TOMB OF CYRUS. 
503 
The above description arose from the visit which Aristobulus 
made to the tomb, by order of Alexander. And his so parti¬ 
cularly noting it as a “ house of stone , with a roof” proves how 
much the singularity of the construction had struck him. The 
small dimensions of the door, are the same in the description 
and the place ; and the holes in the floor, and at the upper end 
of the chamber, are just in the positions, and at the same dis¬ 
tances, to admit the iron fastenings which secured the golden 
coffin. Had it been cased in a stone sarcophagus, like those at 
Nakshi-Roostam, doubtless that would have remained; giving 
no motive to the cupidity which rifled the tomb, to remove it 
also. The very circumstance of no relic of this sort being to be 
found here, is another argument, (if any more were needful,) for 
disproving it as the burial-place of a follower of Mahomed, male 
or female. Who, in a country that has been under Mahomedan 
rulers since the time of the first caliphs, would have violated the 
sepulchre of a son or daughter of The Faithful f Plutarch tells 
us, that Polymachus, one of Alexander’s officers, took an oppor¬ 
tunity, in the conqueror’s absence, to rifle the tomb of Cyrus ; 
but on the monarch’s return, and hearing of the sacrilege, though 
the perpetrator was a man of high birth, and a Macedonian of 
the city of Pella, he commanded his immediate death. 
Aristobulus describes the tomb as being situated “ within the 
royal paradise at Pasargadas.” The paradises of the ancient kings 
of Persia, were like those of the more modern shahs at Ispahan ; 
spacious gardens adjoining their palaces, and often so extensive 
as to contain ground, which we would call a park, for the pre¬ 
servation of animals for the chase. Hence, that the tomb should 
have trees about it at the time Aristobulus saw it, was as little 
to be wondered at, as that they should have totally disappeared, 
