File:Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. - during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 (1821) (14777541082).jpg

Identifier: travelsingeorgia02port (find matches)
Title: Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. : during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820
Year: 1821 (1820s)
Authors: Porter, Robert Ker, Sir, 1777-1842
Subjects: Porter, Robert Ker, Sir, 1777-1842
Publisher: London : Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Contributing Library: Tisch Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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perpendicularly to its higher level.The observations I made on the several elevated terraces on thesmoothed mountain-base at Persepolis, lead me to think, thatthis unfinished projection from the rock was begun, not as afoundation for a palace, (which is the idea of the natives, andthat Kliosroo Purviz erected it for his beloved Shirene,) but asa platform for a temple; it being too circumscribed for the va-riously diverging apartments of the one, but amply sufficient forthe usual space allotted to the other. And besides, I shoulddeem it of a date far anterior to the Sassanian monarch. Amongstthese evident materials for building some great structure, it issaid that no remnants of a columnar shape have ever been found;and a peculiarity so singular, in a country where the finest ar-chitectural fragments of the sort are seen on almost every spotreputed to have been an ancient site, might, probably, suggestto the natives the distinguishing name of Be-Sitoon withoutpillars. * See Plate LIX.
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•^1 I %s i I ■s^ 3: N*1 ^ GREEK INSCRIPTION. I5I About fifty yards from this rocky platform, more towards thebridge, and at the foot of the mountain, bursts a beautifully clearstream. Just over its fountain-head, on a broad protruding massof the rock, the remains of an immense piece of sculpture arestill visible, but so lamentably defaced, that it is almost impos-sible to make out any one continued outline. The whole hasbeen contained in an enormously extensive frame-work excava-tion, within which many now shapeless projections are seen ;but, by close attention, parts of the rude forms of several colossalfigures may be traced. The most apparent, are seven in a range,which have formerly stood out from the rock in something morethan bas-relief, and their bearded visages are tolerably distinct;but all that is observable, shews that the work has been done bythe very coarsest chizel. The principal cause of the generalmutilation of this specimen of remote antiquity, must have arisenfrom

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