BUSHIRE TO SHIRAZ. 
4 
91 
nessed; this also I have exactly delineated.* In five compartments on 
the left (corresponding Avith those on the right) are placed thick 
squadrons of Persian cavalry, all in a regular and military order, 
marshalled as it were in echelon. Fourteen yards was the length of the- 
whole sculpture from point to point. 
The path that conducted us round to these beautiful monuments, is 
the course of an aqueduct, which appeared to be of more modern 
workmanship. Bordering on the road which winds behind the hill 
of the citadel, are numerous canals of water, formed most artificially 
and closely cemented with darna. Besides these, there are very deep 
wells, in parts of which the channels of the aqueduct are seen to pass. 
After having repassed the river, we walked over the numerous mounds 
of stones and earth which cover the ruined buildings of Shapour , and 
which, if ever explored, would discover innumerable secrets of anti¬ 
quity. We were conducted by the peasants who were with us, to the 
remains of a very fine Avail, Avhich in the symmetry of its masonry 
equalled any Grecian work that I have ever seen. Each stone was 
four feet long, twenty-seven inches thick, and cut to the finest angles. 
This Avail formed the front to a square building, the area of which is 
fifty-five feet. At the top Avere placed sphinxes couchant, a circum¬ 
stance Avhich Ave ascertained from discovering accidentally two eyes 
and a mutilated foot at the extremity of one of the upper stones. In 
this Avail there is a AvindoAv, Avhich is arched by the formation 
of its upper stone. Behind this square building, Ave traced most cor¬ 
rectly the configuration of a theatre, thirty paces in length, and fourteen 
in breadth. The place resembled at least those called theatres which I 
have seen in Greece. From a comparison of their positions, we were 
led to supposed that the building still extant must have been connected 
Avith the other behind it, and may have formed perhaps the en¬ 
trance to it. [Plate XIII.J 
There are distinct mounds of earth scattered over the Avhole site of 
* See the Fragments. The horse, the chariot, and the cavalry. Plate XII. 
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