Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/233

 TiiE Subterranean Tomb. 221 but three tombs altogether in the mountain behind Persepolis: two, as stated, appear in our plan (Fig. to, Nos. lo, ii), and the third, a little to the eastward, is outside of it. Other four tombs presenting the same general features are pierced in the vertical wall of another hill which rises above the plain about five kilometres northward of Persepolis. The name of Naksh-i-Rustem, by which the place is known, is indiflferently explained as due to the bas-reliefs in which the natives think they recognize one of the heroes of the SJkaJknameA, or the Kabrestan Kaurflm (Guebre cemetery), situated hard by (Fig. 104). All these tombs, those of the one as those of the other group, with but slight differences of detail, are as like one another as it is possible to conceive ; to describe one is to describe them all ; * hence it is that our Plate I. will suffice to give an idea of this mode of entombment. The total height of each is 22 m. 50 c, divided into three portions of almost equal size.' The middle and longer compartment, in conjunction with the other twa forms what is called a Greek cross. At Naksh-i-Rustem the division corresponding with the lowest limb of the cross is about ten metres above the level of the plain. The stone, though smoothed over, is left quite plain, and forms a kind of huge bench, com- prised within the salience of the rock on either side. It is a kind of vestibule, whose height is greater than its width. The monu- ment, properly so called, begins with the middle section, carved architecturally into four engaged columns and a lofty double- recessed doorway, surmounted by an Egyptian gorge (Fig. 105) and a row of dentels, so as to reproduce a palace fa9ade (Fig. 9). The upper portion of this doorway is solid rock, but the lower section is cut away, so as to provide an entrance to the vault excavated in the mass behind. The upper and lower limb of the cross are of equal width, but the height of the former is greater. The field, polished with more care than in the rest of the fa9ade, contains a bas-relief of an essentially religious 1 The plate in question represents Na i of Cost^s plan of the necropolis (JPerse ana'tntUf Plate CLXIX.), and in our general view of this same necropolis (Fig. 104), reduced from Trier's Plate CXXXV., it appears at the extreme right of tlie picture. Length of transverse limb, 18 m. 63 c ; length of upper and lower limb, 11 m. The height of tomb No. lo at Persepolis is given at 24 m. 50 c ; middle portion, 17 m., length of upper division, 10 m. 50 c Digitizeu l> ^oogle
 * Coste's measurements of the ft^de at Naksh-i*Ru8tem are the following:—