. History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia and Assyria . development became theimmense royal city of Persepolis. He there erectedbuildings more suited to the splendour of his court, andfound the place so much to his taste during his lifetime,that he was unwilling to leave it after death. He there-fore caused his tomb to be cut in the steep limestonecliff which borders the plain about half a mile to thenorth-west of the town. It is an opening in the formof a Greek cross, the upper part of which contains abas-relief in which the king, standing in front of thealtar, implores the help of Ahura-
. History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia and Assyria . development became theimmense royal city of Persepolis. He there erectedbuildings more suited to the splendour of his court, andfound the place so much to his taste during his lifetime,that he was unwilling to leave it after death. He there-fore caused his tomb to be cut in the steep limestonecliff which borders the plain about half a mile to thenorth-west of the town. It is an opening in the formof a Greek cross, the upper part of which contains abas-relief in which the king, standing in front of thealtar, implores the help of Ahura-mazda poised withextended wings above him; the platform on which theking stands is supported by two rows of caryatides inlow relief, whose features and dress are characteristic of 260 THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD EASTERN WORLD Persian vassals, while other personages, in groups of threeon either side, are shown in the attitude of prayer. Below,in the transverse arms of the cross, is carved a flat porticowith four columns, in the centre of which is the entrance. ^*.tJC«K^f^* C^i^ THE lOMB OF DAEIUS. to the funeral vault. Within the latter, in receptacleshollowed out of the rock, Darius and eight of his family-were successively laid. Xerxes caused a tomb in everyway similar to be cut for himself near that of Darius, 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure by MarcelDieulafoy. THE TOMBS OP THE ACH^MENIAJST KINGS 261 and in the course of years others were added close by.^Both the tombs and the palace are built in that eclecticstyle which characterises the Achasmenian period of Iranianart. The main features are borrowed from the architectureof those nations which were vassals or neighbours of the
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