ARCHITECTURE OF ECBATANA. 
115 
architectural character; and not far distant from the remains of 
the most southern fortress, I discovered the broken shaft and 
base of a column; the examination of which proved to me, that 
the architecture of Persepolis and Ecbatana had been the same. 
The flowing leaf of the lotos covered the whole of the pedestal, 
that now lay before me; and its shape resembled in every par¬ 
ticular those of the great ranges of columns on the platform of 
Tackt-i-Jemsheed. The diameter of the shaft was only four 
inches less than the Persepolitan ; and the rest of these relics 
bore a similar proportion. The shaft had been decorated, in 
like manner, with flutes; but their original sharp and beautiful 
edges were in parts much broken. From these specimens, the 
idea which had struck me so forcibly at Persepolis, of one style 
of architecture having prevailed over the East at the period of 
that capital’s erection, seemed now to be corroborated, at least 
with regard to Ecbatana. And as history bears evidence that 
the Medes had been long a splendid people, before Cyrus trans¬ 
lated their refinements to the simpler courts of his paternal 
Persis, it is probable, if the same architecture then existed in 
both places, that it owed its origin to some still more anciently 
aggrandized nation; and therefore that the capitals of Assyria 
and of Shinar might be the inventors of sculpture ; which com¬ 
prehends the ornamental parts of architecture. Hence, in Baby¬ 
lon or Nineveh, the original heavy stem of the pillar, which 
we find so ponderous at Egyptian Thebes, would first become 
lightened by reed-like flutings, and its top with the lotos-flower ; 
or, when a stronger prop seemed to be demanded, then the 
smooth shaft was surmounted by the gracefully wreathing of the 
symbolical horn, or the hieroglyphic animal itself. 
Having learned, the same evening, that some miles up the 
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