SHIRAZ TO PERSEPOLIS. 
133 
their length is twenty-four feet six inches, breadth five feet, and distance 
from one another thirteen feet. The two first are faced by sphinxes; 
the remaining parts of whose bodies are delineated in a basso-relievo on 
the interior surface of the portal. In passing through these, the next 
objects before the more distant portals are two columns, but (as 
there is a sufficient space for two others, and as the symmetry would 
be defective without such an arrangement) I presume that the original 
structure was completed by four columns. The second portals corres¬ 
pond in size with the former, but differ from them not only in present¬ 
ing their fronts towards the mountain, but in the subject of the 
sculptures with which they are adorned. The animals on the two 
first portals are elevated on a base. From the contour of the mutila¬ 
tion, the heads appear to have been similar to those of horses, and their 
feet have hoofs ; on their legs and haunches the veins and muscles are 
strongly marked. Their necks, chests, shoulders, and backs, are en« 
crustated with ornaments of roses and beads. 
The sphinxes on the second portals appear to have had human 
heads, with crowned ornaments, under which are collected massive 
curls, and other decorations of a head-dress, which seems to have 
been a favourite fashion among the ancient Persians. Their wings are 
worked with great art and labour, and extend from their shoulders to 
the very summit of the wall. The intention of the sculptor is evidently, 
that these figures (emblematical perhaps of power and strength) should 
appear to bear on their backs the mass of the portico, including not 
only the block immediately above each, but the covering also, which, 
though now lost, certainly in the original state of the palace, connected 
the two sides and roofed the entrance. In these, as in the first 
portals, the faces of the animals form the fronts, and the bulk of their 
bodies, (called forth to a certain extent by the basso-relievo on the 
sides) is supposed to constitute the substance of the walls. 
Under the carcase of the first sphinx on the right, are carved, 
scratched, and painted the names of many travellers; and amongst others 
we discovered those of Le Brun, Mandelsloe, and Niebuhr, 
