and where the outlines of a sphinx are to be traced among the rude
and stupendous masses of stone. Further on, nearly on the same line
and bearing, is the head of a horse, part of which is buried in the
ground. It is ornamented like the remains of that which we call the
sphinx on the great portals, and is certainly the horse’s head, which
Le BRUN drew, declaring that he could not discover the part to which
it had belonged. Close to it, however, are the remains of an immense
column, eight feet in diameter; the different parts of the shaft have
fallen in a direct line with this head, and obviously formed with it
one connected piece in the original structure, in which probably the
fragment on the ground surmounted the capital, as the sphinx still
crowns some of the remaining columns.
In the time of MANDELSLOE, (who visited _Persepolis_ 27th January,
1638) the number of columns erect was nineteen: in a letter indeed to
OLEARIUS, (written from _Madagascar_ on the 12th of July, 1639, and
published by his correspondent) he states, that thirty remained; but,
as he does not specify their position, he might have included those
lying on the ground, and at any rate he was writing a private letter,
from memory, in a distant country, at the interval of a year and a
half. His own authority therefore in his book is a better evidence
of the fact; and as he there omits another and much more curious
circumstance, which he had asserted in the same letter, the value of
that document becomes still more suspicious. Speaking of the celebrated
inscriptions at _Persepolis_, he says, “on voit aussi plusieurs
caractères anciens mais fort bien marqués, et conservant une partie
de l’or, dont ils ont été remplis.” Sir THOMAS HERBERT also, however,
mentions that the letters at _Persepolis_ were gilt.
[Illustration: _Sculptures near Persepolis._
_Drawn by James Morier Esq^r._
_Published by Mess^{rs}. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown,
Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811._]
17th. On quitting _Persepolis_, I left our party in order to examine
a ruined building on the plains, which at a distance is generally
pointed out as a demolished _caravanserai_. I passed the stream of
the _Rood Khonéh Sewund_ to the North, nearly where the road takes a
N. E. direction, and came to a fine mass of stone, thirty-seven feet
four inches square, which appears to have formed the base of some
building. It is composed of two layers of marble blocks, the lower
range of which extends about two feet beyond the line of the upper. The
largest blocks, according to my measurement, are ten feet four inches
in length, four feet four in depth, and three feet four in breadth; all
still retain a moulding, and traces here and there of masonry which
must have connected them with others. The whole building is filled up
in the middle by a black marble, and in its N. E. angle one stone is
raised higher than the rest. In the same angle, is a channel cut, as
if something had been fitted into it. I took the following bearings:
foot of the rocks of _Nakshi Rustam_, N. 10 W. two miles; foot of the
mountain of _Persepolis_, S. two miles: our encampment S. 20 W. two
miles; road to _Ispahan_, N. 80 E.
I was called from this spot by a _Chatter_ sent by the Envoy to conduct
me to some sculptures, which he had himself seen, (about four miles
from the place on the same mountain of _Persepolis_,) by the side of
the road to _Ispahan_. I found them indeed worthy of the minutest
investigation, as no preceding traveller has described them with any
sufficient accuracy. They are situated in a recess of the mountain,
formed by projecting and picturesque rocks. The sculpture facing
the road is composed of seven colossal figures and two small ones.
(Plate XIX.) The two principal characters are placed in the centre;
the one to the left is the same (not in position indeed, but in
general circumstance) as that which we had so often seen represented
at _Shapour_ and _Nakshi Rustam_. He has the distinguishing globe on
his head, and offers a ring to the opposite figure; who, seizing it
with his right hand, holds a staff or club in his left. Behind the
personage with the globe, are two figures, one of whom, with a young
and pleasing face holds the fan, the customary ensign of dignity: and
the other, with hard and marked features, and a beard, rests on the
pommel of his sword with one hand, and beckons with the other. Behind
the chief on the right, are two figures, which from the feminine cast
of their countenances appear to be women; one wears an extraordinary
cap, and the other, whose hair falls in ringlets on her shoulders,
makes an expressive motion with her right hand, as if she were saying,
“Be silent.” Between the two principal figures, are introduced two very
diminished beings, who do not reach higher than the knees of their
colossal companions. In dress they differ materially from each other,
and one holds a long staff. To the left, on a fragment of the rock,
is the bust of a figure, who also holds his hand in a beckoning and
significant posture. The largest of these figures I reckoned to be ten
feet in height; the small ones two feet eight inches. The whole of this
is so much disfigured, that it is difficult to ascertain its various
and singular details.
