582 
PERSEPOLIS. 
rest; innumerable quantities of arrow-heads being found from 
time to time, along the ruins of the walls above, also over the 
ground below, and on the tops of the remaining walls of what is 
called the palace. 
The artificial plain, on which the ruins of this immense royal 
citadel or palace stand, is of a very irregular shape ; probably it 
was in a general way the original form of the rock, and the 
projector judged, in cutting it, that as long as he obtained 
the expanse demanded, the nicety of the square on the ex¬ 
treme verge, was of little consequence. However, like the 
foundations of all the great works in Egypt, connected with 
religion and the monarch, this platform faces the four cardinal 
points. The scale on which the plane is drawn, will show the 
return of all the angles. The following is the full extent of each 
face. That to the south, is 802 feet, to the north 926, and to 
the west 1425. The level on which the buildings have been 
erected, is become exceedingly uneven, by being raised in parts 
by the accumulation of fallen ruins, and the soil which from 
various causes collects in time over such heaps. To the north¬ 
west, considerable masses of the native rock show themselves 
without encumbrance, and still bearing the marks of the original 
hammers and other implements with which the higher pieces 
had been hewn down to the level required. In the same direc¬ 
tion, just beyond the face of the artificial plain, the rock pro¬ 
trudes itself in vast abrupt cliffs, but still showing traces of not 
having quite escaped the pick-axe, which had spread the great 
surface in their neighbourhood. In deeper cavities, the pro¬ 
gress of a quarry is visible; part of the rock in some places 
being half hewn through; and in others, lying in completed 
slabs, ready for removal. Indeed there are plain indications, 
