634 
RUINS OF THE PALACE. 
shaft is finely fluted in fifty-two divisions : at its lower extremity 
begin a cincture and a torus ; the first two inches in depth, the 
latter one foot, from whence devolves the pedestal, in the 
form of the cup and leaves of a pendent lotos. It rests upon 
a plinth of eight inches, and in circumference measuring 
twenty-four feet six inches; the whole, from the cincture to the 
plinth, comprising a height of five feet ten inches. The capitals 
which remain, though much injured, are yet sufficient to shew 
that they were all surmounted by the double demi-bull; and, 
by what I could observe by my glass, they seemed to differ 
little from the one I described at the harem of Jemsheed. 
Plate LXV. a. a. represents the base of one of the columns in 
the eastern range, which varies in a small degree in its ornaments 
from the others. I have drawn them large, to a scale, by which 
their details are more apparent. 
The heads of the bulls forming the capitals, take the direction 
of the faces of the respective fronts of the terrace ; and I think 
there can be no doubt, that the wide hollow between their necks 
received a beam, or some other detached substance, meant to 
support and connect an entablature, over which has been placed 
the roof; for I do not see the purpose of these three distinct 
colonnades, at such equal distances from the grand center 
quadrangle of pillars, unless they were covered piazzas, to ex¬ 
clude the direct heat of the sun from the attending nobles, or 
higher rank of guards, near the person of the sovereign, when 
holding his court in the palace. The distance between each 
capital is not so wide as to preclude the possibility of a single 
length of stone being used as a uniting medium; and as its thick¬ 
ness could not exceed two feet six inches, the weight would not 
be so great as to become an obstacle. That pillars so terminated 
