From north to south the extent is 600 paces (1425 ft.), and 390 (802 ft.) from west to cast to the mountain on the south side, having no stairs on that side; average height about 18 ft. 7 in. On the north side it is 410 paces (926 ft.) from east to west, and the wall is 21 ft. high in some places. At the north-west corner of the wall, about 80 paces in extent westward, are some rocks before the principal staircase. On mounting the steps there is found a large platform 400 paces in extent towards the mountain. Along the wall on three

sides a pavement extends for a width of 8 ft. The principal staircase A (fig. 23.) is not placed in the middle of the west side, but nearer to the north. It has a double flight, the dis tance between the flights at the bottom being 42 ft., and the width of them is 25 ft. 7 in. The steps are 4 in. high, and 14 in. wide. Fiftyfive of them remain on the north side, and fifty-three on the south; and it is probable that some are buried by the ruins. The half spaces at the top of the first flight are

51 ft. 4 in. wide. The upper flights are separated from the lower by a wall which runs through at the upper landing. The upper flights are in forty-eight steps, and are cut out

of single blocks of the rock. The upper landing is seventy-five feet between the flights. 48. Forty-two feet from the landing, at B, are two large portals and two columns (originally four). The bottom of the first is covered with two blocks of stone, which fill two thirds of the space; the other third having been destroyed by time. The second portal is more covered by the earth than the first, by five feet. They are 22 ft. 4 in. deep, and 13 ft. 4. in. wide. On the interior side-faces of their piers, and nearly the whole The heads of these animals are length of them, are large figures of bulls, cut in bas-relief. entirely destroyed; and their breasts and fore feet project from the piers: the two of the On the first portal face to the staircase, and those of the other face towards the mountain. upper part of the piers there are some arrow-headed characters, too small to be made out from below. The remains of the first portal are The base 39 ft. high, and of the second 28 ft. of the piers is 5 ft. 2 in. high, and projects inwards; and the bases upon which the figures stand are 1 ft. 2 in. high. We may here observe that the figures on the further portal have the body and legs of a bull, an enormous pair of wings (fig. 24.) projecting from the shoulders, and the heads looking to the east show the faces of men. On the head is a cylindrical diadem, on both sides of which horns are clearly represented winding from the brows upwards to the front of the crown; the whole being surmounted with a sort of coronet, formed of a range of leaves like the lotus, and bound with a fillet carved like roses. The two columns (at Sir R. K. Porter's visit only one remained) are the most perfect among the ruins, and are 54 ft. high. At the distance of fifty-two feet southeastward from the second portico is a water. trough cut out of a single stone 20 ft. long and 17 ft. 5 in. broad, and standing 3 ft. high from the ground. From hence to the northern wall of the platform is covered with fragments; and the remains of one column not channelled as the others are; this is 12 ft. 4 in. high.

Fig. 24.

49. At one hundred and seventy-two feet from the portals, southward, is another staircase of two flights (lettered C), one west and the other east. On the top of the ramp of the steps are some foliages, and a lion tearing to pieces a bull, in bas-relief, and larger than nature. This staircase is half buried. The western flight has twenty-eight steps, and the other, where the ground is higher, has only eighteen. These steps are 17 ft. long, 3 in. high, and 14 in. wide. The wall of the landing is sculptured with three rows of figures, one above the other, and extending ninety-eight feet. The faces of these inner terrace walls

Fig 25.

