The Persian palatial buildings, of which traces remain, are four in number.  One was situated at Ecbatana, the Median capital, and was a sort of adjunct to the old residence of the Median kings.  Of this only a very few vestiges have been hitherto found; and we can merely say that it appears to have been of the same general character with the edifices which will be hereafter described.  Another was built by Darius and his son Xerxes on the great mound of Susa; and of this we have the ground-plan, in a great measure, and various interesting details.  A third stood within the walls of the city of Persepolis, but of this not much more is left than of the construction at Ecbatana.  Finally, there was in the neighborhood of Persepolis, but completely distinct from the town, the Great Palace, which, as the chief residence, at any rate of the later kings, Alexander burnt, and of which the remains still to be seen are ample, constituting by far the most remarkable group of buildings now existing in this part of Asia.

It is to this last edifice, or group of edifices, that the reader’s attention will be specially directed in the following pages.  Here the greatest of the Persian monarchs seem to have built the greatest of their works.  Here the ravages of time and barbarism, sadly injurious as they may have been, have had least effect.  Here, moreover, modern research has spent its chief efforts, excavations having been made, measurements effected, and ground-plans laid down with accuracy.  In describing the Persepolitan buildings we have aids which mostly fail us elsewhere—­charts, plans, drawings in extraordinary abundance and often of high artistic value, elaborate descriptions, even photographs. [PLATE XXXVIII., Fig. 3.] If the describer has still a task of some difficulty to perform, it is because an overplus of material is apt to cause almost as much embarrassment as too poor and scanty a supply.

[Illustration:  PLATE XXVIII.]

The buildings at Persepolis are placed upon a vast platform.  It was the practice of the Persians, as of the Assyrians and Babylonians, to elevate their palaces in this way.  They thus made them at once more striking to the eye, more dignified, and more easy to guard.  In Babylonia an elevated habitation was also more healthy and more pleasant, being raised above the reach of many insects, and laid open to the winds of heaven, never too boisterous in that climate.  Perhaps the Assyrians and Persians in their continued use of the custom, to some extent followed a fashion, elevating their royal residences, not so much for security or comfort, as because it had come to be considered that a palace ought to have a lofty site, and to look down on the habitations of meaner men; but, however this may have been, the custom certainly prevailed, and at Persepolis we have, in an almost perfect condition, this first element of a Persian palace. [PLATE XXXIX.]

[Illustration:  PLATE XXXIX.]