onjectures that the roof
had four apertures, placed at the points where the lines drawn from
the northern to the southern, and those drawn from the eastern to the
western, doors would intersect one another. He seems to suppose that
these openings were wholly unprotected, in which case they would have
admitted, in a very inconvenient way, both the sun and the rain. May we
not presume that, if such openings existed, they were guarded by louvres
such as have been regarded as probably lighting the Assyrian halls, and
of which a representation has already been given?

The portico of the Hall of a Hundred Columns was flanked on either side
by a colossal bull, standing at the inner angle of the antes, and thus
in some degree narrowing the entrance. Its columns were fluted, and
had in every case the complex capital, which occurs also in the great
propylaea and in the Hall of Xerxes. It was built of the same sort of
massive blocks as the south-eastern edifice, or Ancient Palace--blocks
often ten feet square by seven feet thick, and may be ascribed probably
to the same age as that structure. Like that edifice, it is situated
somewhat low; it has no staircase, and no inscription. We may fairly
suppose it to have been the throne-room or great hall of audience of the
early king who built the South-eastern Palace.

We have now to describe the most remarkable of all the Persepolitan
edifices--a building the remains of which stretch nearly 350 feet in one
direction, while in the other they extend 246 feet. Its ruins consist
almost entirely of pillars, which are divided into four groups. The
largest of these was a square of thirty-six pillars, arranged in six
rows of six, all exactly equidistant from one another, and covering
an area of above 20,000 square feet. On three sides of this square,
eastward, northward, and westward, were magnificent porches, each
consisting of twelve columns, arranged in two rows, in line with the
pillars of the central cluster. These porches stood at the distance of
seventy feet from the main building, and have the appearance of having
been entirely separate from it. They are 143 feet long, by thirty broad,
and thus cover each an area of 4260 feet. The most astonishing feature
in the whole building is the height of the pillars. These, according to
the measurements of M. Flandin, had a uniform altitude throughout the
building of sixty-four feet. Even in their ruin, they tower over every
other erection upon t