ARCHITECTURE. 21 
cultivation, and dependent on the Median kings, began to acquire a know- 
ledge of the fine arts after they had invaded northern and western Africa 
and Egypt. Cambyses, together with the treasures which he carried home 
from Egypt, brought Egyptian artists to Persia, to build the royal palaces 
at Persepolis, Susa, and in Media. But no actual improvements in the arts 
were made in Persia; and they remained in the same condition in which 
they were when Cambyses and Darius first introduced them. Almost all 
the artists of Persia were foreigners. 
The buildings of Ecbatana were mostly of brick laid in bitumen; marble 
or other valuable stones were used for columns and floors. 
Pasargada was the most ancient fortress of the Persian kings, and Cam- 
byses ordered the corpse of Cyrus to be brought thither, and an expensive 
mausoleum to be erected over it. The substructure was a square of stone 
blocks, accessible by seven marble steps; the main building was erected of 
timber and bricks. In the interior were the golden coffin of Cyrus, his 
golden bedstead covered with rich carpets, and a table of gold with the 
royal garments and arms. The building still exists, and is called the 
mausoleum of the mother of Solomon. It is 43 feet long, 387 feet wide, and 
42 feet high. It is quadrangular, and has a gable roof. 
The city of Persepolis was magnificent both in plan and in execution. 
Pl. 3, fig. 11, shows a portion of the royal palace. It was surrounded by 
three walls, the first 832 feet high furnished with battlements, the third 120 
feet high, and built of stone. It inclosed a quadrangle, on the eastern side 
of which was the rock with the royal tombs, which had no proper entrance, 
being cut in the rock; the corpses were elevated by machinery, and thus 
deposited in their appropriate places. On one side of these ruins, which 
are about six miles from the ruins of Shehel-Minar, are fragments of two 
porticoes which stood at right angles to each other, and formed an entrance 
to a larger flight of stairs leading to another portico, composed of a double 
row of six pairs of columns, behind which was situated a spacious court-yard 
surrounded by colonnades. The two first-mentioned porticoes had colossal 
pillars on either side, at the foot of which stood the fabulous animals 
which are represented on pl. 3, figs. 9 and 10. F%g. 9 somewhat resembles 
the Egyptian sphinx, but in Persia the head of a priest was substituted for 
that of afemale. /%g. 10 was probably intended for a horse or unicorn, 
which is frequently mentioned in the Persian mythology. Between the 
two pillars were four double columns, the bases of which are shown in jigs. 
7 and 8. The capitals were formed as in jig. 5, surmounted by horses 
(jig. 6), which supported the entablature in the manner represented in jig. 
12, where unicorns replace the horses. The capitals of the second portico 
were plain (jigs. 3 and 4). The porticoes had ceilings of stone-slabs. 
The fronts of the royal tombs, known as the ruins of Nakshi Rustam, 
were built of a hard dark stone, in large blocks, very closely jointed ; 
and the columns were of white marble. Figures in bas-relief, with inscrip- 
tions in arrow-head writing, decorate the walls. /%g. 12 shows the elevation 
of one of these tombs, the entrances of which were blocked up after the 
corpse had been deposited. It has not yet been ascertained whether there 
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