THE PALACE OF KHUSRAU
The larger edifice, which is known as the palace of Khusrau (i.e. Chosroës II, Parwêz, A.D. 590-628), is not built upon a single level. The central part is raised above the plain by means of a solid platform of earth some 3 metres high. The terribly ruined state of the buildings made it difficult to take elevation measurements which should approach to accuracy; I have therefore endeavoured to give a correct impression of the structures upon the two levels by reproducing the plan in two parts. In the one (Plate 53) the upper rooms and courts are given; the uncovered areas on the upper level are lightly tinted, the covered rooms are dotted, while the buildings on the lower level are shown only in outline. In the other (Plate 54) the upper level is left in outline and the covered and open areas of the lower level are fully indicated.
The palace is exactly oriented, the main rooms and entrance facing east. The building materials are undressed stones laid in a thick bed of gypsum mortar. The stones are used exactly in the shape in which they were furnished by nature, a shape which happened to be that of large rounded pebbles. With such materials accurately coursed masonry is not to be expected. The core of the walls is no more than a mass of concrete with stones bedded at haphazard in the strong gypsum mortar. On the outer surface of the wall, particularly in important chambers, the pebbles are, however, coursed with considerable care, but the face of the walls is necessarily very rough and must always have been covered with plaster. The vaults are constructed of the same unfavourable materials. They were built over a centering on which was laid an inner skin of stones and mortar; when this had hardened it was strong enough to bear the mass of concrete which was built round and above it. Construction of this kind would have been impossible but for the excellent qualities of the mortar. I observed that the vaults both in this palace and at Chehâr Qapû had almost invariably a slight outset from the wall ([Plate 52], Fig. 2), as is generally the case in Sasanian vault building, whether in brick or in stone. The vaults are round or slightly ovoid, except in the lower corridor, under the margin of the platform (Plate 54, Corridor 103). Here the vaults are very markedly pointed ([Plate 51], Fig. 1), but I should attribute this form not to any conscious predilection for the pointed arch—an arch which was, so far as I am aware, unknown to Sasanian architects—but to an accident inherent in the rude construction of an unimportant part of the building. Occasionally brick was used. I saw fragments of brick among the ruins of the palace of Khusrau, and in Chehâr Qapû some brick vaults are still standing. The walls which were intended to support these massive stone roofs were seldom less than 1·30 metres thick, and sometimes considerably thicker. (In Chehâr Qapû, however, they are not infrequently reduced to a thickness of little over a metre.)
The eastern end of the platform is devoid of constructions. It is accessible by means of three double ramps which will be described in dealing with the lower level of the palace. Excluding the width of the ramps, the open platform is 149 metres long (reckoning it up to the east wall of chambers 21, 22, and 23) and 98 metres wide. The main gateway of the palace is much ruined. The hall or porch which is numbered 1 on the plan is indicated by two grass-grown mounds, 26·60 metres long by about 5·40 metres broad, leaving a space of about 9·80 metres between. Another mound lying north and south marks the eastern limit of No. 2. At either end of this latitudinal chamber there were traces of cross walls, which I have shown on the plan. Upon the eastern mound I saw through the grass circular patches of brick which may have been the remains of columns. Whether No. 1 was flanked on either side by columns, as M. de Morgan has represented it to have been, I have no means of determining, but I have little doubt that it was a covered porch of some kind leading to a latitudinal chamber, No. 2, which was some 45 metres long (between the cross-walls) by 17 metres wide, and that this chamber was a covered antechamber to the hall of audience, No. 3. The hall (3) is 27·20 metres square; the walls are ruined down to the level of the side door arches, and the interior is filled with ruins to the depth of about 1 metre—judging by the present ground-level in the doorways ([Plate 55], Figs. 1 and 2). At each corner of the hall, 2·90 metres from the walls on either side, there are the remains of a pier, 1·40 metres square, with two engaged columns projecting about 1 metre and producing a heart-shaped ground-plan. The pier at the south-west corner is tolerably well preserved, and there can be no doubt as to its form. The eastern wall of the hall is 4·35 metres thick and is broken by a single door 3 metres wide. At the south-east corner a small doorway leads into a short passage, probably vaulted, which gives access to the open platform. On the west side of the hall lies a lîwân (4) 5·10 × 13·15 metres. A door, 1·60 metres wide, opens into court A, but there is no direct communication between the lîwân and its subsidiary chambers. Of these last there are two on either side. To