cos at Persepolis. In other Uestored Elevation of respects the height of the Capital al Susa.
SHUSPIAN
719
SHUSHAN
capital, which measures 28 feet, is very nearly the same, but it is fuller, and looks somewhat too heavy for the shaft that supports it. This defect was to a great extent corrected at Persepolis, and may have arisen from those at Susa being the first translation of the Ninevite wood- en original into stone architecture. The pillars at Persepolis vary from GO to (57 feet in height, and we may therefore assume that those at Susa were nearly the same. No trace of the walls which enclosed these pillars was detected at Susa, from which Mr. Loftus as- sumes, somewhat too hastily, that none existed. As, however, he could not make out the traces of the walls of an\' other of the numerous buildings which he admits once existed in these mounds, we ought not to be sur- prised at his not finding them in this instance.
Fortunately, at Persepolis sufficient remains still ex- ist to enable us to supply this hiatus, though there also sun-burnt brick was too much used for the walls, and if it were not that the jambs of the doors and windows were generally of stone, we should be as much at a loss there as at Susa. The annexed wood-cut. representing the plan of the hall at Persepolis, is restored from data so complete as scarcely to admit of doubt with regard to any part, and will suffice to explain the arrangement of both (see Fergusson, The Palaces of Nineveh and Per- sepolis Restored [Lond. 1851]). Both buildings consisted of a central hall, as nearly as may be 200 feet square, and consequently, so far as we know, the largest interior of the ancient world, with the single exception of the great hall at Karnak, which covers 58,300 square feet, while this only extends to 40,000. Both the Persian halls are supported by 36 columns, upwards of 60 feet in height, and spaced equidistant from one another at about 27 feet 6 inches from centre to centre. On the exterior of this, separated from it by walls 18 feet in thickness, were three great porches, each measuring 200 feet in width by 65 in dejith, and supported by 12 col- umns whose axes were coincident w-ith those of the in- terior. These were, beyond doubt, the great audience halls of the palace, and served the same purposes as the House of the Forest of Lebanon in Solomon's palace, though its dimensions were somewhat different — 150 feet by 75. These porches were also identical, so far as use and arrangement go, with the throne-rooms in the palaces of Delhi or Agra, or those which are used at this day in the palace at Ispalian. The western porch would be appropriate to morning ceremonials, the eastern to those of the afternoon. There was no porch, as we might expect in that climate, to the south, but the principal one, both at Susa and Persepolis, was that which faced the north with a slight inclination towards the east. It was the throne-room par excellence of the palace, and an inspection of the plan will show how easily, bj' the arrangement of the stairs, a whole army of courtiers or of tribute- bearers could file before the king without confusion or inconvenience. The bassi- rilievi in the stairs at Persepolis in fact represent per- manently the procession which on great festivals took place upon their steps; and a similar arrangement of stairs was no doubt to be found at Susa when the palace was entire. It is by no means so clear to what use the central hall was appropriated. The inscription quoted above would lead us to suppose that it was a temple, properly so called, but the sacred and the secular func- tions of the Persian kings were so intimately blended together that it is impossible for us to draw a line any- where, or to say how far " temple cella'' or " palace hall" would be a correct designation for this part of the build- ing. It probably was used for all great semi-religious ceremonies, such as the coronation or enthronization of the king, at such ceremonies as returning thanks or making offerings to the gods for victories — for any pur- pose, in fact, re<piiring more than usual state or solem- nity ; but there seems no reason to suppose it ever was used for purelj' festal or convivial purposes, for which it is singularly ill suited.
From what we know of the buildings at Persepolis,
M
©
Eestored Plan of Great Hull of Xerxes at Persepolis. (Scale 100 feet to an iuch.)
we maj' assert, almost with certainty, that the " King's Gate," where Mordecai sat (Esth. ii, 21), and where so many of the transactions of the book of Esther took place, was a square hall (see cut below), measuring probably a little more than 100 feet each way, and with its roof supported by four pillars in the centre, and that this stood at a distance of about 150 or 200 feet from the front of the northern portico, where its remains will probably now be found when looked for. We may also be tolerably certain that the inner court, where E>- ther appeared to implore the king's favor (Esth. v, 1), was the space betw-een the northern portico and this square building, the outer court being the space between the "King's Gate" and the northern terrace wall. We may also predicate with tolerable