FROM PASARGADE TO NAKSH-I RUSTAM

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trace back for centuries, if not to Achæmenian times, may have designated the city in the plain north and west of the platform, that is, the abode of the people in distinction from the residence of the kings on the grand terrace.1 Be that as it may, the monuments in this vicinity are the most interesting and historic in all Persia; Susa alone can make any claim to comparison with them.

To reach Persepolis, we strike southward toward the Plain of Mervdasht. The road runs at first through a mountain gorge, picturesque in wild scenery, but dangerous at night because of its rugged track and robbers. The river Polvar, the classic Medus, pushes its way with turbulent stream through the craggy defile. A part of the road above its rocky bed exhibits one of the most remarkable pieces of ancient engineering in the Orient. For a considerable distance, through the solid limestone rock, a narrow causeway was hewn ages ago to afford, as it still does, a passage for caravans on their route from the south to the north of Iran, and an ingress more than once for great armed forces. It is known as the Sang-Bur, Rock-Cutting,' or the Tang-i Bulāghĩ, 'Water-stream Pass,' and is thought by some to be identical with the mountain gorges of Vash-Shikuft, mentioned in the Bundahishn

1 On the problem of the names Persepolis and Istakhr, compare Curzon, Persia, 2. 132, n. 2, 133, 148, 187; also Nöldeke's article on Persepolis in Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., 18. 557-560. The Greeks and Latins naturally did not observe this distinction, and we can understand how the Tabula Peutingeriana should in late Parthian times speak of Persepolis, the emporium of Persia,' although this could only refer to the city itself, because the place had lost its prestige as a capital under the Arsacids. See Tomaschek, Zur historischen Topographie von Persien, pp. 166–175.

2 Bd. 12. 2, 21; so Justi, in Indogermanische Forschungen, Anzeiger, 17. 106. For a picture of the pass, see Stolze and Andreas, Persepolis, 2. pl. 127; and for descriptions, cf. Curzon, Persia, 2. 90; Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians, p. 243. In the opinion of Justi (IF. Anzeiger, 17. 106, cf. Grundr. iran. Philol. 2. 425) it was on a mountain in this vicinity that the Median pretender Gaumata, the False Smerdis, first asserted his claim to the sovereignty of Persia, only to be overthrown by Darius.

From the ravine we emerge into a succession of valleys between hills and cliffs. At this point my cavalcade overtook a band of Cossacks in the employ of the Shah. These finely mounted horsemen had been sent down to clear up the road which was infested with highwaymen (rah-zan), and they were not long in finding an opportunity to exercise their functions. A shepherd came past with tears in his eyes, complaining that he had been robbed of a sheep by a peasant who was acting as a guard of the road.' The Cossacks pursued the offender to the hills, quickly caught him, pinioned his arms behind him, and marched him at the rifle's muzzle to the nearest village, where punishment, I presume of the cruellest kind, was inflicted upon the culprit.

At Sivand, the station beyond, I found no occasion to wait for a longer time than to change horses, and then resumed the trail near the Polvar, though I regret that I missed seeing the famous Pahlavi inscription in the hills near the village of Hajiabad, some miles below Sivand. I have in my possession, however, a picture of the tablet taken by Mr. A. O. Wood, of the bank at Isfahan, and there is a large photograph of the inscription in Stolze's work on Persepolis, besides copies that have been made by others. The writing on the stone is in Chaldæo-Pahlavi and Sasanian Pahlavi, and it appears to record a remarkable shot with an arrow by King Shahpur, or Sapor I, of the House of Sasan.2

The afternoon was considerably advanced when I reached Naksh-i Rustam and the tombs of the Achæmenian kings. Here in the face of a long high bluff are hewn four sepulchres belonging to the elder kings of the second line, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II. These rock-cut vaults lie five or six miles to the north of the great platform where once stood

1 See Stolze and Andreas, Persepolis, 2. pl. 126; Ker Porter, Travels, 1. 513; Flandin and Coste, Voyage en Perse, Ancienne, 2. pl. 164; Westergaard, in the appendix to his Bunde

hesh, pp. 83-84, Copenhagen, 1851; cf. also Curzon, Persia, 2. 116.

