mains to tell us the hand by which they were designed, or the populous and powerful nation by which they were completed. The empire whose pride they must have been, has passed away and left not a memorial behind it. The religion to which we owe one part of them indeed, continues to exist; but that which called into existence the other, (the Boodhist,) like the beings by whose toil it was wrought, has been swept from the land."

The rock of which these sculptured caverns are formed, varies; black and gray basalt, granite, “a hard vesicular rock, and a rock of gritty loose texture," are mentioned by travellers; from which we infer, that there is in the geological formation occasional stratification, and that the reason why some of the caves are in a more ruinous condition than others, is the less enduring nature of parts of the material of which they are formed. It is impossible not to be forcibly struck with the resemblance between Hindoo and Egyptian Architecture. The massive columns, the varied and curious capitals, the solemn grandeur of the tout ensemble, seem to point out a common origin; yet great diversities occur, and in some instances, (Visvacarma and several other vaulted temples for example,) of an entire departure from the straight lines and angles of the Egyptian style.

Of Hindoo temples, which are of more modern origin, there are an endless variety. Many of those, composed of square or oblong courts, are of immense

extent. One of the most magnificent is that of Seringham, near Tritchinopoly. This pagoda is composed of seven square enclosures, the outermost being four miles square; the walls are twenty-five feet high, four feet thick, and three hundred and fifty feet from each other, leaving a space about a thousand feet square in the centre, upon which stands a high pagoda. To each of the enclosures are four gateways with lofty towers; these gateways are in direct lines leading to the centre.

Another kind of Indian Pagoda is in the form of a cross, with lofty cupolas at the centre and at the extremities of the cross.

There are many pagodas of a circular form. The horrid Temple of Juggernaut is compared to an immense butt or wine-cask set on end. The sacred domains of this pagoda afford pasturage for twenty thousand sacred cows. In Tanjore is a pyramidal pagoda, which Lord Valentia says is the finest specimen of the kind in India, and is a very beautiful piece of architecture. As there is a strongly marked resemblance between Egyptian and Hindoo Architecture, there is also a striking similarity in their idolatry. From these facts it is inferred that the communications between these two mighty nations were frequent and intimate, or, that one was founded by a colony from the other, after the arts and sciences had been for a long time cultivated in the fatherland.

CHAPTER IV.

PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE.

THE beautiful ruins of Persepolis afford a fine specimen of ancient Persian Architecture. Nothing however remains but a few splendid remnants of the palace which Alexander partially destroyed in one of his mad frolics.

Persepolis is situated in the province of Faristan, latitude 30° 40′ N., longitude 84° E. Le Brun spent three months in exploring and delineating these ruins, and after much discussion, conjectures that Darius and Xerxes built Persepolis.

These ruins were probably the summer palace of a Persian monarch. From the name Chilmenar, which signifies forty columns, it has been inferred that only that number belonged to the edifice; but Le Brun counted the traces of two hundred and five, although only nineteen were then standing entire. The doorways or entrances resemble those of Egyptian temples. The columns are much more slender in proportion to

their height, than either Egyptian or Hindoo columns, being seventytwo feet high, and only seventeen inches in diameter at the base.

The capitals (Fig. 8) are very high, occupying nearly a fourth of the whole height of the column. The bases (Fig. 9) are a little more than four inches high, and twenty-five in circumference, very beautifully and delicately carved. It is supposed that these capitals were intended to represent bunches

of feathers as they had formerly

been tied around the tops of tall wooden pillars. No fragments of a roof have been discovered, and the columns are too slender to have borne any but a light one. These beautiful marble columns probably sustained temporary awnings of silk, which, as it was a summer palace, could be taken down at pleasure.

FIG. 9.

แ

In Shushan, the palace of Ahasuerus, there were white, green and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings, and pil lars of marble; the beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red, and blue,

and white, and black marble."

Like Shushan, the mouldering solitary ruin of Persepolis was once the chosen seat of merriment and splendour. It is silent now, silent as the desert, save when some tall column which long has tottered upon its base, startles the amazed traveller by falling at his feet with thundering sound. There stood the gorgeous throne, there bowed the abject throng; soft, sweet music floated around these stately columns, fragrant incense filled the air. Desolation reigns sole monarch

the mournful sighing of the wind the only music; damp vapours load the unwholesome air. The dust of the mighty is mingled with that of their meanest slaves, as it is scattered by every breeze over this mouldering monument of their brief glory.

The Tombs of the Kings at Persepolis are sculptured and elaborately ornamented. They are excavations, and carved from the rock. The tomb of Darius, as it is called, is the most magnificent. The perpendicular front, which presents itself, is seventy feet high, seventy feet in breadth at the base, and forty feet above. The lower columns support a heavy entablature; their capitals are composed of the heads of oxen. Above this first gallery are two rows of human figures supporting entablatures, and above them the sculptured figure of a king performing his devotions before an altar.

It is thought by some authors that Persepolis was built by Egyptian architects, carried thither by Cambyses, but that the Persians, abhorring the Egyptian mythology, obliged them to erect and to decorate their