Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/225

The 13 lilt Tomb. 215 should follow a wrong scent in trying to recognize the tomb of Cyrus in the Pasargadaean tower. It may be conceded that, to take the word vvpyos in its ordinary sense* it is more applicable to the latter than a building such as the Gabre ; but we have explained why too much importance should not be given to the appellation. On the other hand, two characteristic features, both of vital impor- tance, are specified in the description our authors have borrowed from Aristobulus, namely, the existence of a periholos, and the extraordinary narrowness of the entrance to the tomb. Around the Gabre considerable remains of a portico and wall still exist, but no traveller has pointed out sign or token of annexes such as these around the tower of Pasargadae. On the other hand, if here the front is too much ruined to permit of accurate measurement being made of the door, the other tower at Naksh-i-Rustem enables us to restore it with certainty. The latter is i m. 50 c. high by 2 m. 20 c. broad — dimensions that are quite normal and do not deserve Arrian's strictures, to the effect diat a man had much ado to penetrate into the vault. If its identity with the Gabre should be dismissed as impossible, it only remains to make up our minds that the monument seen by Alexander and Aristobulus has disappeared. Some have asked themselves whether the type in question, represented in either capital by a unique and well-constructed exemplar, was not intended for a special function, set apart for a very peculiar purpose ; whether, in fact, we are not confronted here by edifices of the dakma class, "silent towers/' still in common use among the Guebres at the present hour. As to the difficulty that ancient writers, when they spoke of the manners and customs of the Persians, have not even a passing allusion to edifices of this nature, it might be answered that the Greeks did not penetrate farther than Susa until Alexander; their knowledge of the country, therefore, left much to be desired, whilst the bulk of what they wrote is lost to us. Thus, for example, we only know the writings of Ctesias from the citations of later writers and such extracts as are found in Photius.* We have a far better reason to adduce for discarding the above hypothesis as incompatible with the disposition of the two towers. Dahnas are yawning enclosures, affording every facility to birds of prey to troop into them in laige ' The fragments of Ctesias have l)een collected by Ch. Mfiller in BiNwUikgue grugm4aHHt de Didott following Heiodotut. Digitized by Google