576 
PERSEPOLIS. 
Hadjee-abad, and Kanarah, seemed to know nothing of the 
matter, when I enquired particularly about the most famed of 
them all, that of Istaker. 
Having returned from the sculptured recess of Nakshi-Rajab, 
my whole attention became absorbed in the ruins of Persepolis, 
the great capital itself, which lies in latitude 29° 59 / 39". 
I settled my people at Kanarah, and followed the same plan in my 
daily excursions I had adopted at Nakshi-Roustam. On the morn¬ 
ing of the 23d, under a sun which made a fire-altar of the rock, I 
began my investigations. Certainly, a positive knowledge of the 
original names of ancient cities, is a great satisfaction to both 
historian and antiquary ; but since these magnificent remains 
are sufficiently recognised, to identify their having made part of 
the splendid capital of the East, so long celebrated by authors 
under the name of Persepolis, it seems to me a subject of no 
material consequence, that we do not know whether it were 
primevally called Elamais, Istaker, or Tackt-i-Jemsheed. After 
the establishment of the empire by Cyrus, it is well known that 
he and his immediate descendants divided their residence chiefly 
between Rabylon, Susa, and Ecbatana. He was a conqueror 
long before he was a king; and while Cambyses, his father, 
reigned in Persia and occupied his own capital; and Cyaxares 
his uncle yet lived, and maintained his state in Ecbatana, the 
principal city of the Medes; Cyrus resided at times in Babylon, 
which he had subdued, and then afterwards at Susa, when the 
death of Abradates gave the whole province to his generous prince 
and friend. Cyrus did not live more than eight years after he 
became master of the empire, and therefore could not have had 
much time to distinguish Persepolis by any long residence there; 
though we find that he often went thither, as well as to his sacer- 
