SPLENDID RUINS OP PERSEPOLIS. 51? 



serted in the same letter, the value of that document becomes htill 

 more suspicious. Speaking of the celebrated inscriptions at Perse- 

 polis, he says, ' on voit aussi plusieu:s caracteres anciens mais 

 fort bien marques, et const rvant une partie de 1'or, dont ils ont 

 etc remplis.' Sir Thomas Herbert also, however, mentions that 

 the letti rs at Persepolis were gilt. 



17th. On quitting Persipolis, I left our party in order to 

 examine a ruined building on the plains, which at a distance is 

 generally pointed out as a demolished caravanserai. 1 passed the 

 stream of the Hood Khoneh Sewund to the north, nearly where 

 the road takes a N. E. direction, and came to a fine mass of stone, 

 thirty .seven feet four inches square, which appears to have formed 

 the base of some building. It is composed of two layers of marble 

 blocks, the lower range of which extends about two feet beyond 

 the line of the upper. The largest blocks, according to my mea. 

 surement, are tt-n feet four inches in length, four feet four in 

 depth, and three feet four in breadth ; all still retain a moulding, 

 and traces here and there of masonry which must have connected 

 them with others. The whole building is filled up in the middle 

 by a black marble, and in its N. E. angle one stone is raised 

 higher than the rest. In the same angle is a channel cut, as if 

 something had been fitted into it. I took the following bearings : 

 foot of the rocks of Nakshi Rustam, N. 10 W. two miles; foot 

 of the mountain of Persepolis, S. two miles ; our encampment S. 

 20 W. two miles ; road to Ispahan, N. 80 E. 



I was called from this spot by a chatter sent by the envoy to 

 conduct me to some sculptures, which he had himself seen, (about 

 four miles from the place on the same mountain of Persepolis,) by 

 the side of the road to Ispahan. I found them indeed worthy of 

 the minutest investigation, as no preceding traveller has described 

 them with any sufficient accuracy. They are situated in a recess 

 of the mountain, formed by projecting and picturesque rocks. 

 The sculpture facing the roud is composed of seven colossal figures 

 and two small ones. The two principal characters are placed in 

 the centre : the one to the left is the same (not in position indeed, 

 but in general circumstance) as that which we had so often seen 

 represented at Shapour and Xakshi Uustam. He has the distin- 

 guishing globe on his head, and offers a ring to the opposite figure; 

 who, seizing it with his right hand, holds a >tall' or club in hi- 

 left. Behind the personage w ith the globe, are two figures, one 



SftJ 



