairs Sculptures. 

 are very numerous. Le Brun considers them triumphal 

 processions ; and from the circumstances connected with 

 them, endeavours to determine the era of their execution. 

 He observes, that the dress and arms are partly Persian 

 and part Median. The Persians offered horses to the 

 sun, and oxen to the moon, as shewn in the sculptures. 

 In the processions there is the tiara worn by the nobles 

 in the time of Cyrus, when it is known that the great 

 lords did assist. The umbrella, which is so frequently 

 represented, was in use amongst the Persians ; the long 

 robes with Foldings are a Median dress. The offerings 

 before the altar, as exhibited, were made by Cyrus, Cam- 

 byses, and other princes of the royal blood. 



Although the ancient tombs of the kings belong pro- Tomb of 

 perly to the word SEPULCHRE, where the subject will kings. 

 be treated generally, yet in this instance, forming, as 

 they do, one of the most striking features of Persian 

 architecture, we cannot, amongst the scanty remains of Descrip- 

 that school, avoid describing, and also giving an en- tiui.. 

 graved representation of the front or entrance to the 

 principal one, where it is said the body of Darius 

 was deposited. (See Plate CLIII.) To obtain a pe 

 pendicular fror.t or entrance into the tomb, a recess s 

 cut in the rock for about 60 paces in depth. The front 

 so obtained is about 70 feet in breadth in the base, 40 in 

 the decorated part, and about 70 feet in height. By 

 consulting the Plate, it will be found to bear a striking 

 resemblance to tlu entrance of the cave of Biskurma at 

 Ellora. Thelowei columns which support the sculptured 

 gallery have capitals composed of oxcns heads and necks 

 projecting from the top of the column. Upon the co- 

 lumns arc represented four great beams as an architrave; 

 upon this runs a cornice, which has 2 feet 9 inches pro- 

 jection ; and upon this ii a dado, where 18 lions are sculp- 

 turtd, nine looking from each side towards a small vase, 

 which stands in the middle of the length. Aboe the 



PLATE 

 CLIII. 



