of Assyria.

Besides edifices adapted for habitation, the Persepolitan platform
sustained two other classes of buildings. These were propylaea, or
gateways--places commanding the approach to great buildings, where a
guard might be stationed to stop and examine all comers--and halls of a
vast size, which were probably throne-rooms, where the monarch held
his court on grand occasions, to exhibit himself in full state to his
subjects. The propylaea upon the platform appear to have been four
in number. One, the largest, was directly opposite the centre of the
landing-place at the top of the great stairs which gave access to the
platform from the plain. This consisted of a noble apartment, eighty-two
feet square, with a roof supported by four magnificent columns, each
between fifty and sixty feet high. The walls of the apartment were from
sixteen to seventeen feet thick. Two grand portals, each twelve feet
wide by thirty-six feet high, led into this apartment, one directly
facing the head of the stairs, and the other opposite to it, towards the
east. Both were flanked with colossal bulls, those towards the staircase
being conventional representations of the real animal, while the
opposite pair are almost exact reproductions of the winged and
human-headed bulls, with which the Assyrian discoveries have made us so
familiar. The accompanying illustration [PLATE XLVII., Fig. 1.], which
is taken from a photograph, exhibits this inner pair in their present
condition. The back of one of the other pair is also visible. Two of
the pillars--which alone are still standings appear in their places,
intervening between the front and the back gateway.

[Illustration: PLATE XLVII.]

The walls which enclosed this chamber, notwithstanding their immense
thickness, have almost entirely disappeared. On the southern side alone,
where there seems to have been a third doorway, unornamented, are there
any traces of them. We must conclude that they were either of burnt
brick or of small blocks of stone, which the natives of the country
in later times found it convenient to use as material for their own
buildings.

An edifice, almost exactly similar to this, but of very inferior
dimensions, occupied a position due east of the palace of Darius, and
a little to the north of the main staircase leading to the terrace in
front of the palace of Xerxes. The bases of two pillars and the jambs
of three doorways remain, from which it is easy to reconstr