'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.' [‎245] (276/582)

STATUE.—TOWN OF KOMESHAE. 245
at Hamadan, Goolpyegan, and Ispahan, standing in different parts
of these towns. The statue at this place was now thrown down,
and lying on its side in the high road; though, from its being the
only one we could hear of near the spot, it is likely to have been
the same as that noted by Mr. Morier, on one of the tombs near;
and thought by him to be of very great antiquity. This lion, for
such it was most probably intended to represent, had a naked
sword sculptured along the side that lay uppermost, and on its
blade were two lengthened circles, in the form of a Roman O.
Mr. Niebuhr, in his description of the gymnastic exercises at
Shiraz, in the public-houses called Surshore, says, that the cham
pion in these feats of strength is allowed to put a lion on his
tomb ; and tells a story of his mistake in this respect, on seeing
lions on tombs, near that place, (p. 143). This statue was there
fore probably one that decorated the grave of some such cham
pion who had died here, and might have been of comparatively
recent date, as its form was of the rudest kind, and its whole ap
pearance that of a work from a modern Mohammedan artist.
After leaving this place, we entered the town of Komeshae by
a mean gate; the place being encompassed by a wall of brick,
coated with mud, of moderate height, strengthened by circular
bastions, and having a dry ditch on the north side. The interior
showed a series of new dwellings, raised on the ruins of older ones;
and after passing through a line of roofed bazaars, we alighted at
a small caravansera there.
The town of Komeshae is about the size of Goolpyegan; but
more than half the buildings included within its walls, are aban
doned and in ruins. Among them are seen several large edifices,
probably the dwellings of governors at different times; and two
mosques, a public bath, and closed bazaars, are left to testify that
the former population of the town was greater than at present,
there being now scarcely five hundred resident inhabitants.
We found here more general misery from want, than we had
seen elsewhere; there being, first, an absolute scarcity of all the