[Illustration: _Sculptures near Persepolis._
_Drawn by James Morier Esq^r._
_Published by Mess^{rs}. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown,
Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811._]
In the same recess, and to the left of this sculptured rock, forming
an angle with it, is another monument in a much higher state of
preservation; parts of it indeed have suffered so little, that they
appear to be fresh at this day from the chissel. (Plate XX.) The same
royal personage, so often represented with a globe on his head, and
seated on horseback, here forms the principal character of the groupe.
His face, indeed, has been completely destroyed by the Mahomedans, but
the ornaments of his person and those of his horse, (more profusely
bestowed on both, than on any of the similar figures which we had
seen) are likewise more accurately preserved. They merit a particular
description; because as the composition was probably designed to
represent the King in his greatest state, every part of his dress
is distinctly delineated. I assign this subject to the sculpture,
because no other personage of rival dignity appears in the piece; and
because the attitude of the chief announces parade and command; for he
presents a full face to the spectator, and his right hand, though now
much mutilated, still rests on his side to indicate his ease and his
independence. Nine figures, of which the first is nine feet high, wait
behind him; and, from the marks of respect in which they stand, can be
attendants only on his grandeur. On each side of his head swells an
immense circumference of curls; he wears an embossed necklace, which
falls low on his breast, and is therefore, perhaps, rather the upper
termination of his garment; but its counterpart, an ornament of the
same description round the waist, is certainly a girdle. His cloak
is fastened on his left breast by two massive clasps. A rich belt
is carried from his right shoulder to his left hip, across an under
garment, which, from the extreme delicacy of its folds, appears to
be formed of a very fine cloth or muslin. The drapery of some loose
trowsers, which cover his legs down to the very ancles, displays equal
delicacy, and is probably, therefore, of the same texture. From the
ancles a sort of bandage extends itself in flowing folds, and adds a
rich finish to the whole. On the thigh there appears to hang a dagger.
The horse is splendidly accoutred with chains of a circular ornament:
his length, from the breast to the tail, is seven feet two inches; and
on the chest is a Greek inscription, of which the letters are about an
inch in height, and correspond in form with those of the latter empire.
Opposite to this sculpture, in the same recess and on the right of
the first, is another, containing the same two figures on horseback,
holding a ring, which we had seen at _Shapour_ and at _Nakshi Rustam_.
On the general merit of these remains, I may say, that they are
superior to those at _Nakshi Rustam_, and equal to those at _Shapour_.
When I had sketched these monuments, and completed my observations, I
hastened to join my party, who were then considerably advanced. A man
who filled some station about the camp joined me. He asked my opinion
on the probable design of these sculptures, and when I had told him
my own conceptions, he assured me, that the royal personage here also
was RUSTAM; and when I reminded him that their own traditional King,
JEMSHEED, might possibly be the hero, he replied in the true spirit
of a system, “JEMSHEED was but the slave of RUSTAM.” Of the figures
grasping the ring, one again (according to the same theory) was RUSTAM,
in the act of proving his strength, by wrenching it from the other’s
hand.
CHAP. VIII.
PERSEPOLIS TO ISPAHAN.
JEMSHEED’S HAREM--PASS THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS--MESJED MADRE SULEIMAN;
DOUBTS ON THE TOMB OF CYRUS--MOORGH-AUB--DIFFICULTIES OF THE
PASSAGE THROUGH PERSIA--STORM--LETTER FROM THE KING--CASTLE OF
BAHRAM--RUINED VILLAGES OVER THE COUNTRY--YEZDIKHAUST--CARAVANSERAI
AT MAXHOUD BEGGY--KOMESHAH; RUINS--THE ENVOY AND THE GOVERNOR--MAYAR;
CARAVANSERAI--QUARRELS BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF IRAK AND FARS.