2 See West, Grundr. iran. Philol. 2. 77. (Hajiabad is not to be confused with the place mentioned on p. 252.)

THE ROYAL TOMBS AT NAKSH-I RUSTAM

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the palaces of the kings and behind which are three other Achæmenian tombs of a somewhat later date.

The rocky cliff in which the sepulchre of Darius and those of his son, grandson, and great-grandson are carved, resembles a jagged wall, over five hundred feet long and between one and two hundred feet high. It extends in a generally easterly and westerly direction, but makes a rather sharp turn at the eastern end, so that we can understand how Ctesias came to speak of it as a double mountain'-dooòv opos.1 δισσὸν The natives call it Husein Küh, Hill of Husein,' or more often Naksh-i Rustam, Rustam's Picture,' from a mistaken idea that the equestrian statues of the Sasanian kings at its base represent Rustam and his famous charger.

Two

The four tombs which are hewn in the bosom of the rock are practically of the same size and dimensions and absolutely uniform in their exterior design. The shape of each façade is roughly that of a Greek cross, some seventy feet high and sixty feet wide, and the arms are hewn deep into the stone. In the middle of each façade a door with decorative lintel is cut, but only the lower half is pierced so as to furnish a small aperture, the upper part being left solid as a screen. columns, cut in high relief, stand on each side of the doorway. They are capped with the heads of bulls after the characteristic manner of the Persepolitan architecture and they support an entablature, with ornamental architrave, frieze, and cornice, forming a base for the elaborately sculptured panel that fills the upper limb of the cross. Here, carved in two rows, one above the other, are bas-reliefs representing the vassal nations as supporting the staging upon which stands the king, who thus makes his enemies his footstool. The monarch is portrayed in the same manner as he is seen on the Behistan sculptures, bow in hand, but his attitude is now that of worship

1 Ctesias, Fragments, 46 (15), ed. Gilmore, p. 150.

2 The disproportion between the

height and the breadth was doubtless designed for the sake of effect.

See p. 180, above.

before the sacred fire, over which floats the familiar winged effigy of Auramazda with the emblem of the sun shining in the background.

The identity of only one of the four tombs is positively known; this is the tomb of Darius. It is the third sepulchre to the right, near the point where the cliff makes the sharp angle. The identification is made by means of two trilingual inscriptions, of like contents, carved near the figure of the king and around the doorway.1 In some sixty lines the king glorifies Auramazda, enumerates the nations that acknowledge his sway, and exhorts the people not to depart from the Way which is Right.' All the bas-reliefs, including the sculpture of the king, the two figures behind him, which are known from inscriptions to be Gobryas and Aspathines,2 as well as the effigies of the vassal nations, have suffered much from the elements and from lapse of ages, but the corresponding carvings on the other tombs give considerable aid in restoring them.3 By comparing the national garb, the characteristic features, and the position of the figures with the names enumerated in the adjoining inscription, we may identify to-day almost every one of the nations represented on the bas-relief. The entrance to the sepulchre is so high from the ground that it is impossible to reach it except by the aid of ropes or ladders. The interior of the vault has been several times examined and described by travellers. It consists of a passagelike chamber into which

1 These are the well-known inscriptions Naksh-i Rustam a and b (Weissbach, Die altpers. Keilinschr. pp. 34-36; Spiegel, Die altpers. Keilinschr. pp. 52-57). The lower one (b) of the two inscriptions is now almost illegible.

2 See Weissbach, op. cit. p. 36; Spiegel, op. cit. p. 58, and compare p. 181, above.

Photographs may be seen in the well-known works of Stolze and of Dieulafoy, and we may look before

long for the publication of Dr. F. Sarre's admirable pictures, referred to by Andreas, in Verhandl. des 13. Internat. Orientalisten-Kongresses, p. 96, Leiden, 1904.

4 See Andreas, op. cit. pp. 96-97, and cf. Justi, Grundr. iran. Philol. 2. 454-455. MM. Babin and Houssay, collaborators of M. Dieulafoy, in 1885, actually discovered names carved under seven of the figures; cf. Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art, 5. 622. 5 For a plan of the interior of the