- 



PERSIAN' ARCHITECTURE. 



PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



403. 



Charscttr. 



So. In CatiloriM 



No. In Cataloc** of Brltbb 



of namitccd. AMOcUUon. 



25 

 33 

 39 

 41 



1129 



45 



n 

 u i 



- 



13 



1207 

 1219 

 12S7 



827 



Matnltnde. 



a 



3 



4 



U 



3 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 4 



PERSIAN ARCH ITECTURE. Lookingat the scanty and imperfect 

 remains of the architecture of ancient Persia, architects and archiro 

 legist* were unable to trace in them the evidence of a wholly 

 independent style, yet found many difficulties in reconciling their 

 characteristic* with those of the buildings of ancient Egypt, the only 

 known architecture to which that of Persia bore any marked resem- 

 blance. The remarkable discoveries of MM. Botta and Laj-ard hare, 

 however, shown pretty decisively what had indeed been suspected 

 before (Miiller, ' Handb. der Archaologie,' 242), that Persian archi- 

 tecture was really an imitation or development of that of Assyria. 

 [NnreviH, ARCBrrECTCRB or.] The sculptured slabs of ancient Nineveh, 

 the human-headed bulls, the bull-headed capitals, and even many 

 particularities in the arrangement, are seen to have been reproduced 

 at Penepolis and Susa. Penepolis the capital, and Pasargada; the 

 dwelling place and the grave of the kings of ancient Persia, were 

 contemporary with the later days of Babylon the mighty, and in 

 all of them the same peculiar cuneiform inscriptions are found. 



[CoxnrouL] 



For the origin of Persian architecture we need not therefore look 

 farther. The remains of the two kinds are, however, very different. 

 The exhumed buildings of Assyria are essentially palaces. What have 

 been examined of ancient Persia seem to consist chiefly of temples, or 

 temple-palaces, and tombs. 



The most extensive and remarkable ruins occur on the site or in 

 the vicinity of PersepolU, the ancient capital. They consist of a series 

 of separate grand halls, probably intended for public receptions and 

 religious ceremonies, in which the monarch took part. Une of these 

 halls has been called the palace of Darius, another that of Xerxes, 

 and there are traces of several others ; but including all of these the 

 plan would have been exceedingly limited, and inadequate to the 

 accommodation required for the court of an eastern prince and a 

 numerous retinue, unless the buildings originally extended much 

 beyond the actual ruins. Probably, as has been suggested, the actual 

 residences of the family, court, and dependents of the king, were 

 detached buildings, which, being " composed of inferior niateriaU, have 

 been washed away, or they dwelt in the neighbouring palace in the 

 town of Istakr, or in some of the buildings on the plain which are now 

 in ruins." (Fergusson). 



The present inhabitants call the chief ruin in Persepolis Tak-Jamschid, 

 or the residence of Jamschid (supposed by them to have been iti 

 founder) ; recent authorities regard it as the hall or palace of Xerxes. 

 By the Mohammedans it is called Tchil-Minar, or the Forty Columns, 

 of which number, however, scarcely half are now remaining. The 

 ruins stand upon an artificial eminence formed of admirably built marble 

 masonry. This height consists of three terraces, and extends upwards 

 of 400 yards from north to south, and about 300 from east to west. 

 Though it may be described as a parallelogram in iU general shape, this 

 platform U nut perfectly regular in plan, being indented by projections 

 and recesses, which follow the sinuosities of the superficies of the rock 

 itself; neither U it one uniform level throughout, those parts which 

 were covered with buildings being somewhat elevated above the rest. 

 The height above the plain from which the rock rises varies consider- 

 ably in different places, in some being not more than 14 feet, and in 

 others 40. On every side except the east, where it adjoins a hill 

 forming a lofty screen or background to it, the platform is enclosed by 

 walls or parapets constructed of large blocks of masonry. As that 

 opposite the loftier ground to the east, the west side (1425 feet in 

 extent), may be considered the principal one or front, and accordingly 

 here we find the entrance, not, however, in the centre, but about mid- 

 way between that and the north-west angle. The ground is here 

 somewhat more than 20 feet below the terrace, owing to which there 

 is a considerable ascent. This gave the architect an opportunity of 

 which he availed himself, to make the entrance by a grand staircase 

 which formed a principal feature in the composition. Instead of being 

 formed by wide flight* of steps in a direct Une leading to the entrance, 

 it consiit* of two separate ramp* or flight* in contrary directions, 

 which return again to the upper landing-place. The lower staircases are 

 of Urge unadorned courses of masonry : the upper flight* are profusely 

 ornamented with sculptured relievi. Facing the upper landing-place, 

 but at tome little distance from it, is a j.ropyb.n, or lofty mass forming 

 a doorway, somewhat similar to those in Kgyptun architecture, and a 

 little beyond it a second entrance of the same kind, which, as Mr. Fer- 

 guason believes, was the opposite entrance to the same pile, which wan 

 in fact a distyl* hall, having it* roof supported by four pillars, pro- 



bly one of those Gates of Justice common throughout th east, and 



which mention u frequent in the Old Testament Like the Egyptian, 

 these propyla diminiah upwards, and are crowned by a cavetto, orhollow 

 cornice : they are also adorned with fanciful colossal figures of animals, 

 ltrUy in low and partly in high relief, sculptured ou their aides, a 

 iiuman-headed winged bull being sculptured on each of the jambs of 

 the first entrance almost identical in character with those found in the 

 [laces at Nineveh and Khonabad ; whilst at the opposite entrance 

 kre bulls without wings. Other but smaller halls are on either side. 

