نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎٥‎٨‎٧] (١٨١٤/١١٨٩)

176 PERSIA
inscription remains to enable us to identify the monarch. Fergusson,
indeed, assumes that this is the earliest structure on the platform,
because it has ‘ a monolithic character of solidity and a massiveness of
proportion greater than that possessed by any other edifice , and he
conjectures that it may have been the work of Cyrus or Cambyses.
But it must be remembered, both that Fergusson never saw Persepolis
himself, and also that there is not anywhere the slightest trace of any
edifice or fabric on the platform prior to Darius. Indeed, it seems to
me certain that Cyrus and Cambyses were both in their graves before
the first stone of Persepolis was laid.
Returning towards the north, we arrive, immediately behind the
big mound that flanks the Palace of Darius on the east, at a build-
Central in g wMdp in the absence of any distinguishing mark or
Edifice inscription, has generally been called the Central Edifice. It
is of peculiar plan, and has afforded a welcome scope to the theorists.
It consists of three great doorways, on the inner surface or jambs of
which are chiselled the monarch, seated or standing under the royal
umbrella, with the image of the god Ormuzd floating in a winged halo
overhead. In the east doorway we meet with the first specimen that
we have hitherto encountered of a type that is very familiar on the
next ensuing building, viz. the king seated on a triple-staged throne,
supported by three rows of nine figures each, with uplifted arms a
variation of the scene already depicted on the tombs at ISTaksh-i-Rustam.
In the centre, between the north and south doorways, are the bases of
four columns. What may have been the object of this small but
remarkable structure it is impossible to say. Ker Porter, anxious to
do a good turn to the Holy Place school of thought, supposed it to be
the private oratory of the king, and the four plinths to be the bases of
a fire-altar. For this suggestion there is no support. Fergusson
thinks it was a second Propylsea, in front of the Palace of Xerxes.
It does not, however, resemble any of the other remains of porches ; and
does not either confront or lead to any other building, least of all the
Palace of Xerxes. I prefer therefore to classify it with the other
Persepolitan halls or palaces, and not to spin cobwebs in hypothetical
identification. . n
Finally we come to the last—and if we speak ot a hall itsell,
without adjuncts—the largest of the Persepolitan structures. This is the
building which, ever since its ground plan was ascertained
foo 1 ° f in the middle of the century, and with even greater precision
Columns gince t p e excaV ations of 1877-8, has been known as the
Hall of a Hundred Columns. It is situated on a lower level (identical
with that of the Porch of Xerxes) than the edifices recently described,
and is nearest of all the ruins to the mountain, from whose base it is
removed but a short distance. It consists of a single great hall, the