'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎132] (163/582)

J 32 VISIT TO THE ANTIQUITIES
Eastern people when they sit before their superiors. They were
well drawn, their attitudes admirably natural, and their drapery
gracefully and finely wrought. They resembled strikingly some
figures of female harpers which I remember to have seen on a
ruin near the precipice on the banks of the Nile, and in front of
the great Temple of Koum-Ombos (the city of the Crocodile), and
were among the most interesting figures of the whole piece.
There were here also a profusion of wild boars, in all possible
attitudes; some flying from their pursuers, others wounded and
at a stand, and others falling in the tortures of death. A number
of elephants were also seen; some mounted by riders to pursue
the game, and others employed to carry off the prey. Among
the last were slain boars, lashed on elephants' backs by strong
ropes : near this were men apparently preparing the dead animals
for dissection, and a multitude of other figures, of which I have
only the recollection of an imperfect dream. The execution of
the whole was surprisingly laboured; in many instances producing
the most finished details. The dresses of the people, with their
appropriate ornaments, and the folds of their drapery, the atti
tudes of many of the men and animals, the frame-work of the
verandah, and the pins, the cords, and curtains of its windows,
were all deserving admiration, and made me regret, more than I
can describe, the impossibility of my detailing them more minutely
on the spot.
The purpose for which these Caves were executed can scarcely
be mistaken:—their cool and delightful situation, and all the
accompaniments of water, trees, and an extensive and beautiful
prospect,—their name, as the " Arch of the Garden," which is still
retained,—and the purpose for which they continue to be visited to
the present hour,—all induce a belief that they were hewn out as
summer-houses of pleasure for some royal or distinguished per
sonage of antiquity, whose abode was in this neighbourhood. The
sculptures appear to have nothing in them of an historical kind,
nor do they seem designed to commemorate any great political or