great, that they bewilder the eye. Those figures, which are disposed in
groups to suit the compartments, are variously habited and employed.
Some resemble royal guards and attendants, clothed in long robes, with
brogue-like buskins, and fluted flat-topped caps, bearing bows and
quivers, shields and spears. Others are placed in long rows, and appear
to represent a procession of many nations, being differently dressed and
appointed. They bear gifts and offerings, and lead animals of various
sorts. Animals stand on a pedestal, which elevates them five feet. Their
heads are so mutilated, that it is impossible to say what they were
meant to represent; their necks are decorated with collars of roses;
short curled hair covers the chest, back, and ribs; and the workmanship
is singularly correct and delicate.
“Almost every one in this procession holds in his hand a figure like the
lotos; a flower full of meaning to the ancients. That the Persians
offered horses to the sun, and oxen to the moon, is fully shown by this
procession.”
“Though, at first sight,” says Sir Robert Porter, “I acknowledge that a
general similitude to the Egyptian contour strikes the mind; yet the
impression gradually wears away when the details are examined; the
finishing of the parts, and the grace and truth of the bas-reliefs,
every where proclaiming the refined taste and master chisels of Greece.
When comparing the colossal proportions of the structure, and its
gigantic sculptures, with the delicacy, beauty, and perfection of the
execution of its ornaments, I might say, with the poet, ‘Here the Loves
play on the bosom of Hercules.’”
Sir Robert Porter supposes that these works of art were designed to
perpetuate the memory of the grand religious procession of Cyrus the
Great, described by Xenophon; or, probably, that of Darius, at the
festival of the Noo Roz, or vernal equinox, receiving presents from the
numerous nations of his vast empire.
“The numerous basso-relievos,” says a celebrated French geographer, “are
highly valuable, as illustrating the ancient costumes and manners of the
Persians. Those carved on the walls of the staircase are numerous,
exhibiting trains of Persian subjects from the different parts of the
kingdom, bringing presents to the sovereign, led forward in small
parties by officers of the court, acting as masters of the ceremonies.
In other parts are figures of the king on his throne; and over him a
symbolical representation of him in the form of a genius, or celestial
type of the earthly potentate; conformable to the views inculcated by
the ancient Persian religion. Guards of different descriptions are also
delineated; and animals, partly exaggerated and symbolical, and partly
fair representations of nature, contribute to the effect of lively and
extended ornament. Battles, single combats, and other incidents in the
Persian history, are here, as well as in the other Persian relics of
antiquity, represented sometimes by symbols, and sometimes according to
nature.”
Mr. Morier says, that though Le Brun and Chardin have given only one
line of figures on the right of the staircase, he thought it was evident
that there must have been the same number on the left as there are on
the right. He, therefore, hired some labourers from the surrounding
villages to dig; when, to his great delight, a second row of figures was
discovered, highly preserved, the details of whose faces, hair, dresses,
arms, and general character, seemed but as the work of yesterday. There
is this distinction, however, between the two rows:—the faces of all
the figures to the right of the staircase are mutilated; those of the
newly-discovered ones are quite perfect; and this shows that they must
have been covered before the invasion of the Saracens: for to that
people is attributed the mutilation of all the figures.
Le Brun counted one thousand three hundred figures of men and animals,
the half of which were as large as life, without including those on the
tombs; and he counted the fragments of no less than two hundred and five
columns. Destruction, however, is going on very rapidly. In one part of
the remains there were twenty-five pillars standing, where now there are
only thirteen. Thus,
Della Valle, in 1621, saw 25 pillars standing.
Herbert, in 1627 }
} 19
Olearius, in 1638 }
Kæmpfer, in 1696 }
} 17 pillars standing.
Niebuhr, in 1765 }
Franklin, in 1796 }
}
Porter } 15
}
Morier, &c. }
Lieut. Alexander, in 1826 13[86]
Mr. Morier says, that on comparing Le Brun’s, Chardin’s, and Niebuhr’s
drawings with the sculptures, he found them in general correct in
outline, but imperfect in details of dress, arms, &c.; and that although
the figures are in themselves ill-proportioned, inelegant, and deficient
in anatomical drawing, they are exceedingly interesting in general
character, and have not been done justice to in the works of these
travellers. They, moreover, furnish the best models of what were the
nations, that invaded Greece with Xerxes, and that were subdued by
Alexander.
