Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

IlS'i HISTORY OF PERSIA.
is Hard by, is a longer oblong, of 125 feet by 50. Tt
is in front of this building that the square column
stands, with the mythological relief on it, which we have-
already
described. There is also in the immediate
neighbourhood, the remains of a platform of huge
square stones, rusticated, after a fashion, not unlike
the substructions of the temple at Jerusalem, recently
brought to light by the excavations of the Palestine
Fund. Mr. Rich, who has described it fully, mentions
one stone fourteen feet two inches long ; and Flandin
and Coste more than one so enormous as thirty-two
feet nine inches in length. The outline of the palace
at Istakhr is well preserved, though only one column,
twenty- five feet high, is standing,
with .the bases of
eight others. The walls have been partially traced,
and the jambs of several doorways detected.
The palace at Susa has been fully described by its
excavators, Mr. Loftus and M. Dieulafoy, and is
evidently in form a duplicate of Darius's palace at
Persepolis. It stood, however, on a platform of sundried
brick, originally constructed at a very remote
period, probably by some of the ancient
rulers of Susiana. An inscription repeated
native
on the
bases of four pillars, proves that the building, resting
on this mass of early brickwork, was erected originally
by Darius ; whiJe another inscription confirms its re-
paration by Artaxerxes I (Longimanus). It was at
Susa; it will be remembered, that Daniel saw the vision
"
of the ram with the two horns. And I saw in a vision,
and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan,
in the palace, which is in the province of Elam ; and
I saw in a vision l
," &c.
1 Dan. viii. 2.