Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/397

Towns and their Defences. 375 formed the entrance to Istakhr leads back to the ancient empire of Persia (Figs. 180-182). Like the buildings at Persepolis, which it resembles, save in dimensions, it was built of huge blocks of limestone, fitted together without cement, whilst its arrangement ' recalls the Propylaea on the platform. Its remains consist of the lower courses of twothtck walls, some twelvemetres apart, with central pillar and antae as supports to a kind of porch with wood covering, the openings of which were lofty enough for the free passage of caravans, of chariots and camels, whilst the height of the other two avenues at the sides led through the upper valley of the Polvar to Pasargadae, abutted here. The soldiers stationed to guard the pass stood at this gate and inspected travellers on their way to the town, and perhaps exacted a small toll. Gates similar to this were to be found on the highways of commerce in many other parts of the empire, and, like this, they were situated at the entrance of defiles. Such would be the Cas- pian, Cilician, and Amanian gates or pybe. The Istakhr exemplar helps one to gain a notion of their arrangement and aspect. Local tradition told of another fastness as having occupied the most commanding situation of the small range of mountains which take their name from Istakhr, and which was still standing at a comparatively recent period. To judge from the narrowness of the summit, where occur traces of walls and tanks, the defensive works in question could be no more than a kind of watch-tower. Whether these remains bear the sig^ manual of the builders of Darius and his successors, no traveller has as yet thought it worth his while to find out. was only a trifle above man's stature. Of these one has preserved its stone lintel (see Fig. 182). The caravan route, which from Media Digitized by Google