gular area, marked out by pillars, the
bases or broken shafts of which are still to be seen. They appear to
have been twenty-four in number; all of them circular and smooth, not
fluted; six pillars occupied each side of the rectangle, and they stood
distant from each other about fourteen feet. It is probable that they
originally supported a colonnade, which skirted internally a small
walled court, within which the tomb was placed. The capitals of the
pillars, if they had any, have wholly disappeared; and the researches
conducted on the spot have failed to discover any trace of them.

The remainder of the Persian royal sepulchres are rock-tombs,
excavations in the sides of mountains, generally at a considerable
elevation, so placed as to attract the eye of the beholder, while they
are extremely difficult of approach. Of this kind of tomb there are
four in the face of the mountain which bounds the Pulwar Valley on the
north-west, while there are three others in the immediate vicinity of
the Persepolitan platform, two in the mountain which overhangs it, and
one in the rocks a little further to the south. The general shape of
the excavations, as it presents itself to the eye of the spectator,
resembles a Greek cross. [PLATE LII., Fig. 1.] This is divided by
horizontal lines into three portions, the upper one (corresponding with
the topmost limb of the cross) containing a very curious sculptured
representation of the monarch worshipping Ormazd; the middle one, which
comprises the two side limbs, together with the space between them,
being carved architecturally so as to resemble a portico; and the third
compartment (corresponding with the lowest limb of the cross) being left
perfectly plain. In the centre of the middle compartment is sculptured
on the face of the rock the similitude of a doorway, closely resembling
those which still stand on the great platform; that is to say, doubly
recessed, and ornamented at the top with lily-work. The upper portion of
this doorway is filled with the solid rock, smoothed to a flat surface
and crossed by three horizontal bars. The lower portion, to the height
of four or five feet, is cut away; and thus entrance is given to the
actual tomb, which is hollowed out in the rock behind.

[Illustration: PLATE LII.]

Thus far the rock tombs, are, with scarcely an exception, of the same
type. The excavations, however, behind their ornamental fronts, present
some curious differences. In the si