512 SPLENDID RUINS Ofr PERSEPOLJS. 



of a sculpture similar to the bases of the two rooms ; excepting 

 that the centre of it is occupied by a small flight of steps. Be. 

 hind, and contiguous to these ruins, are the remains of another 

 square room, surrounded on all its sides by frames of doors and 

 windows. On the floor are the bases of columns : from the order 

 in which they appeared to me to have stood, they formed six rows, 

 each of six columns. A staircase cut into an immense mass of 

 rock (and from its small dimensions, probably the escalier derobc 

 of the pa'acc) leads into the lesser and enclosed plain below. To. 

 wards the plain are also three smaller rooms, or rather one room 

 and the bases of two closets. Every thing on this part of the 

 building indicates rooms of rest or retirement. 



In the rear of the whole of these remains, are the beds of 

 aqueducts which are cut into the solid rock. They met us in 

 every part of the building ; and are probably therefore as exten- 

 sive in their course, as they are magnificent in construction. The 

 great aqueduct is to be discovered among a confused heap of stones, 

 not far behind the buildings (which I have been describing) on this 

 quarter of the palace, and almost adjoining to a ruined staircase. 

 We descended into its bed, which in some places is cut ten feet 

 into the rock. This bed leads east and west ; to the eastward its 

 descent is rapid about twenty-five paces ; it there narrows, so that 

 we could only crawl through it ; and again it enlarges, so that a 

 man of common height may stand upright in it. It terminates by 

 an abrupt rock. 



Proceeding from this towards the mountains, (situated in the 

 rear of the great hall of columns) stand the remains of a magnifi- 

 cent room. Here are still left walls, frames, and porticoes, the 

 sides of which are thickly ornamented with bas-reliefs of a variety 

 of compositions. This hall is a perfect square. To the right of 

 this, and further to the southward are more fragments, th walls 

 and component parts apparently of another room. To the left of 

 this, and therefore to the northward of the building, are the 

 remains of a portal, on which are to be traced the features of a 

 sphinx. Still towards the north, in a separate collection, is the 

 ruin of a column, which, from the fragments about it, must have 

 supported a sphinx. In a recess of the mountain to the north, 

 ward, is a portico. Almost in a line with the centre of the hall 

 of columns, on the surface of the mountain is a tomb. To tht 