are all decorated with bas-reliefs, of which fig. 25. is a specimen. On arriving at the top of this staircase, was found another large platform, paved with large blocks of stone; and at the distance of twenty-two feet two inches from the parapet of the landing, are the most northern columns (lettered D), originally twelve in number, whereol in Sir R. K. Porter's time only one remained. At seventy-one feet southward from these stood thirty-six columns more, at intervals of twenty-two feet two inches from each other, whereof only five now remain; the bases, however, of all the others are in their places, though most of them are much damaged. This group of cclumns is lettered E. To the east and west of the last-named group are two other groups of twelve each marked F and G, whereof five still remain in the eastern one, and four in the western one. The columns of the central group are fifty-five feet high; and those of the other three groups are sixty feet in height. To the south of the three groups of columns is situate the most raised building on these ruins. On the east, towards the mountain, a large mass of ruins is visible (lettered H), consisting of portals, passages, windows, &c. The first are decorated with figures on the interior; and the whole plot on which they stand is 95 paces from east to west, and about 125 paces from north to south. The centre part of the plot is covered with fragments of columus and other stones; and in the interior part there seems to have been a group of seventy-six columns, whereof none are represented by Sir R. K. Porter, nor are they shown in either of Le Bruyn's views. The highest building as to level, marked I, is 118 ft. distant from the columns lettered G. Some foundations are visible in front of this building, to which there is not the slightest trace of a staircase. fifty-three feet from the façade of it to the right is a staircase of double flight, marked K, where again bassi relievi are to be found, near which are the remains of some portals which Le Bruyn thinks were destroyed by an earthquake. The next ruin (L) is 54 ft. in extent, and has portals similar to those in other parts of the place. To its north, M exhibits uniform features, with windows, and what travellers have agreed to call niches. which are nothing more than square-headed recesses. Sculpture here again abounds, whereof we do not think a description necessary, as in fig. 25. a specimen of it has been given, sufficient to indicate its character. Behind this edifice is another, in some respects similar, except that it is thirty-eight feet longer. It is marked N on the plan. One hundred feet to the south of this last set of ruins (lettered O), Sir R. K. Porter seems to have found traces of columns, which, if we read Le Bruyn rightly, he does not mention. In this, the last-named traveller found a staircase leading to subterranean apartments, as he thought, but nothing of interest was discovered. The general dimensions of the building (P) extend about 160 ft. from north to south, and 190 ft. from east to west. It exhibits ten portals in ruins, besides other remains; and there are traces of thirty-six columns, in six ranks of six each. The spot is covered with fragments, under which have been traced conveyances for water. To the west of the last-named building was another entirely in ruins: to the east of it are visible the remains of a fine staircase, much resembling that first described, and which, therefore, we do not think it necessary to particularise, more than we do the numberless fragments scattered over the whole area, which was equal to nearly thirty English acres! The ruins at Q are of portals. At R and S are tombs

At

cut in the rock, of curious form, but evidently, from their character, the work of those who constructed the enormous pile of building of which we have already inserted a representation. Between the leading forms of the portals of these ruins, or porticoes, as Le Bruyn calls them, and those of the structures of Egypt, there is a very striking resemblance. On comparison of the two, it is impossible not to be struck with the large crowning hollowed member, which seems to have been common to the edifices on the banks of the Nile and those on the plain of Merdasht. In both, this member, forming, as it were, an entablature, is ornamented with vertical ribs or leaves, and the large fillet above the hollow appears equally in each. In the walls of the Persepolitan remains, there is perhaps less real massiveness than in those which were the works of the Egyptians; but the similarity of appearance between them points to the conjecture that, though neither might have been borrowed from the other, they are not many removes from one cominon parent. The an

nexed diagram (fig. 26.) will give the reader some notion of the style of the architecture of

Persepolis. The diagram (fig. 27.) exhibits a specimen of a column and capital. Fig. 28. is a capital from one of the tombs. The walls forming the revêtement of the great esplanade are wonderfully perfect; and appear still capable of resisting equally the attacks of time and barbarism. The surface of the platform, generally, is unequal, and was of different levels: the whole seems to have been hewn from the mountain, from whence

the marble has been extracted for constructing the edifices: hence the pavements appear masses of marble, than which nothing more durable or beautiful can be conceived. No cement appears to have been used, but the stones seem to have been connected by cramps, whose removal, however, has neither deranged the courses from which they have been removed, nor I affected their nice fitting to each other; they are, indeed, so well wrought that the AND CAPITAL joints can scarcely be perceived.

