Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/292

 284 History of Art in Antiquity. permitted of a subterranean chart being drawn of the rock which carries the edifices of the Haram-esh-Sherif.*' * In the mean time what has beeil fully made out is that behind the supporting wall there is another of dry stones, then a third composed of earth and unsquared units, whose thickness naturally varies according to the configuration of the rock.* The in- equalities offered by the stony ground in its natural state, may have helped to suggest the notion of constructing the edifices at slightly different levels, in that a great deal more of the mass must have been cleared away had they attempted obtaining every- where an absolutely horizontal area. Accommodating themselves to the unevenness of the ground was all gain, for a consider- able amount of manual labour was saved, whilst it provided a number of esplanades, connected with each other by stairs whose symmetrical balustrades not only broke the lonjg^ monotonous line of the substructure and added variety to the aspect, but prevented the palaces being masked by each other, as they would have been had their floor stood on the same level. Hence it is that, as in the history of the plastic arts, here also the architect has known how to bring out happy and original results from conditions that at first sight might appear difficult to handle, but which he .was bound to accept as the choice of the prince or nation that gave him his orders. Four distinct horizontal plans may be counted on the platform. The lower stage is narrow and insignificant. It extends along the whole of the south wall, and does not seem to have supported any edifices. The second level is approached by the great stair- case (Fig. 145), and takes up about three-quarters of the super- ficies of the platform ; upon it were distributed the principal buildings — the Propylsa (Fig. 10, No. i) and the Hall of a Hundred Columns (No. 8). Proceeding from north to south is- another esplanade some three metres above this, which contains the relics of the most important and attractive of all the royal edifices, the hyjwstyle hall of Xerxes (No. 2). Again, to the rear of this, but in exactly the same direction and more than three metres hijj^her up, is reached the terrace which carried two build- ings, the palaces of Darius and Xerxes (Nos. 3 and 5). Lastly, a ' Hist, of Arl, torn. iv. pp. 171-176, Fig. 106. L.iyu,^cd by Google
 * DiEULAFOY, J^Art antique^ torn. ii. p. 15.