Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/245

 The Subterranean Tomb. 235 own during the leisure of a long prosperous reign. To attempt putting a name to each hypogeum would be vain ; all we can say is that the balance of internal evidence points to Xerxes, Arta- xerxes Codomanus, and Darius Nothus as the princes that were entombed at Naksh-i-Rustem, whilst the younger cemetery at Persepolis was inaugurated by Artaxerxes Mnemon. Although Susa would seem to have been the favourite city of the kings of Persia, that in which they loved to hold their courts, nothing has been found in the immediate neighbourhood that resembles royal tombs ; the sons of Achsemenes had a partiality for the province that had been the cradle of their family, as a place for their eternal repose. On the other hand, explorers of Media have sighted hypogeia whose plan and aspect recall the rock-cut monuments of Persepolis. One of these tombs is found in the heart of Zagros, on the road leading from Kermansah to Bagdad, a route which must from time immemorial have been one of the main lines of com- munication between Iran and Mesopotamia. The road enters a hilly tract, and, after winding in and out of narrow gorges, debouches upon a little plain, well watered, covered with ruins, rock-sculptures, remains of houses, and a brace- of fortresses, seemingly of the Sassanid period.* The district takes its name frmn a caravanserai called Serpul-i-Zohab, The caravan station is found four kilometres southward of this point, whence the road runs along the foot of a lofty wall of rock which is almost perpendicular, and partly cut with the chisel ; the monument is locally known as Dak/tan DaM (the Chamber, Shop, of David.)* At a height of 5 m. 80 c. the stony mass has been cut in such a fashion as to leave a pair of plinths of equal width, one above the other, each with a salience of i m. 20 c. beyond the wall. Again, 2 m. 50 c. above this, the rock has been polished into a quadrangular block, 2 m. by i m. 45 c broad. It is divided into two equal sections. The left one is occupied by a personage clad in a long robe, head and shoulders covered with a hood; his right hand is outstretched, and his left holds an object of considerable size not easily defined (Fig. 1 13). The costume and make of this figure approach the Persepolitan examples of the hypogeia, rather than the sculptures which, along with Pelehvi inscriptions, are ' Flandin and Coste, Pent andenne, Plate* CCVI.-CCIX., CCXII., CCXIII. uiyici^LU Ly Google
 * Jbid,, pp. Z69, 170, Plates CCX., CCXI.