the north, room 5 opens by doors into hall 3 and court A. No. 6 has only one door, opening into a narrow passage (9) which was probably covered by a vault. On the south side No. 7 corresponds exactly with No. 5, while No. 8 opens into No. 7 and not into the corridor 10. These corridors (9 and 10) lead respectively out of the north-west and the south-west corners of hall 3; they are prolonged beyond rooms 6 and 8 and open into court A. Parallel to them run a second pair of corridors (11 and 12) which are two of the main gangways of the palace. No. 11 is 1·80 metres wide. Its eastern end is, so far as I could ascertain, a cul-de-sac, but it may possibly be provided with a door into room 13 (the walls are very much ruined here). A doorway, placed immediately west of the end of corridor 9, leads into court A, and doors on the north side communicate with courts D and E. Corridor 12 is 1·70 metres wide and leads out of hall 3; the arched doorway into the hall is preserved. The only other doorway in this corridor of which I could make certain is one communicating with court I, but in both corridors (11 and 12) the walls are so much ruined that I cannot feel sure that they do not possess more doors. Beyond courts F and J both corridors drop down to the lower level and are then continued to the western limit of court B, where they turn at right angles and unite behind court B, but on the lower level. Whether the descent was accomplished by steps or by a ramp I could not determine, but in No. 12 the vault at this point was well preserved, and I noticed that, as in the stairs and ramps of Ukhaiḍir, it was built not in an inclined plane, but in sections rising one above the other like inverted steps ([Plate 56], Fig. 1). East of hall 3 and of the chambers pertaining to it, the remainder of the central area of the palace is occupied by two courts, A and B, 33·90 metres wide, divided from one another by a much ruined cross wall in which there was presumably a door. Court A is 40 metres long from the west wall of the lîwân (4) to the cross-wall; court B is 71·30 metres long from the cross wall to the end of the platform.
To north and south of the central area lie a series of courts with lîwân groups, on the west side courts C and G alone offer slight variations of scheme. In court C there is a lîwân group at either end, the western group being the more important; as will be seen, this is the usual arrangement in the courts on the lower level. There are, besides, three chambers (13, 14, and 15), lying between court C and hall 3. These chambers are almost completely buried under ruin heaps overgrown with grass; I was able to see that No. 13 opened into No. 3 and into court C, but I could not determine the position of the doors in Nos. 14 and 15. Court C measures 21·60 metres from north to south and 19·20 metres from east to west. The western lîwân is 5·20 by 7·25 metres. I would here remark that in all cases the lîwâns open by their full width on to the court, whereas in the French plan the entrance arch is narrowed by short returns in the side walls. The side chambers (17 and 18) do not communicate with the lîwân (a rule which is followed throughout the palace), but have doors only into the court. A door in the west wall of the lîwân (16) leads into a latitudinally placed chamber (19) measuring 5·10 by 14·30 metres, which is separated by a wall at the south end from a small subsidiary chamber, 1·75 metres wide, with which it communicates by a narrow door. There is also a doorway between No. 19 and court D. This group of rooms (16 to 19) occurs unchanged in courts E, G, H and I, and is provided invariably with a posterior court. In one case only, court H, a shallow lîwân group is placed at the west end of the posterior court. All the latitudinal chambers (19, 28, 32, and 42) behind the lîwâns are completely ruined. I conjecture that they were vaulted, but it is possible that they were not wholly covered, like the corresponding chambers behind the lîwâns at Ukhaiḍir. On the analogy of Ukhaiḍir they must have served the purpose of kitchens. I saw no trace in court C of the columns which are placed there in the French plan. At the east end there is a shallow lîwân group (21, 22, and 23), the lîwân being 4 metres deep. To the north of this group lies a short passage leading to a door which communicates with the open platform. A corresponding passage (20), 2·30 metres wide, leads out of the north-west corner of court C, runs along the north side of courts D, E, and F, drops on to the lower level in the same manner as corridors 11 and 12, is continued as far west as they, and then turns off at right angles and joins the cross-passage which connects them. North of court C are two chambers on the upper level (106 and 24). No. 106 is a long passage room with two rectangular arched niches in the south wall, a door at the east end opening on to the platform, and a door at the west end which gives access to a ramp that descends into the exterior park, between the retaining wall to the south and the wall of a chamber on the lower level to the north. In the north wall of No. 106 there is a door leading into No. 24, a much ruined room about 7·50 metres square, and a door further west opening on to the roof of a short passage.
