Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/235

 Bk. n. Ch. IV. PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE. 203 their magnificence, they are interesting in an architectural point of view, inasmuch as — as i)ointed out above — they enable us to restore their structural buildings in a manner we would hardly be able to do without their assistance. They are also interesting ethnographically, as indicating that these kings of Persia were far from being the pure Aryans the language of their inscriptions would lead us to suspect they might be. There are not, so far as is yet known, any series of rock-cut sepulchres belonging to any dynasty of pure Aryan blood. Nor would any king of Semitic race attempt anything of the sort. Their evidence, therefore, as far as it goes, and it is tolerably distinct, seems to prove that the Achsemenian kings were of Turanian race. They only, and not any of their subjects in Persia, seem to have adopted this style of grandeur, which, as we shall presently see, was common in Asia Minor, and other countries subject to their sway, but who were of a different race altogether.