566 ALTARS ON THE ROCKS OF NAKSHI-ROUSTAM. 
scarcely gone sixty yards when I discovered, close to the plain, a 
large projecting mass of rock, out of whose solid substance had been 
cut two altars, almost in contact with each other. (Plate XXVI.) 
The height of their bases, from the level of the ground beneath, 
did not exceed twelve or fourteen feet. Both stand on the 
same platform of rock, which is gained by a flight of steps hewn 
out of its side, and ascended from the south. The form of each 
altar is a square of four feet six inches. The corners are blunted, 
by every one having a heavy and rudely-shaped column running 
up its side, and resting on a square plinth. A kind of zone 
terminates the top of these columns, from which springs an arch. 
The whole is crowned with an architrave, ornamented with a 
range of cylindrical forms. The shape of the altars narrows up¬ 
wards, so that their upper surface or plane measures, in each, 
a square of three feet eight inches. In this square top we find a 
hollow of the same form, excavated to the depth of eight inches, 
and one foot two inches wide. Although the shape of these do 
not correspond exactly with the altars on the neighbouring 
tombs, nor with those on the different Sassanian coins, their 
forms manifest their use; and are very interesting specimens 
of, perhaps, the gradual progress of sheltering the sacred fire, 
when it was brought out of its own especial tabernacle to form 
part of the mountain rites. 
Both Herodotus and Strabo assert, that the Persians had 
neither images, altars, nor temples; and that they offered up 
their sacrifices on mountains, or high places, with extreme sim¬ 
plicity, to the Supreme God, and to the sun and moon. This 
ought, unquestionably, to be understood of the Persians in the 
very earliest times; much antecedent to the age of Herodotus 
c "... # 
himself; for, on examining nearly collateral testimonies, we 
