Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/209

 1.98 History of Art in Antiquity. prcscr'ed is locally called Gabre-i-Madcre-i-Suleiman ("The Tomb of Solomon's Mother") (l'"i<^. 49). It consists of a small chamber, with a pedimcnted roof, raised upon a substructure composed of six courses set back one from the other, so as to form wide steps, the lowest and highest acting as base ; the top was reached by a flight of steps now partly destroyed (Pig. 95). The wdiole affects the aspect of a pyramid, so that, despite its small size— it is but eleven metres in height — it is not wanting in breadth and dignity.* A colonnade, of which many of the bases are still in place, ran Fig. 9$.— The Gabre. Longitudinal section. Difulafov, VArtmtatqm 4t A Anr, torn. t. Plate XXXL along three sides at least of the building, and added not a little to its effect The wall of this porch, intervening between the columns, was pierced by three narrow low doorways, whose jambs still subsist There seems to have been an exterior court that partly surrounded the inner area; this is inferred from the pre- sence of a fourth and larger portal which faces one of the openings of the first wall But the modern huts and tombs diat are crowded on this spot in order to be under the protecting wing of the venerable Tomb of the Mother of Solomon, prevented sound- ings being made by Dieulafoy along the marks left by the wall to ascertain whether the conjecture had any existence in fact. All the same, his plan is given below, because it reproduces details seemingly ' The sabttmcture is 14 m. 40 c long by 13 m. 36 c wide; Height of plinth, 5 m. 15 c; j height of chamber, 5 m. 55 c: Ly Google