Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/310

 298 History of Art in Antiquity, between the two edifices would mask the bases of the columns turned towards each other, and to a certain extent diminish the ill effect A little beyond the basin stands an esplanade approached by four single flights of steps with divergent ramps (Fig. 148), two of which are central, and form a landing-place 27 m. 20 c. / m m n a H ifjaUixatirti IP o 9 4 4* •1 i; 6 1 I ' "' 'HI ir D O □ O D FlO. 148. — Hypostyle hall of Xerxes (palace No. 2 of general plan). Plan. Flanoin and COSTE, A/WMMwiMW, Flste XC. by 5 m. 10 c. broad. The length of the supporting wall of this landing, which extends right and left, is seventeen metres. The two other flights at the sides of this facade face each other like the preceding ones ; they approach laterally to a central object, and constitute, as it were, a more extensive landing-place nearer to the colon nade^ In length the basement of this platform is fifteen metres to the eastward, and sixteen metres on the opposite side. Here it describes a resault at right angles, and then approaches uiyiu^LU by Google