Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/255

 Religious Architecture, 245 If at Naksh-i-Rustem we find the altars in very good condition, it is because they are incorporated with the rock which serves them as base. Elsewhere nothing remains except the plinths on which they rested ; if the latter are still in place they owe it to sheer weight and massiveness. Such would be the pair of tiny monuments at Meshed-i-Mfirghab. They are two cube-like monoliths, hollowed inside, known in the locality as Takki-i-Taus (Peacock's Stage) (Fig. 120). Measured at the base, one is 2 m. yio. laa— FMUgiidae. View of fire-altan. Flamdim and Costb, Pmemmimmt Pbte CCIII. 25 c. at the side, and 2 ni. i 2 c. in height ; its lower part is adorned by a plinth, and it terminates in an upper Hoor i m. 59 c. each way. The staircase, of seven steps, was cut in another monolithic block in touch with the first (Figs. 121, 122). The other stage, somewhat lower and broader (2 ni. 60 c. at the side, by i m. 87 c. in height), was doubtless likewise furnished with a flight of steps now disappeared (Fig. 123). The fact that here, as well as at Naksh-i-Rustem, atcsli-gak are met in pairs, has led some to argue as to whether the taller of the two may not have been consecrated to the Good Principle, whilst the smaller was reserved for the principle of Evil ; no literary document, however, authorizes the conjecture.* Pure ' Flandin, HdatioHf torn. ii. p. 394. ^ ,^cd by Google