Jan. 17. As we were quitting the environs of _Persepolis_, and
proceeding towards _Ispahan_, we saw on an eminence on the left of
the road (which now bore north-westerly) a single column erect, and
some fragments of stones and masonry adjoining. They were situated in
the centre of an extensive spot, which, from the configuration of the
land around, in elevated terraces and mounds, appeared an artificial
enclosure: and, as my Persian companion hinted, might be the site of
a fortification or a castle. The wall, indeed, in many parts could
be traced on the summit of the mounds. On arriving at the ruins, I
discovered them to consist of a solitary pillar, with a double-headed
sphinx for its capital, besides, strewed on the ground, a great
quantity of shafts, bases, and capitals of the same dimensions as the
upright column, and all, together with it, of the same description as
those at _Persepolis_. Several large blocks are arranged about, as
the fragments of some building. The column is fluted like the Doric,
but with lines more closely connected: it is one foot eight inches in
diameter at the bottom, and six inches less at the top: the height is
a little above seventeen feet; and the base, including a tore next the
shaft, is two feet more. The legs and bodies of the sphinxes are in two
separate blocks. The largest of the adjacent blocks erect is seven feet
two inches broad, and eleven feet eight inches high. _Nakshi Rustam_
bore N. 50. W. from this place. A little further on is the ruin of a
large pillar not fluted, and the fragments of a sphinx which certainly
had been the capital. These remains, according to my companion’s
tradition, were the site of JEMSHEED’S _harem_.
We returned to the road which led through a dilapidated but massy gate,
situated at the extremity of the projecting foot of the mountains. In
the centre of the road are three stones; that in the middle is a broken
column, and the two between which it stands are of a columnar form.
It has, probably, been a beautiful object. The rocks to the left (a
marble of the same kind as that at _Nakshi Rustam_) bear evident marks
of having been worked and excavated. The road led us over a soil, as
fine as that of the plain of _Merdasht_, watered by the _Rood Khonéh
Sewund_. Having reached the extremity of that range, on the Western
point of which are the sculptures of _Nakshi Rustam_, we turned to the
left at a village called _Seidoun_. At the foot of an abrupt part of
the mountain on the right, but still at a considerable ascent from the
plain, is situated the village of _Sewund_. Our encampment was below,
near the banks of the stream of that name. The snipes, ducks, herons,
and bitterns from these quarters made an admirable addition to the
luxury of our table. The march of this day was called three _fursungs_,
which we computed at thirteen miles.
18th. We continued our journey along the banks with a North wind
fresh in our faces, and crossed the river about half a mile from our
encampment. We then turned an abrupt promontory of the high land on the
right, and, for the remainder of the march, travelled nearly due East,
between mountains whose brown and arid sides presented nothing to cheer
or enliven the way. As we approached _Kemeen_ (a distance of fifteen
miles from _Sewund_) we were greeted by all the inhabitants of the
village, who exhausted their whole ingenuity to do honour to the Envoy.
They fired frequent vollies, created an immense dust, broke vases of
sugar, beat drums, blew trumpets, and themselves made loud and shrill
shrieks. In return for all this, handfuls of money were thrown among
them. Among the many performers was a lad who preceded us, twirling a
stick about with great agility between his fingers; in this exercise he
persevered so intently, regardless of all the pressure of the animals
and the crowd, that at length the nose of the Envoy’s horse received
the full force of his art. The _Derveish_ of the _Hafizeea_ overtook
us here to ask the present which had been promised to him. As he had
been empowered to receive it at _Shiraz_, the Envoy conceived that his
errand was a fraud, and dismissed him therefore, paying his expences
back, with an order for the sum if it should not have been already paid.
