ains of Lauristan. An inscription, repeated on four of its
pillar-bases, showed that it was originally built by Darius Hystaspis,
and afterwards repaired by Artaxerxes Longimanus. As it was so exactly
a reproduction of an edifice already minutely described, no further
account of it need be here given.

From the palaces of the Persian kings we may now pass to their tombs,
remarkable structures which drew the attention of the ancients, and
which have been very fully examined and represented in modern times.
These tombs are eight in number, but present only two types, so that
it will be sufficient to give in this place a detailed account of two
tombs--one of each description.

The most ancient, and, on the whole, the most remarkable of the tombs,
is almost universally allowed to be that of the Great Cyrus. It is
unique in design, totally different from all the other royal sepulchres;
and, though it has been often described, demands, and must
receive, notice in any account that is given of the ancient Persian
constructions. The historian Arrian calls it "a house upon a pedestal;"
and this brief description exactly expresses its general character. On a
base, composed of huge blocks of the most beautiful white marble,1 which
rises pyramidically in seven steps of different heights, there stands a
small "house" of similar material, crowned with a stone roof, which
is formed in front and rear into a pediment resembling that of a Greek
temple. [PLATE LI., Fig.3.] The "house" has no window, but one of the
end walls was pierced by a low and narrow doorway, which led into a
small chamber or cell, about eleven feet long, seven broad, and seven
high. Here, as ancient writers inform us, the body of the Great Cyrus
was deposited in a golden coffin. Internally the chamber is destitute
of any inscription, and indeed seems to have been left perfectly plain.
Externally, there is a cornice of some elegance below the pediment, a
good molding over the doorway, which is also doubly recessed--and two
other very slight moldings, one at the base of the "house," and the
other at the bottom of the second step. [PLATE LI., Fig. 2.] Except for
these, the whole edifice is perfectly plain. Its present height above
the ground is thirty-six feet, and it may originally have been a foot
or eighteen inches higher, for the top of the roof is worn away. It
measures at the base forty-seven feet by forty-three feet nine inches.

The tomb stands within a rectan