The Hall of Pillars appears to have been detached from the rest of the
palace, and to have had a communication with the other parts by hollow
galleries of stone. It is situated on an eminence, commanding an
extensive view of the plain of Merdusht. It is strikingly grand, and
conveys to the beholder the idea of a hall of audience of a powerful and
warlike monarch.
The Palace of Forty Pillars (called Shehel Setoon) was the favourite
residence of the latter Sophi kings. The front is entirely open to the
garden, and it is sustained by a double range of columns, upwards of
forty feet high, each column shooting up from the united backs of four
lions of white marble. The exhaustless profusion of the splendid
materials, of which this palace is internally formed, which reflect
their own golden or crystal lights on each other, along with all the
variegated colours of the garden, give the appearance of an entire
surface, formed of polished silver and mother-of-pearl set with precious
stones; a scene well fitted for an Eastern poet’s dream, or some magic
vision in the tales of an Arabian Night.
This hall, travellers suppose to be the precise part, which formed the
banqueting-hall where Alexander displayed his triumph; the place where
the kings of Persia received the homage of their subjects, displayed
their magnificence, and issued their beneficent orders; also the private
palace which was appropriated to the domestic intercourse of the members
of the royal family.
Sir Robert Porter says that he gazed at the ruins with wonder and
delight. “Besides the admiration which the general elegance of their
form, and the exquisite workmanship of their parts excited,” says he, “I
never was made so sensible of the impression of perfect symmetry,
comprising also in itself that of perfect beauty.”
Mr. Morier says, that on one of the highest columns is the remains of
the sphinx, so common in all the ornaments of Persepolis; that he could
distinguish on the summit of every one a something quite unconnected
with the capitals; so that the high columns have, strictly speaking, no
capitals whatever, being each a long shaft to the very summit on which
the sphinx rests. The capitals, he continues, of the lower columns are
of a complicated order, composed of many pieces. There are also three
distinct species of base.
Deslandes imagined, that these columns never supported a roof, but
idols: on which Porter says, “I am not aware of a precedent in any
idolatrous country, for such a wilderness of gods as we should have
found assembled here in effigy; and, least of all, could we expect to
find such extravagant proofs of polytheism in a palace, that appears to
have owed its origin to the immediate ancestors of Cyrus, the simple
worshippers of Mithra, or the sun; and the proudest decorations of which
may be dated from Darius, the follower of the philosophic Zoroaster,
whose image, the god of his idolatry, is nothing grosser than the
element of fire. To suppose these pillars to have been the supports of
commemorating statues to the honour of the heroes of Persia, seems
equally untenable; for it is not in absolute monarchies, as in
republics, or in commonwealths, where kings form only one great member
of the body politic, that the eminent warriors and worthies of the land
have such monuments erected to them. In Persia we find the bas-reliefs
of its kings and their attendants on the walls of its palaces; in Rome
we find the statues of Brutus, and Cato, and Cicero, under the ruins of
the forum.”
In regard to the magnificent colonnade, which occupies the terrace, “the
imagination,” says Mr. Fraser, “cannot picture a sight more imposing
than those vast, solitary, mutilated pillars, which, founded in an age
beyond the reach of tradition, have witnessed the lapse of countless
generations, and seen dynasties and empires rise, flourish, and decay,
while they still rear their grey heads unchanged.”
“On ascending the platform, on which the palace of Chehelminar once
stood,” says Porter, “nothing can be more striking than the view of its
ruins: so vast and magnificent, so fallen, mutilated and silent; the
court of Cyrus, and the scene of his bounties; the pavilion of
Alexander’s triumph, and, alas! the awful memorial of the wantonness of
his power. But every object, when I saw it, was beautiful as desolate;
amidst the pleasing memories of the past, awakening poignant regret,
that such noble works of ingenuity should be left to the desert alone;
that the pile of indefatigable labour should be destined, from the
vicissitudes of revolution, and the caprice, ignorance, or fanaticism of
succeeding times, to be left in total neglect; or, when noticed, doomed
to the predatory mallet, and every other attack of unreflecting
destruction.”
