a court officer.

[Illustration: PLATE XLV.]

The other, and original, staircase to this palace (f on the plan) was
towards the north, and led up to the great portico, which was anciently
its sole entrance. Two flights of steps, facing each other, conducted to
a paved space of equal extent with the portico and projecting in front
of it about five feet. On the base of the staircase were sculptures in
a single line--the lion and bull in either spandrel--and between the
spandrels eighteen colossal guardsmen, nine facing either way towards
a central inscription, which was repeated in other languages on slabs
placed between the guardsmen and the bulls. Above the spandrels, on
the parapet which fenced the stairs, was a line of figures representing
attendants bringing into the palace materials for the banquet. A similar
line adorned the inner wall of the staircase.

Opposite to this, at the distance of about thirty-two yards, was another
very similar staircase, leading up to the portico of another
building, erected (apparently) by Artaxerxes Ochus, which occupied the
south-western corner of the upper platform. The sculptures here seem to
have been of the usual character but they are so mutilated that no very
decided opinion can be passed upon them.

Last of all, a staircase of a very peculiar character, (h on the plan)
requires notice. This is a flight of steps cut in the solid rock,
which leads up from the southern terrace to the upper one, at a point
intervening between the south-western edifice, or palace of Artaxerxes,
and the palace of Xerxes, or central southern edifice. These steps are
singular in facing the terrace to which they lead, instead of being
placed sideways to it. They are of rude construction, being without a
parapet, and wholly devoid of sculpture or other ornamentation.
They furnish the only communication between the southern and central
terraces.

It is a peculiarity of the Persepolitan ruins that they are not
continuous, but present to the modern inquirer the appearance, at
any rate, of a number of distinct buildings. Of these the platform
altogether contains ten, five of which are of large size, while the
remainder are comparatively insignificant.

Of the five large buildings four stand upon the central or upper
terrace, while one lies east of that terrace, between it and the
mountains. The four upon the central terrace comprise three buildings
made up of several sets of chambers, together wi