THE MOUNTAIN OF SEPULCHRES. 
517 
projecting from the face of the tomb one foot six inches. Their 
shafts are crowned by the double-bulls I have before described. 
But a horn issues from the foreheads of these. An additional 
capital (composed of three square stones piled on each other, 
the smallest and lowest fitting into the cavity between the bulls’ 
necks, with the largest stone at the top,) supports an architrave, 
without any decoration, excepting a range of modillions near its 
upper ledge. The perfect elevation of the front of a building, 
where that sort of pillar was used, being shewn in the facade of 
this tomb, we see the intention of the hollow between the bulls’ 
backs ; and that the strength of its form is calculated rather for 
the support of a roof, than the connecting material of a mere 
colonnade. Hence we may conclude, that wherever we find 
these capitals, the structure to which they were attached was 
covered in. The temples of Mithra were on high places , and 
open above, until the time of Darius Hystaspes; who, on the 
reformation of the religion of the country, by Zerdusht, the 
Zoroaster of the Greeks, drew a roof over the temples, the 
better to preserve the sacred fire on the altars from accidents of 
the weather. Had we yet to prove the fact that the ruins at 
Mourg-aub are those of Pasargadse, this change in the construc¬ 
tion of the holy buildings would support the idea, that in the 
magnificent remains of the open temple at Mourg-aub, we see 
an erection of Cyrus. But to return to the tomb. Between 
the two centre pilasters, is the entrance. The door-frame is 
finely proportioned, with a curved projecting architrave nicely 
fluted, and divided into leaves. But the greater part of the ap¬ 
parent door is only marked like one ; the entrance being con¬ 
fined to a square space of four feet six inches high, in its lower 
compartment. The breadth in the rock, which the whole front 