One of the most remarkable features of these ruins are the beds of
aqueducts which are cut into the solid rock. The great aqueduct is
discovered among a confused heap of stones, almost adjoining to the
ruined staircase. In some places it is so narrow, that a man is obliged
to crawl through; in others it enlarges, so that he can stand upright in
it.
Sir William Ouseley says, that he did not perceive among these monuments
of antiquity, which the Takht exhibits: 1, any object appearing to be a
vestige of the Arsacidan kings; 2, nor any vestige of the Sassanian
dynasty, except two inscriptions; 3, nor any representation of a crooked
sword; 4, nor any human figure with a full face; 5, nor any human figure
mounted on horseback; 6, nor any figure of a woman; 7, nor any sculpture
representing ships, or alluding to naval or marine affairs; 8, nor any
arches; 9, nor any human figure sitting cross-legged, or resting on the
knees and heels, according to modern usage in Persia; 10, nor any human
figure in a state of nudity; 11, nor any vestiges either of wood or of
brick; 12, nor any remains of gilding; 13, nor any insulated statue, or
sculptured figure, separated from the general mass of marble, and
showing in full relief the entire form of any object. Nor did he see any
figure, that has ever actually been an object of idolatrous veneration.
“The reader will easily believe,” says Sir William, “this catalogue of
negative remarks might have been considerably augmented, when he
considers the great extent of these stupendous ruins; the seeming
anomalies of their plan; the extraordinary style of their architecture;
the labyrinths or narrow passages, which have been excavated with much
art in the adjacent mountains, and of which no traveller has yet
ascertained either the termination or the mysterious design; the
multiplicity of ornamental devices in the ruins; and, above all, of the
human figures which their sculptures exhibit.
“That I have not exaggerated the wonders of Jemsheed’s throne,”
continues this accomplished traveller and scholar, “will be evident, on
a reference to the accounts, given by most respectable persons of
various countries, who, in different ages, have visited its ruins. Not
only youthful travellers, glowing with lively imaginations; but those of
sober judgment, matured by the experience of many years, seem, as they
approach the venerable monuments, to be inspired by the genius of
Eastern romance; and their respective languages scarcely furnish
epithets capable of expressing with adequate energy the astonishment and
admiration, excited by such a stupendous object.” The learning, which
Sir William has expended upon Persepolis and other cities of the East,
is astonishing.
In regard to a portion of a platform, another traveller says:—“To me it
seemed to tell its own story; lying like the buried body of the last
Darius under the ruins of his capital, and speaking with a voice from
the grave; crying, in the words of Euripides over the like desolation;
‘Oh woe, woe, woe! my country lost! and thou, boast of my noble
ancestors, how art thou shrunk;—how art thou vanished!’”
There are no appearances now either of a city, or a citadel, in any
direction, about Persepolis. Three quarters of a mile from Persepolis is
the tomb of the Persian hero, Rustum;—four chambers hollowed out in the
rock, adorned with the altar of fire, the sun, and a mystic figure.
Under the sculpture of the second chamber is a gigantic equestrian
figure, very perfect, with others kneeling before him, and seeming to
seize his hand. On one side of this is an inscription in ancient
characters, different from those at Persepolis.
A little to the north, at the foot of the rock, are two more figures of
horsemen contending for a ring, and under the horses’ feet two human
heads, besides other attendants. Both these horses are called Rustum,
whose tomb is shown near the foot of the rock,—a square building, of
blue stone, twenty feet high, with windows and niches.
In part of the rock to the east is a mutilated equestrian figure, with a
horn on the left side of his forehead, called Iskunder zu el Kemeen, or
Alexander, Lord of horns[87].
In regard to the excavations, Mr. Kinneir is disposed to believe, that
they could have been applied to no other use than as receptacles for the
dead. The city continued to rank among the first cities of the empire,
until the Mahomedan conquest, and was the burial place of many of the
Sassanian kings.
The body of Yesdigird, the last of that powerful race, was transported
from the distant province of Khorassan, to be interred at Persepolis, or
rather, perhaps, in the cavities of Nuckshi Rustum.
