Media, Babylon and Persia : including a study of the Zend-Avesta or religion of Zoroaster, from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war . receivinga single tributary^ ends in a salt lake. A few trun-cated columns, and many more bases without col-umns, a few gate-pillars, and a platform with a casingof very fine stone masonry, are all that remdins ofthese constructions. Interesting as they are, theyare eclipsed by two relics which appeal more power-fully to the fancy of the beholder: one is a square,isolated, and very massive stone pillar, bearing a bas-relief representing a human figure with fo
Media, Babylon and Persia : including a study of the Zend-Avesta or religion of Zoroaster, from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war . receivinga single tributary^ ends in a salt lake. A few trun-cated columns, and many more bases without col-umns, a few gate-pillars, and a platform with a casingof very fine stone masonry, are all that remdins ofthese constructions. Interesting as they are, theyare eclipsed by two relics which appeal more power-fully to the fancy of the beholder: one is a square,isolated, and very massive stone pillar, bearing a bas-relief representing a human figure with four unfoldedwings and a most peculiar head-dress (see ill. 41). Thatthis strange figure is meant for Kyros is placed be-)-ond doubt by the inscription which we read at somehcicht above its head. But there is some reasonabledoubt as to whether it was intended for the livingking, or rather for an ideal representation of his glor-ified Fravashi after death. The other relic is the greatkings tomb, or rather grave-chamber, which standswell preserved, l)ut open and emptx, on its base ofseven retreating stages or high steps, all of solid. 41. REPRESENTING KYROS, OR HIS CLoKIFIEU FKAVASHI, WITH , INSCRIPTION AUOVK : I AM KURUSII, THE KING, THE , () 301 302 MEDIA, BABYLOh, AND PERSIA. l)locks of \vhit(; marble, surrounded by fragments ofwliat evidently was once a colonnade. The monu-ment Avas found intact by Alexander of Macedon,who visited it. His historians describe it as a houseupon a pedestal. with a door so narrow (it is more-over only four feet high) that a man could scarcelysqueeze through. The gilt sarcophagus, we are told,
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