19th. An easterly breeze, which sprung up this morning, rendered it
extremely cold, and depressed the thermometer to 30°. We travelled
between the bases of two abrupt chains of mountains, for about two
miles against the wind; when we took a sudden direction to the North,
in which we continued generally until we came to _Moorgh-aub_, a
distance of fourteen miles, according to our reckoning. The pass
through the mountains, in a military point of view, presents most
admirable means of impeding the progress of an enemy. At the distance
of two miles from _Moorgh-aub_, I turned on the left from the road, to
examine some ruins which I had noticed. Proceeding over the ploughed
fields, which nearly overspread the whole of this plain, I came to the
bed of a river lying in a North and South direction, and on its banks
a village called _Meshed Omoun_. There is here a fort, and a few low
houses, in which females only were left, as all the men had gone out
to greet the Envoy, by the discharge of their matchlocks. About a mile
further are situated the collective ruins, called by the people of the
country _Mesjid Madré Suleiman_, the tomb of the mother of SOLOMON. The
first object is a pillar erect, a plain shaft without a capital ten
feet five inches in circumference. Near it are three pilasters, the
fronts of which are excavated in deep niches, and the sides inscribed
with the following characters. (See plate XXIX.) From the pieces of
masonry around, the pilasters appeared to have enclosed a hall; the
interior of which was decorated with columns, but I resigned the hope
of ascertaining the plan of its original form, when I saw two similar
masses; one, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards, with a
corresponding inscription; and the intermediate space (and indeed the
whole plain) strewed with the fragments of marbles.
Having sketched these objects, I continued my way along the plain to
the West, towards two buildings; which, at a distance indeed, appeared
scarcely worthy of notice, but which on a nearer inspection proved full
of interest. The first is a ruined building of Mahomedan construction,
which is now turned into a _caravanserai_. The door was once arched,
and on the architrave are the remains of a fine Arabic inscription.
[Illustration: _Tomb of Madré Suleiman._
_Drawn by James Morier Esq^r._
_Published by Mess^{rs}. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown,
Paternoster Row, May 1. 1811._]
The other is a building of a form so extraordinary that the people
of the country often call it the court of the _deevis_ or devil. It
rests upon a square base of large blocks of marble, which rise in
seven layers pyramidically. It is in form a parallelogram; the lowest
range of the foundation is forty-three by thirty-seven feet; and the
edifice itself, which crowns the summit, diminishes to twenty-one
by sixteen feet five inches. It is covered by a shelving roof built
of the same massy stone as its base and sides, which are all fixed
together by clamps of iron, and which on a general view correspond all
with the measure of one at the base, (fourteen feet eight inches in
length, five feet in depth, and three feet six inches in breadth.) I
was not suffered to enter; and through a fissure in the door I could
perceive nothing within but a small chamber blackened as it appeared
by smoke. Around it, besides a great profusion of broken marbles,
are the shafts of fourteen columns, once perhaps a colonnade, but now
arranged in the square wall of mud which surrounds the whole remains.
To the present day all the space within the enclosure is a place
of burial, and is covered indeed with modern tomb-stones. On every
part of the monument itself are carved inscriptions, which attest
the reverence of its visitors; but there is no vestige of any of the
characters of ancient Persia or even of the older Arabic. The key is
kept by women, and none but females are permitted to enter. The people
generally regard it as the monument of the mother of SOLOMON, and still
connect some efficacy with the name; for they point out near the spot
a certain water to which those who may have received the bite of a
mad dog resort, and by which, if drank within thirty days, the evil
effects of the wound are obviated. In eastern story almost every thing
wonderful is attached to the SOLOMON of Scripture: the King however, to
whose mother this tomb is said to be raised, is less incredibly, (as
the _Carmelites_ of _Shiraz_ suggested to MANDELSLOE,) SHAH SOLEIMAN,
the fourteenth Caliph of the race of ALI. But though this supposition
is more probable than that it is the monument of BATHSHEBA, it is not
to my mind satisfactory, as it differs totally from all the tombs of
Mahomedan saints which I have ever seen in Persia, Asia Minor, or
Turkey. [Plate XXI.]
If the _position of the place_ had corresponded with the site of
_Pasagardæ_ as well as the _form of this structure_ accords with the
description of the tomb of CYRUS near that city, I should have been
tempted to assign to the present building so illustrious an origin.
