Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/225

 Bk. II. Ch. IV, PERSEPOLIS. 193 3 @ ® 1 the annexed woodcut (No. 85) is a true representation of its ground - plan.i Nor can it be doubted that this is one of those buildings so frequently mentioned in the Bible as a " gate," not the door of a city or buildings, but a gate of justice, such as that where Mordecai sat at Susa — where Abraham bought his field — where Ruth's marriage was judged of — and, indeed, where ])ublic business was generally transacted. There are three other distyle halls or gates on the platform : one to the westward of this, very much ruined ; one in the centre of the whole 85. ProryUea. St^ale luo ft. group, which seems to have had external por- ^^^ "' ticoes ; and a third on the platform in front of the palace of Xerxes. There are two tetrastyle halls, one of which, erected by Darius (Woodcut No. 86), is the most interesting of the smaller buildings on the terrace. It is the only building that faces the south, and is lll[llllll!lllll!llllll| ' IIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIilllli 86. Palace of Darius. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. approached by a flight of steps, represented with the whole facade of the ])alace as it now stands in the woodcut (No. 87). These steps led to a tetrastyle porch, two ranges in depth, which opened into the central liall with its 10 columns, around which were arranged smaller rooms or cells, either for the occui)ation of the king, if it was a palace, or of the priests if a temple. In the western side a staircase and doorway were added, somewhat unsymmetrically, by Artaxerxes. These remains would hardly suffice to enable us to restore the ex- ternal appearance of the palace ; but fortunately the same king who built the palace for his use on this mound, repeated it in the rock as ^ It is curious that neither Ker Por- I spot, could make out its plan. Yet ter, nor Texier, nor Flandin and Coste, ' nothing can well be more certain, once though measuring this building on the ; it is pointed out. VOL. I. — 13