Such arc the splendid ruins of Persepolis. They bear incontrovertible evidence of antiquity ; and although in some things they resemble Egyptian, and in others In dian edifices, they, especially in the palace, possess lead ing features sufficiently distinct to entitle them to be con sidered as a separate school. 'Vet as being, amongst nu merous palaces, the only vestiges of lofty stone columns and numerous sculptures, and being traced immediately subsequent to the Egyptian expedition under Cambyscs, they afford strong grounds for believing that Thebaid influence, by example, or workmen, or both, led to these works, so unlike what had formerly been practised in Persia. That the style was not spread over the empire, may be accounted for, from its immediate subjugation by the Greeks.
With regard to the practice of Persian architecture in modern times, their sacred edifices have an uniform character of Turkish mosques ; some in monastic qua drangles, with flat domes over each separate apartment, and others with lofty minarets, or tall pillars. The church es of the Arminian Christians are rectangular, with a circular recess on each side, and four great pillars in the middle of the cell. That of Echsmiazin, the plan and elevation of which is given by Sir John Chardin, mea sures 102 feet by 88, exclusive of the circular recesses on each side ; the pilasters at each of these recesses, and in the four piers occupying the middle of the cell, are said to be of stone, 72 feet in height.
" In architecture, as well as in sculpture," says Mr Kinncir, the most recent traveller in Persia, " the ancient Persians would appear to have surpassed their descen dants. Of this we have many noble specimens in the ruins of Persepolis, Shuster, the ball of Kungaver, and the remains of the palace of Chosroes Parviz, at Ctesiphon. The chief ornaments of the modern buildings, are the domes and minarets ; and considering the materials with which they are built, many of the colleges and mosques arc large and magnificent structures. The grand mosque of Sultaun Khodabunda, in the plain of Sultanea, is particularly handsome, and many of the public edifices at Shirauz and Ispahan, are well worthy of attention.
The general outlines of all the cities in Persia are the same They are surrounded by a mud, and sometimes by a brick wall, flanked t -;ular distances with round or square towers. The streets are narrow and dirty, having a gutter running through the centre, and the houses, which are low. flat roofed, and built of brick or mud, have each a small court, surrounded by a high wall.
They have seldom or never any windows to the street ; and that part of the sitting rooms which fronts the court is entirely open, with a large curtain to let down when the rooms are not in use. The palaces of the nobility, although mean in their exterior appearance, are both con venient and elegant within. They are divided into seve ral courts, in the most retired of which is the haram, or apartments of the women. The centre court is usually square, divided into parterres of flowers, with a jet d'eau continually playing before the window of the dewan kana, or public hall. The walls and ceilings of this hall, are adorned with a profusion of paintings, and inlaid with looking glasses ; the floor is covered with carpets and numuds ; and one entire side of the room is taken up with large sash windows of painted glass. The apart
ments of the haram arc frequently fitted up with great taste and magnificence, but the sleeping rooms allotted to strangers are, in general, small. The Bazars, or mar ket places, in some cities, particularly those of Lar and Shirauz, may be accounted handsome buildings, but the mosques, minarets and colleges, are the chief ornaments of the Persian cities." See Kinneir's Geographical Me. moir of Persia, p. 52. Lond. 1815.
" The royal inn, without the city of Cashan," says Sir John Chardin, " joining to the gate that looks towards the cast, is the finest in all Persia. It is four-square, every front withinsidc being two hundred geometrical paces ; and two stories, with an antichamber or hollowness below, that runs all along the length of the two fronts, raised about the height of a man above the court, and four inch es below the level of the chamber. It is eight feet deep, paved with white marble, almost as transparent as por phyry. The stories on the sides contain fifteen chambers of the same figure; the two others had but ten, with a large one in the middle, having five chambers. The other apartments consisted of one chamber, fifteen feet long and ten broad, high and vaulted, with a chimney in the middle, and a square portico before, ten feet wide, cover ed with a half duomo, with a contrivance for a chimney on each side, which was for the servants to lodge in. The second story was contrived like that below, with a baluster four feet high, that let in the light, and ran round the structure. In the geometrical part of the draught, you may perceive a hexagonal in the midst of the entrance, every front of which is a large shop, where are to be sold all manner of belly-timber, wood, and forage. The en trance is under a high and magnificent portal, adorned with Mosaic work, like all the rest of the building ; and upon the sides runs a portico, where you may lie in the day-time as conveniently and as pleasantly, as in the inn itself. The fountain in the middle of the court is raised above five feet ; and the brims of it are four feet broad, for the convenience of those that will say their prayers after they have performed their purifications.
"The hinder part of the caravansary consists of very large stables, with places fur servants and lug gage, built almost according to the same symmetry as the apartments already mentioned, at least as to the form and bigness of storehouses, and lodgings for the poor, and the country people that bring their goods to sell ; and the large gardens that lie behind this lovely pa lace of a caravansary, no less famous for its founder, Abas the Great, who caused this sumptuous structure to be erected. Near adjoining to it stands the Palace Royal ; and over against it, another designed for the lodging of ambassadors. Both the one and the other, with very large gardens behind them, were built at the charges of that renowned monarch. Besides that, there is in the middle a void space for their carousals, and other exercises on horseback."—Sir John Chardin, 412, 413. London edit. 1686. See CARAVANSERA.