'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎79] (116/516)

ZENDAN JEMSHEED.
79
From this rock, I crossed to the other side of the plain with some dif
ficulty, because it here was intersected by a great number of artifi
cial water-courses, and came to some ruins called Takht Taous, or the
Peacock Throne ; although, in my former journey, I saw them under
the name of the Harem Jemsheed, so much does the nomenclature of
antiquity change in the mouth of Persians, according to their different
fancies. I carefully examined all the indentations of the mountain,
as far as Persepolis, hoping to meet with some sculpture, or some re
main that might have escaped the research of other travellers, or even
the observation of the people of the country; but I saw nothing that
I can dignify with the name of a discovery. In some places the
rock was carved into various shapes, as if it had been fitted to the pur
poses of habitation; in others, it was intersected by long channels,
most probably conduits for water; at every turn it bore marks of the
chisel. I ascended some steps on the mountain to look at two small
chambers cut into the rock, with little troughs before them, which also
I should suppose were for the purposes of containing water, their size
being too inconsiderable for the dwellings of men.
On enquiry of the Ket Khoda, or chief of the neighbouring village of
Kenareh, concerning new objects of research, he said that he knew of
one place, which was situated in a deep recess of the mountains, and
which probably had never been visited by Europeans. This he himself
had never seen, but had heard that it consisted of several caves, one of
which, of extraordinary depth, was called the Zendan Jemsheed, or the
Prisons of Jemsheed. It was so deep, that an old man in its vicinity
avers that some time ago a cow strayed into it, and that a long while
after she came out accompanied by several young ones. This, of course,
was Persian fiction ; but as the foundation of the Ket Khoda's tale
seemed probable, I put him into requisition, and made him show me
the way to the cavern.
We took our way to the Dehanee Sewund, or the Mouth of Sewund,
which is that narrow part of the plain to the north-east, situated between
Nakshi Rustam and the mountain of Persepolis, and through which, in
a narrow but deep bed, runs a stream vulgarly called Polbar, but written