Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/291

 The Platform at Persepoi.is. 283 " The staircase was let in a set-olT of the wall, and preceded by a landing-place raised upon a few steps, in advance of the naked facade. In its present state it consists of two diverging flights parallel to the wall of the Takht ; e.g., two lower symmetrical land- ing-places, then two converging ramps, separated from the first flights by a supporting wall. The whole of the staircase consisted of a hundred and eleven steps. The slope is so gentle, say Arab writers without exaggeration, that persons on horseback ascend and descend without difficulty, and the stair so wide that ten men can mount at the same time. The steps, as well as the middle and lower part of the substructure, are all in excellent state of preservation (Fig. 145).^ The stairs in many places rest on the native rock the latter shows on not a few points of the esplanade* where it carries without intermediaries the substructures of the palaces and their colonnades, whilst elsewhere one treads upon a floor carefully laid down. Hence the core and support of the level is a kind of promontory that juts out from the mount, and which the haod of man has cut in such a way as should answer the use assigned thereto by the sovereign.* The levelling along the northern wall was never finished ; as no edifices were erected on this side the rock was left in its rugosity. The circumference of the massive block of masonry was as irregular as its surface ; perhaps the constructor multiplied projecting and receding angles so as to accommodate the outline of the structure to the natural irregularities of the ground, and reduce his work to what was absolutely necessary. Much more labour would have been required had they hewn the rock to obtain a rigorously straight line on the three sides of the polygon. Even though reduced to its minimum the effort was considerable. Cast your eye on the two spurs the mountain sends out into the plain,* and you will perceive that the surface is everywhere seamed by rents, breaches more or less wide. It was a question of lowering here the ridge, there of filling a ravine, taking from one side what was required on the other — ^a work, in fact, that cannot be estimated at its true value unless soundings could be made here, such as have lower flights and 48 for the upper. Tlieir width is 7 metres. The middle landing- place is a square, 14 m. 60 c. at the side. The height of the steps is 10 centi- metres. ' Flandix and Costk, Bammimatiu^ p. 75. ' ^M/., Plate LXVII. Digitizeu l> ^oogle
 * D1EUI.AF0V, V Art an^m^Vim. i. p. 17. Coste (pk 77) has 106 steps, 58 for the
 * TteiER, Datf^ion^ toin. il pb 166.