ASCRIBED TO SEMIRAMIS. 
153 
mountain fronts a plain champaign country, watered by a small 
river which winds round the foot of the hill, and the lower part 
of the rock is excavated as described. The group of figures 
cannot, indeed, be construed into a representation of the As¬ 
syrian queen and her guards; but it must at the same time be 
remembered, that other sculptures have apparently been oblite¬ 
rated to make room for the Arabic inscription.” Ctesias, on 
whose authority Diodorus Siculus mentions most of what he 
relates of Semiram is, certainly had an opportunity of consulting 
the original records of the Persian empire ; (which records, cen¬ 
turies afterwards, were all attempted to be destroyed by the 
Arabian conquerors ;) and hence it can hardly be doubted, that 
he had historical foundations for these representations. We may 
therefore think it no extravagant belief, that after this renowned 
Assyrian queen had added Media to the dominions of her son, 
for whom she was regent, she would leave some striking me¬ 
morial of her conquest, according to the fashion of the East, 
stamped on the rocks of the country. If such should be the fact, 
this gigantic, and now so barbarously mutilated piece of sculpture, 
must be the oldest, probably, in the empire. Different opinions, 
indeed, are entertained respecting the time of her existence, but 
the most moderate calculation places her at least a hundred 
years before the death of Sardanapalus, and the division of the 
old Assyrian empire by Arbaces, (Tiglath-Pileser,) governor of 
Media, and Belesis, governor of Babylon. The perpendicular 
nature of the ascent to this bas-relief, or in fact to any part of 
the mountain, is another feature of resemblance to the picture 
drawn of Mount Bagistan by Diodorus Siculus. We also find a 
second, in that the mountain was consecrated to Jupiter, or 
Ormuzd j and at the foot of Be-Sitoon, we see a rocky platform 
VOL. II. x 
