Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/208

 The Built Tomb. 197 The inscriptions, arrangement, and style of the ruins around Meshcd-i-Murghab concur one and all to give a great degree of probability to the now old theory that they are the relics of a town and the royal houses constructed by Cyrus and Cambyscs. Here, in the heart of Persia proper, in a narrow valley bounded by steep craggy ranges and defiles that could be easily defended, rose the principal residence of the two first sovereigns. After k io. 94. — Map of the plain uf Mc>bed-i-Mufu>iab. FLANUiN oitd Cu:>Te, Aruamkmm, Plate CXCIV. the revolution headed by Darius, which transferred the crown to his branch of the AchaMTienid family, it was abandoned for the lower plain of Mcrvdasht, with its mild delightful climate and fertile soil, where he set about constructing the platform upon which his successors continued to raise those noble piles the Macedonians designated under the name of Persepolis. The tombs, then, that we may expect to meet on the site of the older of the two capitals will of necessity be those of the two first kings of I^ersia or members of their family. Now, among the monuments of which traces are still visible in this canton, that which attracts the eye of the beholder and is also the best L.i^u,^cci by Google