PERSEPOLIS. 
581 
the rock is hollowed out into several chambers; to gain the 
entrance to which the coffins are hoisted up by machinery : no 
other way of ascending to them exists.” 
I shall now proceed with the result of my diurnal investiga¬ 
tions, which the general plan of the place subjoined will addi¬ 
tionally illustrate. (Plate XXX.) It includes the part of the 
mountain that lies immediately behind the great platform of the 
immense square cut from the rock, which Diodorus describes ; 
as, no doubt, this division of the hill comprises what that his¬ 
torian calls the “ Royal Mountain.” There the tombs are to be 
found. The connection of this sacred inclosure with the great 
plane of the edifice below, naturally comes within the bounds of 
what might be called the castellated palace. On the ground 
above, appear several mounds and stoney heaps, marking three 
distinct lines of walls and towers ; which may readily be traced 
by the observer who does not estimate fatigue when in pursuit 
of information. They were a protection to the city on this 
side ; which, otherwise, might have been exposed to invasion 
from the higher ground. Their situation and direction will be 
seen in the plan ; and may convince us, that a palace so well 
defended on all sides, was rightly named by Q. Curtius, when 
he called it a bulwark of the capital. His words are, “ From 
the situation of the palace, partly on the rock, and partly on 
the mountain, it became a kind of citadel.” When the Arabs 
attacked the still remaining strength of Istaker, or Persepolis, 
at the close of the reign of Yezdijerd the last of the Sassanian 
race, in the year A. D. 642, the slaughter was so great in this 
dilapidated capital, that every part of it was covered with the 
dead. But they must have possessed themselves of these 
higher works, before they descended to the destruction of the 
