Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/228

 History op Art in Antiquity. for their princes or their near relatives one that would naturally suggest itself to the mind of man ? If, in default of literary data of any description, we are unable to hazard even a guess for whom or when the tower-shaped sepulchres were built, this does not apply to the roclc-tombs fronting the plain of Mervdasht (Fig. 103). One of them is dated, and the rest, executed on the same lines and grouped in this same district, leave no room for doubt that they belong to the second Achaemenid dynasty, which opens- with Darius Hystaspes. The Subterranean Tomb. Two of our plates, the one with the restoration of a domestic residence (IX.), and the other with the restored edifices grouped about the platform (X.), show the funereal hypogtMa in the side of the hill which supports the" esplanade at Persepolis, whilst the site of two of these tombs is also indicated in the gen(!ral plan (Fig. 10, Nos. 10, 11). Even before explorers (whose labours are epitomized here) had commenced to study /;/ sihi the remains of the Persian metropolis, we knew from Diodorus that royal tombs would be found here. The historian at the end of -his description of the fortified enceinte within which rose the palaces thus writes : " On the east of the citadel, at a distance of about four plethra (123 metres), is a hill called the Royal Mount, which contained the tombs of the kings of Persia. The rock was cut ; a number of chambers had been holbwed in the side of the cliff, amongst which were those of defunct sovereigns. There were no avenues to them. A special apparatus had been devised, by means of which the corpses were hauled up and deposited in their 'last abode/'* Roughly speaking, the description is exact, and conveys a just idea of the situation of the tombs. Diodorus had gone to good authorities for his information, but he had not seen the localities.; hence his account both of the hypogeia and of Persepolis con- tains additions of his own which are not in accord with reality. He pictured to himself a necropolis, such as were plentiful in Greece and Asia Minor ; e.g. a rocky mass whose face was honey- combed with grave-chambers and deep galleries. Now, there are
 * Diodorus, xvii. 71.