Courts E and F stand in the same relation to one another as courts C and D; court E is the forecourt of a lîwân group with a kitchen (25 to 28); court F is the posterior court. The western wall of court F is the retaining wall of the mound on which the rooms and courts of the upper level are built. Court F, together with No. 28, are omitted in M. de Morgan’s plan, a fact which shows that there must be serious errors in his measurements.
Upon the southern side of the platform, court G is divided from the hall 3 by three chambers (33, 34, and 35) which, like the corresponding chambers north of the hall, are ruined and filled with débris. They appear to have had no communication with the hall. On the south side a door leads from court G into corridor 43, 2·60 metres wide, which corresponds with the northern corridor (20). The western end of court G is occupied by a lîwân group and kitchen (29-32), the latter opening into court H. Court H, 15 metres from east to west, differs, as has been said, from its counterpart court D, in that it is furnished with a shallow lîwân group at its western end. These rooms (36, 37 and 38) are much ruined, but it appeared to me that there was no communication with court I. Court I, 14·20 metres from east to west, and court J, 17·80 metres from east to west, with the lîwân group and kitchen between them, correspond exactly in their arrangement with courts E and F. I do not doubt that all the rooms above described were covered by barrel vaults, but there is no wall on the upper level that stands much more than a metre high, and therefore no vault is preserved.
In the central part of the palace the upper level is prolonged to the western end of court B, but in the wings it ends with courts F and J. Thus it is that the rooms and courts which flank the western end of court B are upon the lower level. They form two complete units, one on either side. The northern unit is composed of courts K and L and rooms 44 to 50. On the east side of court K lies a shallow lîwân group (48, 49, 50), the lîwân being 3·25 metres deep. On the west side the lîwân group differs somewhat from those which have been already described. A narrow antechamber, 2·40 metres deep, is interposed between the lîwân with its side chambers (44, 45, 46) and the court. A wide archway, corresponding with the arch of the lîwân, and two doors, corresponding with the doors of the side chambers, open into court K, but the width of the arch and doors of the antechamber is slightly greater than the width of the arch and doors of the lîwân and its side chambers. The door of 46 is 1·05 metres wide and stands 1·85 metres from the south wall; the corresponding door of the antechamber is 1·70 metres wide and stands 1·30 metres from the south wall. The arch of the lîwân has a width of 5·20 metres; the corresponding arch of the antechamber is 5·80 metres wide. Neither here nor in any other court where the antechamber occurs is it possible to determine the exact relation between the vault of the antechamber and the vault of the lîwân, but the fact that the lîwân arch seems to have been narrower than the antechamber arch (it is only in court K that the measurements can be taken with anything approaching to accuracy) leads me to suppose that the vault of the lîwân cannot have been carried through to the court, as at Ukhaiḍir. In that case the antechamber must have been roofed with a continuous vault laid at right angles to, and possibly higher than, the vault of the lîwân. The antechamber communicates with corridor 11. Courts M and N, on the south side of court B, are the counterpart of courts K and L. The southern end of the antechamber is exceptionally well preserved, and the arched doorway leading into corridor 42 is standing ([Plate 56], Fig. 2). Part of the vault of corridor 42 can be seen in Plate 57, Fig. 1.