“Our first, and, indeed, lasting impressions,” says Mr. Morier, “were
astonishment at the immensity, and admiration at the beauties, of the
ruins. Although there was nothing in the architecture of the buildings,
or in the sculptures and reliefs on the rocks, which could bear a
critical comparison with the delicate proportions and perfect statuary
of the Greeks; yet, without trying Persepolis by a standard to which it
never was amenable, we yielded at once to emotions the most lively and
the most enraptured[88].”
[Illustration: WADY MOUSA.]
NO. XV.—PETRA (WADY MOUSA).
The whole land of Idumea, now a mountainous rocky desert, was vaguely
known to be full of remains of ancient grandeur and magnificence; but
the country is inhabited by fierce and intractable tribes of Arabs, who
seem to have inherited the spirit of their forefathers, and to proclaim
to approaching travellers, as the Edomites did to the children of
Israel—“Thou shall not pass.”
“The evidence,” says Mons. De la Borde, “collected by Volney distinctly
shows, that the Idumeans were a populous and powerful nation, long
posterior to the delivery of the remarkable prophecies concerning them,
recorded in Scripture; that they possessed a settled government; that
Idumea contained many cities; that these cities have long been
absolutely deserted; that Idumea was eminent as a commercial nation; and
that it offered a much shorter route to India from the Mediterranean,
than the one ordinarily adopted.”
Petra lies almost in a line between the Dead Sea and the gulf of Akaba,
at the head of the Red Sea. “At what period of time it was founded it is
impossible to determine[89]. From the mention of its inhabitants, the
Edomites or Idumeans, in scriptural history, as well as from the
character of its monuments, it is evident, however, that the city must
be of immense antiquity. The Edomites had command of ports on the Red
Sea, which put the commerce of India and Ethiopia into their hands, and
was the source, both at an early period of their history and in the time
of the Roman empire, of all their greatness. Petra was the centre point
where the caravans rested between the Asiatic seas and the
Mediterranean. The book of Job, a work of great antiquity, proves
distinctly the great prosperity of his countrymen, the Edomites, and
their acquaintance with many civilised arts. From it we learn that they
wrought mines, manufactured wire-brass, and coined money; that they
possessed mirrors, used scales and the weaver’s shuttle, and had many
musical instruments; and, finally, that they were well advanced in
astronomy and natural history, and had correct notions of a Deity and a
future state. They also cut inscriptions on tablets, and their rich men
built splendid tombs. All these things betokened no mean degree of
civilisation in the land of Edom at a very early date, and confirm the
supposition that portions of the remains of Petra are among the oldest,
if not really the oldest, existing monuments of man’s hands.”
Dr. Vincent[90] says, “Petra is the capital of Edom, or Seir, the
Idumea, or Arabia Petræa of the Greeks, the Nabotæa, considered by
geographers, historians, and poets, as the source of all the precious
commodities of the East.” The whole commerce of the East, indeed,
originally passed through Arabia Petræa to Phœnicia, Tyre, and Egypt.
“Notwithstanding,” continues Dr. Vincent, “that the caravans decreased
in proportion to the advance of navigation, still Petra was a capital of
consideration in the age of the Periplus; there was still a proportion
of the trade passed from Leukè Komè (the white village) to this city,
and its princes maintained a rank similar to that of Herod in Judæa. In
all the subsequent fluctuations of power, some commercial transactions
are discoverable in this province; and if Egypt should ever be under a
civilised government again, Petræa would be no longer a desert.”
“The Nabatæi,” says Pliny, “inhabited a city called Petra, in a hollow
somewhat less than two miles in circumference, surrounded by
inaccessible mountains, with a stream running through it. It is distant
from the town of Gaza, on the coast, six hundred miles, and from the
Persian Gulf, one hundred and twenty-two.”
Strabo says, “the capital of the Nabatæi is called Petra; it lies in a
spot, which is itself level and plain, but fortified all round with a
barrier of rocks and precipices; within, furnished with a spring of
excellent quality, for the supply of water, and the irrigation of
gardens; without the circuit, the country is in a great measure desert,
especially towards Judæa.”