Fig. 28. CAPITAL FROM A TUMн.

50. No person can look at the style of composition and details of Persepolis without a conviction of some intimate connection between the architects of Persia and those of Egypt.

Fig. 29.

ARROW-HEADED CHARACTERS.

The principles of both are identical; and without inquiring into the exact date of the monument whose description we have just left, there is sufficient to convince us that the theory started in respect of the Cyclopean architecture, of the arts travelling in every direction from some central Asiatic point, is fully borne out; and that the Egyp

as

tian style had its
origin in Asia. We
are quite aware that
conjectures, bearing
a semblance of pro-
bability, have
signed the erection
of this stupendous
palace to Egyptian
captives, at a com-
paratively late pe-
riod, after the con-
quest of Egypt by

Cambyses; but we think they are answered by the similarity of arrow-headed characters used therein to those of ancient Babylon, whereof an example is here given (fig. 29.) from one of the portals of Persepolis. A few miles to the south of Persepolis, the hill of Nakshi Rustân (fig. 30.) presents a number of sculptured tombs,

the highest supposed to be coeval with Persepolis, and formed for the sepulture of the early kings of Persia; and the lower to have belonged to the Parthian Sassanide dynasties.

51a. The early Persians were doubtless indebted to the still earlier Assyrians for the principles on which their art was based. Persepolis lies castward of Nineveh; its remains afford a more intimate acquaintance with the details and construction employed. In both places we find the same arrangement of bassi rilievi against the walis-entrances decorated with gigantic winged animals, bearing human heads-similarity in ornament and costume -processions like those at Nimroud and Khor-abad. The cuneiform character (see fig. 29.) is nov a known language; and from an inscription found on the third terrace. the structure is a signed to the time of Darius. Susa, the ancient Shushan, the winter residence of Cyrus, was explored by Mr. Loftus in 1851; and in 1886 by Mons. Dieulafoy, who has brought to the museum at the Louvie some fine examples of coloured tile wall works of the time of Darius, B.c. 521-485. The plan much resembled that at Persepolis, ad both may have been designed by the same architect.

51b. The present architecture of Persia much resembles that of other Mahometan countries. The city of Ispahan, in its prosperity, is said to have been surrounded by a wall twenty miles in circuit. The houses are generally mean in external appearance: they commonly consist of a large square court, surrounded with rooms of varying dimensions for different uses, the sides of the area being planted with flowers, and refreshed by fountains. Distinct from this is a smaller court, round which are distributed the apartments belonging to the females of the family; and almost every dwelling has a garden attached to it. The interior apartments of the richer classes are splendidly finished, though simply furnished. Those inhabited by the governor, public officers, and opulent merchants, may almost vie with palaces. Nearly all are constructed with sun-dried bricks, the public edifices only being built with burnt bricks; the roofs, mostly flat, have terraces, whereon the inhabitants sleep during several months of the year. According to Chardin, there were in his time within the walls 160 mosques, 48 colleges, 1802 caravanseras, 273 baths, 12 cemeteries, and 38,000 houses. But the city has since fallen into great ruin. The Shah Meidan, however (figs. 31.

and 32.), or royal square, is still one of the largest and finest in the world. It is 440 paces in length, and 160 in breadth. On its south side stands the royal mosque, erected by Shah Abbas, in the sixteenth century, and constructed of stone, covered with highly varnished bricks and tiles, whereon are inscribed sentences of the Koran. On another side of the Meidan is a Mahometan college called the Medresse Shah Sultan Hossein. The entrance is through a lofty portico decorated with twisted columns of Tabriz marble, leading through two brazen gates, whose extremities are of silver, and their whole sur ace sculptured and embossed with flowers, and verses from the Koran. Advancing into the court, on the right side is a mosque, whose dome is covered with lacquered tiles, and adorned externally with ornaments of pure gold. This, and the minarets that flank it, are now falling into decay. The other sides of the square are occupied, one, by a lofty and beautiful portico, and the remaining two by small square cells for students, twelve in each front, disposed in two stories. In the city are few hospitals; one stands, however, beside the caravanserai of Shah Abbas, who erected both at the same time, that the revenue of the latter might support the proper officers of the hospital. That the reader may have a proper idea of one of these inns of the

East, if they may be so called, we have here given the plan of that just above named ( fiy.

