each side being the exact counterpart of the other. The
number of these smaller apartments was twenty-five. [PLATE XXIX., Fig.
1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXIX.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXX.]

The other building, which lies towards the south, and is separated from
the one just described by the whole length of the court-yard, a distance
of nearly 200 feet, appears to have been for the most part of an
inferior character. It comprised one large hall, or inner court, but
otherwise contained only small apartments, which, it is thought, may
have been "intended as guard-rooms for the soldiers." Although, however,
in most respects so unpretending, this edifice was adorned externally
with a richness and magnificence unparalleled in the other remains of
Sassanian times, and scarcely exceeded in the architecture of any age or
nation. Forming, as it did, the only entrance by which the palace could
be approached, and possessing the only front which was presented to
the gaze of the outer world, its ornamentation was clearly an object of
Chosroes' special care, who seems to have lavished upon it all the known
resources of art. The outer wall was built of finely-dressed hard
stone; and on this excellent material the sculptors of the time--whether
Persian or Byzantine, it is impossible to determine--proceeded to carve
in the most elaborate way, first a bold pattern of zigzags and rosettes,
and then, over the entire surface, a most delicate tracery of foliage,
animals, and fruits. The effect of the zigzags is to divide the wall
into a number of triangular compartments, each of which is treated
separately, covered with a decoration peculiar to itself, a fretwork of
the richest kind, in which animal and vegetable forms are most happily
intermingled. In one a vase of an elegant shape stands midway in the
triangle at its base; two doves are seated on it, back to back; from
between them rises a vine, which spreads its luxuriant branches over the
entire compartment, covering it with its graceful curves and abundant
fruitage; on either side of the vase a lion and a wild boar confront the
doves with a friendly air; while everywhere amid the leaves and grapes
we see the forms of birds, half revealed, half hidden by the foliage.
Among the birds, peacocks, parrots, and partridges have been recognized;
among the beasts, besides lions and wild boars, buffaloes, panthers,
lynxes, and gazelles. In another panel a winged lion, the "lineal
descenda