ARDASHIR. 
205 
alone, but of th^ir houses, temples, palaces; all lying in death¬ 
like entombment. At Anni, I found myself surrounded by a 
superb monument of Armenian greatness ; at Ardashir, I stood 
over its grave. Go where one will, for lessons of time’s re¬ 
volutions, the brevity of human life, the nothingness of man’s 
ambition ; they no where can strike upon the heart like a single 
glance cast on one of these motionless, life-deserted “ cities of 
the silent.” — To the eastward of our entrance, about two miles 
from the hills, the ground rose with a considerable natural 
elevation ; and along its summits, I observed the vast broken 
surface of what must have been a very strong and lofty citadel. 
From hence, in a direct line to the west, for full three wersts, 
stretched the before-mentioned ranges of uneven hillocks, which 
covered the remains of the towers and ramparts of the town. 
There were mounds without number within the lines ol these 
larger masses ; and on the surfaces of many I found loose pieces 
of burnt brick, stones, and fragments of blue and green tiles. 
1 searched in vain for any large hewn stones, or more manifest 
vestiges of building, in any thing like ,the shape, or materials, 
of a regular architectural structure. In the course of my ride 
to the southward, and to the westward, within the apparent 
circumference of the city, the closeness of my examination was 
rewarded by some more visible signs of what I sought. By- 
certain hollows and abrupt risings of the ground, I could dis¬ 
tinctly trace where many of the dwellings had stood ; and large 
portions of the great walls may be discerned in this quarter, of a 
prodigious thickness. They are built of sun-dried bricks, which, 
even after the lapse of so many ages, have not lost any thing of 
the regularity with which they must originally have been put 
together. 