Such are the ancient accounts of a city, which, for many centuries, has
been to Europe as if it did not exist. According to this geographer it
was a great and flourishing city, standing on a high rock in a plain,
hemmed in and fortified all round with a barrier of rocks and
precipices; and from this position it derived its name.
Very little is known of the history of this remarkable city, and of this
little we have only space for a few incidents.
When Antigonus had got possession of Syria and Judæa, he sent one of his
generals (Athenæus) against the people of Petra, because they had made
several inroads into the country, and carried away a large booty.
Athenæus succeeded so far, that he got possession of the town and
likewise all the spoils deposited in it; but in his retreat the Arabs
defeated his troops, regained all the spoils, and then took repossession
of their city. When they had done this, they wrote a letter to
Antigonus, complaining of the injustice with which Athenæus had treated
them. At first Antigonus affected to disapprove of Athenæus’
proceedings; but the moment he could assemble a sufficient number of
troops, he despatched his son, Demetrius, into Arabia, with orders to
chastise the Petræans with the utmost severity. This, however, was
easier to be said than done. Demetrius marched thither, it is true; but
as he could not succeed in taking their city, he found himself compelled
to make the best treaty he could, and march back again. A further
account is given, by another writer:—“When Demetrius[91], by order of
his father Antigonus, sate down before Petra with an army, and began an
attack upon it, an Arab accosted him after the following manner:—‘King
Demetrius: what is it you would have? What madness can have induced you
to invade a people, inhabiting a wilderness, where neither corn, nor
wine, nor any other thing, you can subsist upon, are to be found? We
inhabit these desolate plains for the sake of liberty; and submit to
such inconveniences as no other people can bear in order to enjoy it.
You can never force us to change our sentiments, nor way of life;
therefore, we desire you to retire out of our country, as we have never
injured you; to accept some presents from us; and to prevail with your
father to rank us among his friends.’ Upon hearing this, Demetrius
accepted their presents, and raised the siege.”
The city was, in the time of Augustus, the residence of a monarch, and
considered the capital of Arabia Petræa. The country was conquered by
Trajan, and annexed by him to the province of Palestine. In more recent
times, Baldwin I. king of Jerusalem, having made himself also master of
Petra, gave it the name of the Royal Mountain.
The probability that the ruins of Wady Mousa are those of ancient Petra,
is thus stated by Colonel Leake:—“The country of the Nabatæi, of which
Petra was the chief town, is well characterised by Diodorus as
containing some fruitful spots, but as being, for the most part, desert
and waterless. With equal accuracy, the combined information of
Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Pliny, describes Petra as falling in a line
drawn from the head of the Arabian gulf (Suez) to Babylon; as being at
the distance of three or four days from Jericho, and of four or five
from Phœnicon, which was a place now called Moyeleh, on the Nabatæan
coast, near the entrance of the Ælanitic Gulf; and as situated in a
valley of about two miles in length, surrounded with deserts, inclosed
within precipices, and watered by a river. The latitude of 30° 20´,
ascribed by Ptolemy to Petra, agrees moreover very accurately with that,
which is the result of the geographical information of Burckhardt. The
vestiges of opulence, and the apparent date of the architecture at Wady
Mousa, are equally conformable with the remains of the history of Petra
found in Strabo, from whom it appears that, previous to the reign of
Augustus, or under the latter Ptolemies, a very large portion of the
commerce of Arabia and India passed through Petra to the Mediterranean,
and that _armies_ of camels were required to convey the merchandise from
Leuce Come [Leukè Komè], on the Red Sea, through Petra, to Rhinocolura,
now El Arish. But among the ancient authorities regarding Petra, none
are more curious than those of Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome, all
persons well acquainted with these countries, and who agree in proving
that the sepulchre of Aaron in Mount Hor was near Petra. From hence it
seems evident that the present object of Mussulman devotion, under the
name of the tomb of Haroun, stands upon the same spot which has always
been regarded as the burying-place of Aaron; and there remains little
doubt, therefore, that the mountain to the west of Petra is the Mount
Hor of the Scriptures; Mousa being, perhaps, an Arabic corruption of
Movra, where Aaron is said to have died.”