Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/257

 Religious Architecture. 247 present topmost course was 8 m. 86 c. above a vast platform, which served as base, raised two metres above the plain. The shape and extent of the paved platform, in the middle of which Stood the building, have been determined by study of the soil and the lines of the freestone blocks apparent in several places. It was a rectangle, 82 m. 10 c. at the long sideSj and 61 jfi. 10 c. at the lesser ones.* Having progressed thus far, it remains to picture to one's self the dispositions of an edifice, in view of whidi so large a substructure had been prepared. No trace of sealing is found at the summit of the mass, but five metres from its four faces the stones were set at right angles, yielding the comers of a square 16 m. 10 c. at the side (see dia- gram figured below. Fig. 125). The space is on too narrow a scale to admit of the hall of a palace having stood here, but it would have been most appro- priate for one or several altars. What may set us on the right track for a probable restoration is a fragmentary shaft of black stone built in the wall of a neighbouring trndm-zadek, which » must have been taken away from our ruin. It was from this shaft that Coste 'derived his idea of a restoration, which he never pub- lished and which we borrow from his collection of original drawings (Fig. 126). An open porch composed of two columns appears on the upper level ; foyr lobbies, corresponding with the marks referred to above, gave access to a small temple placed upon a platform 296 metres round, which could not fail to have an elegance sui generis, and bear the stamp of the grand taste of the Adismenid age; for we should incline to ascribe the monument to that reign. The column had thirty-eight flutes, a mode of embellish- ment, as we have pointed out, not seen in Persia before the Achxmenldae.' Study of the materials leads to the same conclu- sion, notwithstanding a light layer of mortar laid on between the > Flandin and C08TB, Pent midame, Plate XXXVII. Fk;. 125.— Feruz Abad. Fire-temple. Plan. Flanuin and CoSTB, Aru Micimm. Plate XXXVII. Digitizeu l> ^oogle
 * /fist. fi/Ari, torn. r. p. 457.