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

FIG. 8.

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. 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,

FIG. 9.

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.

now;

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

structures according to some rude models which had previously existed. The sculptures represent religious processions, and sacrifices to the sun and moon; some of the persons in these processions carry umbrellas, an invention, which has been generally attributed to a much later period.

It cannot be doubted that there was a communication of architectural knowledge between the three countries, which possess the most magnificent specimens of ancient art.

CHAPTER V.

JEWISH ARCHITECTURE.

SEVENTY years after the birth of our Saviour, in fulfilment of prophecy, the destruction of Jerusalem was accomplished by the Romans under Titus. Very little can now be known of the architecture of that once beautiful city.

Following the description with which we are furnished in the Old Testament, we cannot make out a very exact architectural delineation of Solomon's temple. Previously to its erection, the Israelites had made very few of the higher efforts in the art. The cities of the Canaanites were surrounded with walls, and their dwellings were such as to accommodate their conquerors; when they built for themselves, their most stately houses were of the cedar of Lebanon, and other kinds of wood, and were rendered magnificent by carving, gilding, and embroidery.

This gorgeous style of ornamenting is still practised in the East, where the want of beauty of design in the structure, and unskilfulness in the architect, must