Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/368

 346 History of Art in Antiquity. If the use and character of the palaces erected by the two first kings of the second dynasty may be guessed at from the plan, if the texts engraved about them leave no doubt as to the name of the founders, we have no such instances in respect to another building, the remains of which lie about fifty-five metres from the eastern wall of the Palace of Xerxes, whilst the total absence of any inscriptions is not helpful when we try to picture to ourselves its original appearance (Fig. lo, No. 6).^ The plan is very singular. The building is half buried in the rubbish which has accumu- lated at its base (Figs. 24, 167) ; nevertheless it is recognized that it consisted of a porch of eight columns arranged in two rows, and a hypos- tyle hall of sixteen pillars, but un- accompanied by any vestige of lateral chambers. Like the inhabited palaces, the central colonnade is not square, but oblong in shape. If annexes, the walls of which would have dis- appeared, are out of the running, then we must look upon it as an audience- room, a greatly reduced copy or pro- totype of the Hall of a Hundred Columns.* Some have proposed to consider this ruinous block as the most ancient structure on the plat- form, the erection of which might be attributed to Camb) ses, or even Cyrus. " Its architecture is peculiarly grand, with a monolithic character of solidity about it, and a massiveness of proportion greater than that possessed by any other edifice on the platform;' whilst the sculpture has Fm. 167. — Iiuil«lin{; on the norlh-west »i Flandin and Coste, loc. cit.^ pp. 115, 116. ' In dimension the monument is 18 m. 88 c. by S7 m. 67 c, and 15 m. 74 c long and 9 m. 50 c. deep. The total surface it covers is not more than 504 metres. ' Fbrgusson, The Paiaus o/^iiuveh afid Petu^is nsioredt ppk 131-133. Digitized by Google