TOMB OF CYRUS. 
505 
strangers; we cannot stand in the square of even this large 
building without feeling, with the messenger of Alexander, that 
it was “ a small house for the Magi.” The doors of its numerous 
cells are of a similar confined dimension with that of the tomb. 
As I observed before, no vestiges of the royal paradise remain 
between the tomb, and these ruins, which are not far distant; 
nor over the other intermediate spaces are there fragments of any 
kind ; but there is no want of water ; and the luxuriant waving 
of the corn on all sides, fully warrants the description of any 
former Beheste on that spot. 
I shall now speak of the inscription, written in the cuneiform 
or arrow-headed character, which is so generally met with on all 
the pillars, &c. of this place, and without the deviation of a 
single curve. From the amazing progress that Professor 
Grottefund has made in decyphering this perhaps most ancient 
form of writing, he has been able to translate the present in¬ 
teresting and often-repeated inscription ; which demonstrates that 
the place where it so frequently occurs must have been a fa¬ 
vourite establishment of Cyrus’s ; and if so, what so likely as the 
city of Pasargadae, which he founded himself as a lasting me¬ 
morial of his triumphs and his empire ? 
The inscription, as it stands on the original marbles, I copied 
on the spot; and the engraving from that copy is on the plate 
in this work, marked 13. Professor Grottefund gives it the 
following translation: 
Dominus Cyrus rex orbis rector. 
Cyrus, Lord, King, Ruler of the world ! 
Here we have combined in this short sentence, all the power 
and grandeur which swelled the living glory of this celebrated 
3 T 
VOL. i. 
