Page 247 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO.* THE PERIPHERAL
REGIONS
The best-known Achacmcnian site is Persepolis (Figure iio) « Here wort- • 1
for ' °7 f,f7 *■«* *« ■—*» w ui
B.C., though the reign of Xerxes into that of Artaxerxes I, about 460 u.c.» The terrace is
oidcicd by mountains m the north and east. It measures about 1,500 by 900 feet and is
about forty feet high. It was once topped by an enclosing wall of mud-bricks, from forty-
five to sixty feet high, which was stepped back to the single entrance at the north-west
end, the gate-house K» One approached this by means, of a large stairway (L) which
was so gently graded and of such width that groups of horsemen could mount it without
difficulty. The gate-house was built by Xerxes, who gave it the curious but significant
name All Countries’. The implication seems to be that all peoples passed through it to
pay homage.
The gate-house resembles that at Pasargadae in possessing a pillared room and also in
having its outer entrance guarded by bulls, its inner entrance (Plate i8ob) by human-
headed bulls. Turning to the right, one reaches the great Audience Hall (J) begun by
Darius I and completed by Xerxes and Artaxerxes I. It stands on a terrace of its own.
Beyond the Audience Hall stands the Throne Hall, the Hundred Column Hall (M),
started by Xerxes and completed by his son.
These two square halls effectively separate the northern part of the terrace, accessible
to a restricted public, from the royal apartments situated behind them. Access to these
was by means of a very beautiful staircase, placed at the end of an esplanade or coin
d’honneur between the two audience halls (Plates 178B and 179A). It leads into a building
(E) called the Tripylon because it had, in addition to its entrance and exit, a diird door
which led down to the level of the Harem in the East.52 Leaving the Tripylon and turning
sharply to the West, we pass through the ruins of a building (G), perhaps constructed by
Artaxerxes III and reach, at the edge of the platform, the residential palace of Darius
I (I). Building H, to the south, is now believed to have been constructed from remains
of ail older structure after the burning by Alexander the Great.53 Next to it are the rcsi-
dential palace of Xerxes (F) and the ruins of another building (D). The L-shaped com-
plex surrounding D is called the Harem, and B, at the foot of the rocks, the Treasury.
Not only in the details to which we have referred, but also in general lay-out, Perse­
polis recalls Pasargadae. hi both cases separate buildings are loosely grouped together.
A reconstruction of the palace at Susa suggests a different’plan. South of a pillared hall
resembling those which we have described (J and M)54 there appears a complex o
rooms grouped round three courts in the manner of the Mesopotamian palaces. But
the excavations were carried out here with very little understanding and what now
remains is far too equivocal for us to consider the existence of this Mesopotamian type
of plan in Achaemenian architecture a certainty. , 1 • h
The architecture of the Achaemenids is remarkably original, especially 111 1

use

^Residentialplaces I. * and H; in E; and in C, the Harem. Here, moreover,

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