Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/142

SEtoNDARY Forms. Windows seem to have been less sparingly distributed in the inhabited palaces than in the reception-rooms. Thus, there are four windows on the main face of the Palace of Darius (Fig. lo, No. 3), and only three on that of the Hall of a Hundred Columns, which is so much larger (Fig. 13).^ That external blinds, even now of universal usage all over the East, whether of wood finely carved or metal-plated, existed here, is rendered probable from the groove seen in the plan of the building (Fig. 1 3) and the picturesque view representing its present condition (Fig. 14).* Staircases play an important part in the architecture of Persia, which, on the example of Assyria, grouped its edifices on elevated platforms, whence they ruled the plain afar. Had the Takht at Pasargadse received the royal buildings intended for it (Fig. 17), the architect would have bad to find means of access. As it happened the works were interrupted, doubtless on account of a change of dynasty, so that we are left in ignorance as to the way he would have got over the difficulty. Hard by, in front of the square tower (Fig. 21), we find a perpendicular ramp which leans against the facade like a ladder against a walL' So elementary a mode as this would not have been found adequate at Persepolis, where it was necessary to connect the surrounding country with the platform on which the king and his court were eventually to reside. The whole of the platform was not of a uniform height; on the contrary, the buildings rose upon quite distinct levels. This arrangement involved the necessity of artificial ascents to the sever.il esplanades ; at the same time, it obiit^ed the architect to guard against the steps being cumbersome and takin^r too large a space at their rise. This he did by turning the old stair- cases and leaning them against the walls of the substructures. He adopted a very simple arrangement of diverging and converging ramps, separated by broad landing-places, of which the grandest and best-preserved S])ecimen is that which leads from the Merdasht plain to the Takht-i-Jamshid area (I'ig. 19). Here, fronting the palaces, are several other staircases conceived on the lines described above, well seen in Figs. 60, 61. The two flights that intervene between the upper and lower shelving of the Takht depart from the general rule, in that they are perpendicular to the wall of the platform. » Flandin .iiul CosTK, Peme aticienttfy Plate CXLIX. ■ DlEULAFOV, LArt aniiqut, loiu. ii. p. 37. ' Jbid.^ p. 27. Digitized by Google