'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.' [‎271] (302/582)

VISIT TO THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS. 271
volutes; and lastly, above all, a broken mass of some animal
resembling a ram. # The general effect of these columns is slender
and mean, and very inferior to the Greek or Egyptian. From the
fragment of one that lies fallen, it is seen that the several pieces
of which they were composed were joined together by a part of
the upper piece being let down into a corresponding aperture of
the other. There is a square cistern near the columns, built of
very large stones, having outside it a good moulding, and high
over it a hanging cornice of the Egyptian form.
The great mass of the ruins is on a higher platform above the
first. At the sides of the steps ascending to this are sculptured
processions, sacrifices, &c. of which Niebuhr has given tolerably
faithful drawings. They are all admirably executed, and bear a
striking resemblance to similar processions at Thebes and Edfou,
in Egypt. Among other resemblances are those of trees, placed to
divide men who are near ascending steps, beasts of sacrifice, offer
ings of meat, cars and horses, armed men, &c. All these sculp-
* Whether this had any astronomical allusion, it is difficult to say. Monsieur Bailly, in
his ingenious Letters on Ancient Astronomy, says— 4 I think I have demonstrated that the
Persian Empire and the foundation of Persepolis ascend to 3,209 years before Jesus Christ.
(Hist, de I'Astr. Anc. p. 354.) Dreinschid, who built that city, entered it and there esta
blished his empire the very day when the sun passes into the constellation of the Ram. This
day was made to begin the year, and it became the epoch of a period, which includes the
knowledge of the solar year of 365 days 6 hours. Here then we again find astronomy coeval
with the origin of this empire. The astronomical incident which accompanies the foundation
of Persepolis supplied me with the proof of its antiquity. (Vol. i. p. 70.) The letters of the
alphabet found at Persepolis do not exceed five; and it is observed that they differ equally
by the manner in which they are combined, and in that in which they are placed. So also
the Irish characters, called Ogham, consist merely in a unit, repeated five times, and whose
value changes according to the way in which it is placed relative to a fictitious line. They
have much analogy with those of Persepolis.'—See Gebelin's Origin de Langues, p. 506, and
Bailly's Letters, vol. ii. p. 331.
' The Sabians and early Arabians worshipped the heavenly bodies ; and among them the
tribe of Beni Koreish were those th at kept the temple of Mecca. Koreish is the name given
to Cyrus in Scripture, and this signifies the sun in Hebrew, as Cyrus did in Persian, and Khow
in Pehlivi,'— History of Persia, vol. i. p. 288-