Fig. 33.

CARAVANSERAI OF SHAH ARBAS.

33.). The palaces of the kings are enclosed in a fort of lofty walls, about three miles in circuit; in general the front room or hall is very open, and the roof supported by carved and gilded columns. The windows glazed with curiously stained glass of a variety of colours; each has a fountain in front. The palace of Chehel Sitoon or forty pillars, is placed in the middle of an immense square intersected by canals, and Towards planted with trees.

tance

glass.

to

the garden is an open saloon whose ceiling is borne by eighteen columns, inlaid with mirrors, and appearing at a disconsist entirely of The base of each is of marble, sculptured into four lions, so placed that the shafts stand on them. Mirrors are distributed on the walls in great profusion, and the ceiling is ornamented with gilt flowers. An arched recess leads from the apartment just described into a spacious and splendid hall. whose roof is formed into a variety of domes, decorated with painting and gilding. The walls are partly of white marble, and partly covered with mirrors, and are moreover decorated with six large paintings, whose subjects are the battles and royal fètes of Shah Ismael and Shah Abbas the Great. Though of considerable age, the colours are fresh, and the gilding still brilliant. Adjoining the palace is the harem, erected but a few years ago. The bazaars are much celebrated; they consist of large wide passages, arched, and lighte from above, with buildings or stores on each side. One of these was formerly 600 geometrical paces in length, very broad and lofty. From these being adjacent to each other, a person might traverse the whole city sheltered from the weather. In Ispahan, we must

not forget to notice that some fine bridges exist, which cross the river Zenderond.

SECT. V.

JEWISH AND PHOENICIAN ARCHITECTURE.

52. We are scarcely justified in giving a section, though short, to the architecture of the Jews, since the only buildings recorded as of that nation are the Temple of Jerusalem constructed by Solomon, and the house of the forest of Lebanon. The shepherd tribes of Israel, indeed, do not seem to have required such dwellings or temples as would lead them, when they settled in cities, to the adoption of any style very different from that of their neighbours. Whatever monuments are mentioned by them appear to have been rude, and have been already noticed in the section on Druidical and Celtic architecture. When Solomon ascended the throne, anxious to fulfil the wish his father had long entertained of erecting a fixed temple for the reception of the ark, he was not only obliged to send to Tyre for workmen, but for an architect also. Upon this temple a dissertation has been written by a Spaniard of the name of Villalpanda, wherein he, with consummate simplicity, urges that the orders, instead of being the invention of the Greeks, were the invention of God himself, and that Callimachus most shamefully put forth pretensions to the formation of the Corinthian capital which, he says, had been used centuries before in the temple at Jerusalem. The following account of the temple is from the sixth chapter of the First Book of Kings. Its plan was a parallelogram (taking the cubit at 1824 ft., being the length generally assigned to it) of about 109 ft. by 364 ft., being as nearly as may be two thirds of the size of the church of St. Martin's in the Fields. In front was a pronaos, or portico, stretching through the whole front (36 ft.) of the temple, and its depth was half its extent. The cell, or main body of the temple, was 54 ft. deep, and the sanctuary beyond 36§ feet, the height of it being equal to its length and breadth. The height of the middle part, or cell, was 543 ft.; and that of the portico the same as the sanctuary, that is, 36 ft.,-judging from the height of the columns. In the interior, the body of the temple was surrounded by three tiers of chambers, to which there was an ascent by stairs; and the central part was open to the sky. The ends of the beams of the floors rested on corb.ls of stone, and were not inserted into the walls, which were lined with cedar, carved into