'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎352] (403/714)

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PERSIA
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1 Eastwick's
proper Irecomnif
and Mme, Dienla
whose likenesses at Naksh-i-Rustam and Shapur I shall describe
later on. In the latter part of Fath Ali Shah's reign, however, this
bas-relief, in the true spirit of Persian restoration, was efface'd to
make way for a sculpture representing the long-bearded monarch
spearing a lion ; and no one now seems to be aware of the history
of this wanton palimpsest. 1 At some distance lower down, another
smoothed surface of rock, rising above a pretty pool known as the
Ghashmeh-i-Ali (or Fountain of Ali), exhibits Fath Ali Shah seated
in high relief, with his Court—a nineteenth-century imitation of the
Sassanian model, which hag also been copied by Nasr-ed-Din Shah
on the road through the Elburz into Mazanderan, and of which it is
difficult to say whether it is more pompous or absurd. An adjoining
panel exhibits the same sovereign under a parasol, holding a falcon
upon his wrist. This is the sum total of what is to be seen at Rhey.
In a desolate valley of the mountain-range at whose feet it lies is
situated, at a considerable elevation, the circular ' Tower of Silence,'
or place of exposure of the Pavsis of Teheran. Like its well-known
namesakes at Bombay, it consists of a hollow tower, in which the
bodies of the dead are exposed upon ledges, to be devoured by
birds of pr('\ ; but, unlike the structures of Bombay, its interior
can be seen by climbing to a higher point of the mountain.
Between thirty and forty miles in a south-easterly direction from
Teheran are the remains of yet another dead capital, Veramin.
Veramin P resentl town i s dominated by the walls of a great
mud fort, flanked with bastions and sloping inwards from
the base. If was this great structure (of which there is an excel
lent likeness in Mme. Dieulafoy's book) which I had seen upon the
summit of its mound while riding towards Teheran across the
northern skirts of the plain of Veramin, and which the fickle light
had transformed into huge detached pillars of mud. The village
also contains the ruins of what was once a most noble mosque,
attributed to Sultan Abu Said, the son of Sultan Mohammed
Khodabundeh (i.e. Slave of God), whose tomb I have mentioned at
Sultanieh. Scattered about the plain are other great Jcalehs, or
similar earthen fortresses, with towering walls of unbaked bricks
I ide E. Mandin, Perse Moderns, plate 30. Illustrations of the original are
giv en by Onseley, Travels, vol. iii. plate 65, and W. Price, Journal of Embassy, p. ^7 ;
and the fact of the mutilation is mentioned by Fraser in 1834, Winter s Journey,
vol. ii. p. 49. Nevertheless Stuart, who wrote in 1835, Lady Sheil circ. ISoOr
Binning in 1851, and Ussher in 1861, all mention and describe the Sassanian bas-
relief, which it is therefore clear that not one of them had ever so much as seen.