Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/299

 The Platform at Persepolis. 291 about with clumps of trees, thousands of rills letting out the secret of its freshness, greenness, and charming aspect Beyond litis foreground, where everything told of life and prosperity, he caught glimpses in the far south of the long ridges of Luristan, whilst in the middle distance he could see the lofty peaks of Fars which the dying sun had set aglow. Towards the north-west, in the direction of Pasargadae, his eye rested confidendy on the mountain chain which rose on the only side whence danger could be apprehended. A revolt from the old subjects of Cyaxares was always possible. But a fortified gate closed the road on the north, whilst im- mediately behind Istakhr, forts had been constructed at the summit of abrupt rocks, so as to bar the passage to the Medes. These were the defences of the plain ; the king, entrenched behind mountains and fortified gorges, had no need to shut himself up within high walls. Besides, what would have been the use of ramparts that could always be taken in the rear, by climbing round the slopes of the rocky hill that overhangs the royal castle ? Effectually to protect the latter, a wall must have stretched along the foot of the cliff, exacdy as Diodorus re- presented to himself the citadel of Persepolis with four sym- metrical sides ; but no vesdge of a circumvallation wall has been discovered between the buildings of the platform and the tombs hollowed in the rock. True, an explorer, T^xier, mentions "a kind of rampart made of mud, thoroughly Babylonian in its style of construction, flanked at regular intervals with great square towers. The wall, of which traces first appear near the tombs, rises obliquely up to the summit of the hill, or rather the first crag ; then it redescends to abut on the north-east angle of the level."* Tdxier has not seen the remains of the rampart which he describes on the testimony of a traveller whose narrative has not been published. Their existence, therefore, might be questioned, e;^cept that Stolze likewise reports having seen them.' In his estimation the wall consisted of alternating courses of yellow and brown bricks ; the first were five and the others ten centimetres thick. The enceinte, which started from the north angle of the leyel, has left enough fragments on the slopes to enable one to follow its line up to behind the royal tombs. It is just possible that after the fall of the Achxmenids, the princes of Persia proper . * IWs^iSf Bmerkungm. FAotegrammeiriu/u tMfgnwmmmt JVan, Liy Google
 * T£xiER, DescripHoH^ ii., p. 167.