632 CHEHEL MINAR, OR PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS. 
the pavilion of Alexander’s triumph, and, alas! the awful 
memorial of the wantonness of his power. But every object, 
when I saw it, was as beautiful as desolate; amidst the pleasing 
memories of the past, awakening poignant regret, that such 
noble works of human ingenuity should be left to the desert 
alone; that the pile of indefatigable labour should be destined, 
from the vicissitudes of revolution, and the caprice, ignorance, 
or fanaticism of succeeding times, to be left in total neglect; or, 
when noticed, doomed to the predatory mallet, and every other 
attack of unreflecting destruction. 
This immense space of upper platform stretches to the north 
and south, three hundred and fifty feet; and from east to west, 
three hundred and eighty ; the greater part of which is covered 
with broken capitals, shafts of pillars, and countless fragments 
of building, some of which are richly ornamented with the most 
exquisite sculpture. The distribution of the pillars, stood in 
four divisions; consisting of a center-phalanx, if I may use the 
figure, of six-deep every way. An advance body of twelve, in two 
ranks; and the same number flanking the center. The first, 
or advanced division, is to the north. It is composed of two 
parallel lines, of six columns in each, falling twenty feet back 
from the landing-place of the stairs, and meets the eye im¬ 
mediately on ascending them. The columns are at equal 
distances from each other, on a line pointing right and left as 
we approach. One only is now standing; the shattered bases 
of nine others still remain, but the places only are left of the 
other two which completed the colonnade. About thirty-eight 
feet from the western edge of the terrace, appears the second 
double range of columns, the most northern of them being one 
hundred feet from that face of the height; but on the western 
