PF.RSTAN ATICITITF.CTUTIF..
The ancient architecture of this extensive, rich, and interesting country, must be considered chiefly as it re gards their cities, palaces, and tombs; for, with the ex ception of the temple of Belus, and some other temples, their mythology did not admit of sacred edifices. They were in this respect the reverse of the Egyptians and Indians, who, as has just been seen, seem to have de voted much of their time and attention to constructing and decorating temples. The accounts of the ancient Persian cities and palaces which have reached us, being very general and indistinct, we can add but little to what has already been stated in the Historical Part. It will therefore be by the means of Persepolis alone, that we shall be enabled to enter into any particular details, or produce engraved specimens of the ancient school of this country; fortunately, sufficient remains of this palace have been preserved to afford satisfactory information in regard to many of its leading features. Of the present style of architecture, in their principal cities, some spe cimens will also be produced.
The ancient cities of Babylon and Nineveh seem to have been existing at one time, and arc said to have been nearly of the same form and extent. All accounts agree that this extent was very great, and that they had many wide streets, crossing each other at right angles. But Babylon was repeatedly destroyed and restored. The descriptions of it were taken after it had been rebuilt upon an uncommonly magnificent scale, by Nebuchad nezzar; and the comparisons, having formerly been just, were afterwards transferred to the new city. But that great degree of regularity which is mentioned in the descriptions of Babylon, is not to be attributed to cities of slow and gradual growth ; it is the result of conquest at an advanced state of society. The most incredible circumstances respecting these cities, are what relates to their walls. Those of Nineveh are said by Diodorus to have been 200 feet high, and of a breadth sufficient to admit three chariots abreast. Those of Babylon arc said by Herodotus to have been 350 feet high, 80 feet thick, and 60 miles in circumference ; Diodorus says, six chariots might pass abreast. Others remark, that they
were 50 cubits high, after being in great part demolished in the reign of Darius Ilystaspes ; that there were 25 gates on each of the four sides, opposite the ends of as many streets; and that these streets were t50 feet in breadth. It is conceivable, that walls of the height of the London monument might have, during the long ex istence of a rich empire, been raised to protect so great a city as Nineveh ; but it requires a much greater stretch of thought to conceive them, as in the case of Babylon, to be raised to a height equal to that of the cross which terminates the dome and cupola of St Paul's cathedral in London. Yet when we recollect, that Nebuchadnezzar was intoxicated with conquest, in possession of unbounded power and riches, and ambitious of creating a metropo lis for all Asia, upon a scale which should far surpass every city the world had seen, we shall hesitate in con demning as improbable even the descriptions of Herodo tus.
All these mighty works were built with bricks. It is probable that, being situated in rich plains, proper stones were not easily procured. The excavations from the protecting ditches on the outside of the walls, furnished clay for bricks, and they were laid in mortar of bitumen. They are the earliest specimen of cementitious building we know of, and was no doubt the result of working with bricks.
Le Brun, after much elaborate discussion, concludes, that Persepolis was built by Darius and Xerxes ; and Strabo says, that after the kings of Persia had ornament ed the palace of Susa, they did the same to Persepolis and Parasgade. No traces of any city remains. The ruins are usually named the House of Darius, or Chil menar, that is, the Forty Columns. (Sec Plate CLIII.) Travellers, probably misled by this, have said that there were only 40 columns ; but Le Brun discovered the tra ces of 205. He found 19 standing in January 1705. He asserts that there is no appearance of any thing belong ing to a temple ; but that it certainly is the remains of the palace destroyed by Alexander. He traced the fa cade 600 paces from north to south, and 300 from east to west.