 Ou the right of this is the grand hall, the approach to which is by 

 another double flight of stairs, the (ides of which are lined by treble 

 rows of baasi-relievi slabs, with figures of processions, Ac., like those 

 Found at Nineveh. The principal mass of building now remaining 

 lie* on the south or right hand of the entrance just described, and 

 extends westward. This structure contains within, not a spacious 

 liall suited for entertainment*, but one filled with lines of columns, six 

 in each line, so as to form a number of aisles intersecting each other. 

 Such a grove-like arrangement of numerous pillars is altogether unlike 

 anything in Grecian architecture, but a similar disposition of pillars 

 I >re vailed among the Egyptians, as may be seen in the plan of the temple 

 it Edfu [EoYPTias ARCHITKCTCBK], where both the pronaos and 

 vestibule are in the same manner polyilylar, or filled with columns, 

 although they occupy a smaller space, and are consequently not so 

 numerous. A more remarkable example is the temple of Karnak, 

 described in the same article. In front, and flanking each Hide of the 

 great hall, are hexastyle porticoes, the columns being two deep. 



There are on the platform several halls or buildings, some appearing 

 to have had four, others sixteen, thirty-two, and one a hundred pillars. 

 This last was a decastyle hall of, as would seem, about 225 feet each 

 way, but as its entire height (according to Mr. Fergusson) was barely 

 25 feet, it was of low proportions. It had a portico in front flanked 

 by two colossal bulls, on pedestals 18 feet long and 5 feet high ; and 

 the flanks of the doorway were sculptured with representations of thn 

 king on hia throne, and of various mythological subjects ; but it had 

 no lateral porticoes, and was altogether inferior in magnificence to the 

 hall of Xerxes. 



From a careful comparison of the remains at Persepolis and Susa 

 with those of Assyria and the representations of a Persian palace on 

 the tomb of Darius at Naksh-i-Rustam, Mr. Fergusson conjectures 

 (' Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored ') that two orders of 

 pillars were employed to support the roofs of the palace of Xerxes, 

 one with double bull capitals, the other with the Ionic volutes 

 such aa are seen in the columns of the northern portico and gene- 

 rally in interiors. Brackets of wood he thinks supported the beams 

 of the roof, at least internally, the double bull capital surmount- 

 ing the Ionic scrolls on the outside. The palace, he thinks. " sup- 

 ported a raised platform or talar, on its roof ; identical with that 

 represented in the tomb (of Darius at Naksh-i-ltustam) on which 

 the fire-altar was placed at which the king used to worship, or 

 on which he was wont to exhibit himself to his subjects on state 

 occasions." On the whole, Mr. Fergusson states as the result of hia 

 studies of Assyrian and Persian architecture in general, and of this 

 building in particular, that " presuming it be sculptured and painted as 

 richly as other buildings of its age and class, which it no doubt was, 

 it was not only one of the largest, but one of the most splendid 

 buildings of antiquity. In plan it was a rectangle of about 300 feet 

 by 350, and consequently covering 105,000 square feet ; it was thus 

 larger than the hypostyle hall at Karnac, or any of the largest temples 

 of Greece or Rome. It is larger, too, than any mediaeval cathedral 

 except that of Milan ; and although it has neither the Btone roof of a 

 cathedral, nor the massiveness of an Egyptian building, still its size 

 and proportions, combined with lightness, and the beauty of its decora- 

 tions, must have made it one of the most beautiful buildings ever 

 erected, and both in design and proportion, far surpassing those of 

 Assyria, though possessing much of detail or ornament so similar as to 

 be almost identical in style." (' Handbook of Arch.' i. 197.) Of the 

 splendour of the building there can be no question, but of its surpassing 

 beauty we must take leave to doubt. 



The taller columns at Persepolis are of gray marble, 5 feet 9 inches 

 in diameter, and 65 feet 8 inches in height ; while the shorter ; or those 

 with the Ionic scroll, are 40 feet to the bottom of the capital, that, 

 including the Ionic scroll, being 164 feet : they are therefore of very 

 slender proportions. Of some of these columns the shaft* are orna- 

 mented with a kind of zigzag or Vandyke pattern, after the manner 

 of the fragment found near the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae ; whilo 

 others are fluted, but the channels are exceedingly narrow, being forty, 

 or double the number of those of a Doric column. The bases and 

 capitals are still more singular, both of them being very deep and of 

 fanciful shape and outline. The most remarkable are formed by 

 placing two bulls' heads and fore-part* lack to back. Those with 

 Ionic volutes have the volutes set vertically instead of horizontally. 

 Mr. Fergusson has given restored copies of the "bull-headed columns, 

 and those with Ionic volutes, from Persepolis and Susa in his buildiug 

 called the Assyrian Court at the Crystal Palnce, Sydenham. 



At Pasargadic there are vast artificial platforms, and extensive ruins ; 

 but none sufficiently uninjured to permit of their identification with 

 any particular edifice, or even to determine to what kind of buildiug 

 they belong. The great platform about 300 feet square, and nearly 40 