That tomb was raised in a grove; it was a small edifice covered with
an arched roof of stone, and its entrance was so narrow that the
slenderest man could scarcely pass through: it rested on a quadrangular
base of a single stone, and contained the celebrated inscription, “O
mortals, I am CYRUS, son of CAMBYSES, founder of the Persian monarchy,
and Sovereign of Asia, grudge me not therefore this monument.” That
the plain around _Mesjed Madré Suleiman_ was the site of a great city,
is proved by the ruins with which it is strewed; and that this city was
of the same general antiquity as _Persepolis_ may be inferred from the
existence of a similar character in the inscriptions on the remains of
both, though this particular edifice does not happen to display that
internal evidence of a contemporaneous date. A grove would naturally
have disappeared in modern Persia; the structures correspond in size;
the triangular roof of that which I visited might be called _arched_
in an age when the true semi-circular arch was probably unknown; the
door was so narrow, that, if I had been allowed to make the attempt, I
could scarcely have forced myself through it; and those who kept the
key affirmed that the only object within was an immense stone, which
might be “the base of a single piece” described by ARRIAN; but as he
was repeating the account of another, the difference is of little
consequence, if it exists. I suspect however, as many of the buildings
at _Persepolis_ are so put together that they might once have seemed
one vast block, that the present structure might also at one time have
possessed a similar appearance. The eternity of his monument indeed,
which CYRUS contemplated by fixing it on one enormous stone, would
be equally attained by the construction of this fabric, which seems
destined to survive the revolutions of ages. And in the lapse of two
thousand four hundred years, the absence of an inscription on _Mesjed
Madré Suleiman_ would not be a decisive evidence against its identity
with the tomb of CYRUS.
I retraced my steps towards the column and pilasters, and passing
to the left of them, proceeded to a ruin, probably of one of those
buildings which we call fire-temples, and corresponding at least
exactly in dimensions, structure, and ornament with that at _Nakshi
Rustam_. Its door opened to the north. On an adjacent hill to the east,
at the distance of about three hundred yards, are the remains of a
fort erected with the same stupendous materials, as the works on the
plain. The blocks are all of white marble, and bear the finest polish.
From this height our encampment at _Moorgh-aub_ bore N. 55 E. Having
descended again into the plain, crossed the beds of numerous _Kanauts_,
and started several covies of partridges; I reached my tent highly
contented with the unexpected gleanings of the day.
_Moorgh-aub_ is a large village, in which there is a fort and many
enclosed gardens; and near it are springs of fine water which irrigate
the whole plain.
20th. Continuing our road to the N. we passed over a country of ascents
and descents, which can hardly be dignified by the denomination of
mountains. The different bearings of the road were N. 30 W., then N.,
then E., then N. E., until we quitted the hills, when the road took a
northerly direction, which we kept with some trifling variations for
the remainder of our stage. At about nine miles from _Moorgh-aub_,
we arrived at a _caravanserai_ now almost ruined, called from the
village which once stood in its neighbourhood, _Khonéh Kergaun_. Near
it a river runs to the west, and over it is a bridge of three arches.
We arrived at _Deibeed_ at four o’clock, after having travelled a
distance of twenty-five miles. We were seven hours and a half on the
road, and we generally calculate our rate of going at little more than
three miles in the hour. The country, through which we passed, was
naked and arid; the plain only was cultivated, and that partially. It
is quite destitute of wood, an article which, of all our necessaries,
was collected with the greatest difficulty. On the summits of the
mountains, particularly on their northern aspects, were thin patches
of snow, and some were scattered even near our encampment. _Deibeed_
is only a _caravanserai_; close to it is an artificial mound of earth,
covered with the foundations of a building, which, from the light brick
of its construction, appeared to us a modern work.
The evening set in gloomily; _Deibeed_ is considered the coldest spot
in this region, and the snows in the winter have sometimes impeded the
progress of travellers for forty days together. The _Mehmandar_ looked
at the sky with apprehension; and the Governor of _Moorgh-aub_, (AGA
KHAN, an Arab of an old and respected family, who had accompanied us
to the bounds of his district to provide amply for our passage) shared
his forebodings. He had himself often experienced the severities of
this country, and he, better than any one, knew the distresses which
the detention of two or three hundred men in a spot so destitute and
insulated would occasion. He had provided sustenance for ourselves
and our cattle for one night only, and this he had transported with
great trouble from _Moorgh-aub_ and other villages. Indeed through the
whole of our march great and early were the preparations made by the
chiefs of the country for our reception. If these were the difficulties
of our passage, the march of an army would not be easily conducted.
The country in its present state could not complete magazines of
provisions, even if it were required by its own government. It must
however be always recollected, that this is the least fertile province
of the kingdom.