Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎580r] (1174/1814)

163
PERSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS
evident from the capitals still in situ in a more or less mutilated con
dition, and from the remains of others that lie below, that the two
Achaememan orders were both represented in this fabric. In the front
portico and in the central hall, the columns were surmounted by the
composite or triple capital, terminating in two demi-bulls, whose
o owed necks supported the architrave, in the same manner as in the
t "Ti. " i'"" 6 " ^ le S * la ^ ts °f these pillars are formed of three blocks.
" h .® ^'' olateral P ortico es the simpler type of capital, consisting only
of bulis heads, superimposed upon a shaft of four blocks, prevails •
a lough even here this nomenclature is not strictly accurate, seeing
diat in the east portico the animals’ heads depicted seem to have been
unicorns and not bulls. All the seventy-two columns, without excep-
10 ns, were fluted and all were of the same height . 1 Those in the
central hall rested upon a simple squared plinth • those in the porticoes
had a more ornate circular base, resembling that of the columns in the
ropylaea, which has sometimes been compared to an inverted lotus-
flower, but is more correctly described as a bell-shaped block, adorned
with long leaves, the points of which are turned downwards.
The outer porticoes are 140.^ feet long, by 28 feet broad. A dis
tance of 71 feet separates them from the central hall; but between the
Dimen- north portico and the latter are four massive substructures
7,7 , 6 -h-h is not clear . 2 We then enter the great
a ltse h trough and around which were traced by Flandin and
Coste the relics of subterranean aqueducts. The exterior dimensions
ot this hall, which was, doubtless, the chief glory of Persepolis, are 140
teet m each direction, or not far short of a square of 50 yards 3 It
1 ergusson (p. 163), observing the greater apparent height of the columns of
the porticoes than of those of the central hall, and inferring (erroneously, I think)
that the latter did not have the bull-capitals, invents a particular kind of capital
tor them, so as to redress the inequality. He gives the dimensions of the portico
columns as 671 feet high to the top of the bulls’ heads, 64 feet to the hollow of
their necks; shaft, 64 feet 10 inches high, 5| feet in diameter at base 4- 1 feet at
the top; base, SJ feet high ; capitals, 7 feet high, 13 feet 2 inches broad'; and of
the hall-columns: shaft, 41J feet high ; triple capital, 16i feet high. Ker Pom-
gives the number of flutings as 52 (Ouseley, 40). Flandin and Coste vive the
height as 63 feet 10 inches, and distance from axis to axis, 29 feet
2 Coste, in his restoration, suggested, and Perrot has accepted the suggestion
that these may have supported colossal figures of bulls. Fergusson and others
have regarded them as the bases of doorwa} r s.
3 Fergusson (pp. 170-1) says that it contained 40,000 square feet, or with the
walls (which are his own creation), 55,700. Adding to these, porticoes, 42 500
square feet, and guard-rooms (again imaginary) 6,800, he arrives at a total" of
105,000 square feet. He then gives the dimensions of the famous buildings of
QQ C Qee fc a ? d m0dern times : Great HaU at Karnak > 58,300 square feet inside
88,800 + halls and porticoes; Temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens 59 000- t
Agngentum, 56,000; Cologne Cathedral, 81,500; Milan Cathedral, 107,800- and
m 2