The cross-passage connecting corridors 20, 11 and 12 affords communication with the western courts, which form three units, all exactly alike, except for slight variations in width. Each unit consists of a pair of courts and two groups of rooms. A shallow lîwân group lies at the east end of each of the forecourts, O, Q, and S ([Plate 57], Fig. 2). Doors from the passage are placed in the side chambers of the lîwâns, and corresponding doors open into the courts. As far as I could ascertain the courts communicated with one another, but the division walls are ruined, often down to ground-level, and it is hard to decide between a doorway and a breach. At the west end of the courts stands a more important lîwân group with an antechamber ([Plate 58], Figs. 1 and 2, and Plate 59, Fig. 1). In no case is there a door in the back of the lîwân, but communication with the posterior court is provided by means of a narrow vaulted passage (59, 67 and 75) placed to the south of the lîwân group.[46] There is no latitudinal chamber in the posterior courts, but a small additional chamber (58, 66 and 74), possibly for domestic purposes, lies on the northern side of each lîwân group. A corridor (79) leading out of court N bounds these courts to the south, and at right angles to it another corridor (80) bounds them to the west. The outer wall of No. 80 is ruined to the foundations, and I could not see whether there were doorways opening into the park. There were clear traces of doors leading into this corridor from courts P and T. Parallel to No. 79, but wholly separated from it, runs the continuation of corridor 43, which, after passing round the south side of court N, turns at right angles and opens at its western end into the park ([Plate 59], Fig. 2). To the south of these corridors lies a large court, U, with remains of an arcade along its northern side. The space between the arcade and the wall of corridor 43 was probably vaulted; at its southern end it opens into the corridor. Court U is almost square (51 × 51·70 metres). To the west and south its walls are ruined, but on the west side great heaps of stones furnish indications of a gate. On the opposite side of the court there is another gateway of which a considerable part is standing. It is situated at the west end of a rectangular area, court V, arcaded on either side, which must have been intended for a private pleasure-ground or a place for games ([Plate 60], Fig. 1). The latter is the more probable conjecture, since there is no direct communication between court V and the palace. The gateway was an important structure. From the western court (U) a porch 2·70 metres deep opened through an archway 3·70 metres wide into a rectangular vaulted chamber (83) 4·50 metres from east to west ([Plate 60], Fig. 2). To the east of 83 lay a chamber (82) almost square (5·90 × 5·80 metres) having a rectangular vaulted niche, 1·50 metres deep, to north and south and an archway to the east opening into court V. No. 82 must have been covered by a dome, which was in all probability set over the angles on squinch arches (see below, [Plate 69]), but no part of the dome is standing ([Plate 61]). On either side of the gateway there are four chambers accessible only from court V. No. 85 opens into the passage, probably vaulted, which was formed by the northern arcade; No. 89 opens on to the area outside the southern arcade. It would be natural to expect that an outer wall ran parallel to this arcade, dividing court V from the park, and I looked for traces of such a wall, but did not find them. Court V (18·50 × 102·50 metres) terminates in a group of much-ruined buildings of which I could only make out the general plan. The arcaded passage (92) ends in a small vaulted and unlighted room (93) (6·55 × 3·55 metres). To the south of 93 are two large chambers (94 and 95), No. 94 terminating at the southern end in a deep niche. Nos. 93 and 94 are separated by a narrow passage from a small rectangular court (W) having two chambers at either end. Of these chambers Nos. 99 and 100 are completely ruined, but the vaults of Nos. 97 and 98, which are built partly under the upper platform, are standing ([Plate 62]). To the south lies another small court (X) out of which the passage 101 leads into a small rectangular chamber (102) which in turn communicates with the arcaded corridor 103. This corridor runs round the eastern end of the platform which is carried over it on a vault. The vault, which was very roughly constructed, is noticeably pointed, especially on the east side ([Plate 51], Fig. 1). Three double ramps provided access to the platform, the eastern pair being the largest and most important. The eastern ramps begin opposite the fourth detached pier at either end of the arcade of the corridor, where a mass of masonry 6·60 metres long by 4·90 wide blocks the adjoining arch. Vaults carrying the ramp are placed before the seventh and eighth arches from either end of the arcade, and in front of the central arch lies a vaulted chamber 3·75 metres wide. The length of this double ramp is 48 metres ([Plate 63], Fig. 1). On the west side of the corridor there are nine vaulted chambers, 5·80 metres deep, which are tunnelled out under the platform. Their doorways correspond with the arches of the corridor. A detached chamber lies at either end of the corridor. The north and south ramps are constructed in the same fashion, but they are only 30·80 metres long. Opposite the central vault there is a chamber under the platform; on either side the platform is solid, after which there are two vaulted chambers.
On the north side of the palace there is another group of much-ruined buildings on the lower level. The arcaded corridor (103) ends at this point in a narrow vaulted chamber (104) which lies under No. 106. Like 106, No. 104 has two arched niches in the south wall. It abuts at its western end against the ramp which descends from No. 106. A narrow passage leads out into a large enclosure, court Y, in which all the walls are ruined. Plate 63, Fig. 2, shows the eastern end of No. 106 with its vault partially preserved, and the walls and substructures of No. 24. In the south-west angle of court Y there was a large chamber (105), and the north-west corner was occupied by two groups of three rooms lying to north and south of the small court Z. Possibly there was a somewhat similar arrangement of rooms on either side of court Z[47].