Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

88 ITICTORY 07 PERSIA.
or indeed any other known Persian work, while it fairly
resembles what Aristobulus, who was sent by Alexander
to restore it, calls " a house upon a pedestal." It is, in
fact, a building constructed of square blocks of white
marble, enormous in size, and stands on a base of seven
steps of different heights : its stone roof, with pediments
at each end, gives it a striking resemblance to a Greek
temple. Like a temple, too, it has no windows, but
only a low narrow doorway at each end, leading into
a cell, eleven feet long by seven feet high and broad,
doubtless the chamber wherein Arrian says the golden
coffin of Cyrus was originally placed. It had, how-
ever, been rifled before the visit of Aristobulus by
Polymachus and others, a sacrilege so much resented
by Alexander, that he ordered the chief perpetrator
of it, though a Macedonian of high rank from Pella,
to be put to death. Its present height above the
ground is about thirty-six feet, and its base forms a
parallelogram, forty-seven feet long by forty-three feet
nine inches broad. Around this tomb, is a rect-
angular area, where there are still the shattered remains
of several columnar shafts, portions, probably,
of a colonnade or a court, which once surrounded
the tomb itself.
The first person to suggest that this structure was
the tomb of Cyrus, was Mr. Morier ; and his suggestion
has been confirmed by the discovery of a bas-relief,
carved on the side of a monolithic pillar, about
fifteen feet high, which stands near the tomb, and is
inscribed in the three forms of Cuneiform writing, with
the words, " I am Cyrus, the king, the Achaemenian."
This relief, which is extremely curious, represents a