Under the carcase of the first sphinx on the right, are carved, scratched, and painted the names of many travellers; and amongst others we discovered those of Le Brun, Mandelsloe, and Niebuhr. Niebuhr’s name is written in red chalk, and seems to have been done but yesterday.
A square reservoir of water, broken in many places, yet still appearing to have been of one single block, was in the space, between the portals and the staircase which led to the grand hall of columns. The breadth of that staircase is fifteen feet four inches. It has two corresponding flights, the front of which, though now much mutilated, was originally highly carved and ornamented with figures in bass-relief. The stones which support the terrace of the columns are all carved in the same style, and are as perfect as when Le Brun made his drawings. On comparing indeed his designs with the originals, I found that he had given to some of the figures a mutilation which does not exist; for I discovered on a close inspection many interesting details of dress, posture, and character, which are omitted in his plates. One great defect pervades this part of his collection; in order to elucidate by the human form the comparative dimensions of the buildings, he has introduced figures so small, that, measured by them as a standard, the actual size of the objects represented would be three times their real magnitude. In fact, a man who stands close to the sculptured wall touches the summit with his chin, though the figures in the drawings of Le Brun would not reach half way.
Immediately on ascending this staircase, stands a single column, but on closer observation I counted the bases (or spots at least where once bases were) of eleven more columns of two rows; forming, with the first, six in each row. They are quite distinct from the great cluster in the centre of the hall, and were therefore probably a grand entrance to it.
Passing forwards through this double range, we observed large blocks of stone, placed at symmetrical distances (to correspond with the arrangement of the columns at the entrance, and those in the centre), and forming, probably, the bases of sphinxes or other colossal figures. Having taken some pains to ascertain the real plan and the original number of the columns in the great hall, I came to the following conclusions: I observed, in the first place, that there were two orders of columns, distinct in their capitals as well as in their height, and that, of the highest, two rows were severally placed at the E. and W. extremities of the hall.
Between these and the mass of columns of less height and a different capital is the space on either side of one row, in which, however, no trace whatever of bases exists, and through which run the channels of aqueducts. The remainder in the centre consists of six columns in front, and composes with the four exterior rows a line of ten columns; each row contains in depth six bases, forming, with the twelve at the entrance, a grand total of seventy-two. On drawing out a plan of this arrangement, I find that it is symmetrical in all its points, and in every way in which I can view it satisfies my imagination; but, on comparing it with that laid down by Niebuhr, my own conceptions have accorded so exactly with those of that great traveller on this, (as well as on the ichnography of the general remains) that the introduction of my sketch becomes unnecessary.
On one of the highest columns is the remains of the sphinx, so common in all the ornaments at Persepolis; and I could distinguish on the summit of every one a something quite unconnected with the capitals. 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 of the lesser columns are of a complicated order, composed of many pieces. I marked three distinct species of base. The shafts are fluted in the Doric manner, but the flutes are more closely fitted together. Their circumference is sixteen feet seven inches. Some of their bases have a square plinth, the side of one of which I measured, and found it to be seven feet; the diameter of the base was five feet four inches, diameter of columns four feet two inches, distance from centre of base to the next centre twenty-eight feet. To the Eastward of one of these, and close at the foot of one of the highest columns, are the fragments of an immense figure. The head and part of the fore-legs I could easily trace; the head appeared to me more like that of a lion than of any other animal, and the legs confirmed this supposition; as it has claws so placed, as to indicate that the posture of the figure was couchant.
The grand collection of porticoes, walls, and other component parts of a magnificent hall, are situated behind the columns, at the distance perhaps of fifty paces, and are arranged in a square.
On the interior sides of the porticoes or door frames, are many sculptured figures, which have been drawn with accuracy by Le Brun. They represent the state and magnificence of a King, seated in a high chair with his feet resting on a footstool.
To the north of these remains, is the frame of what was once a portico, 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.