200 History of Art in Antiquity. behind its thick walls, built of large blocks of limestone dressed to an even front with the utmost care, and bound by no cement An intruder, despite double walls, might have eluded the vigi- lance of the porters, and caught a glimpse of the interior of the sanctuary, just as they were momentarily off their guard, with their backs turned to open the portal to allow the procession of the priests to file into the adytum. "To prevent such a surprise as this, the architect who constructed the edifice devised a double set of doors, and made them both fold back inside, so as to render simultaneous opening impossible. One who wished to enter the Gabre, there- fore, after going through the exterior door, had to shut it after him before he could open and pass out of the other" (Fig. 97).^ Was the building a chapel or a tomb ? The very peculiar character of its arrangement would accord equally well with either hypothesis, and in Fig. 07.— flan of entnmce to the Gabra. Scale of 34 c. to <~icr> fht^T urr^nM wish to keep out and repel intrusion. What we know of the rites of Magism makes this pretty certain. The fire-altars figured on tombs and coins are as unlike this tiny edifice as can well be imagined. We may safely affirm that no sacred fire was ever lighted within its blind walk ; had they tried to do so, it would soon have gone out for want of air. Besides, we find no mention, either by historians or in the Ains^a, that there existed here closed sanctuaries as in Egypt, within which images or symbols of the deity were mys- teriously preserved. The direct evidence is so strong that Ah was a tomb» as scarcely to leave room for any doubt Wall, colon- nade^ chamber, the whole building was conceived and executed in view of receiving the mortal remains of a man, and this man could be no other than an important personage. We have literary testimony that the tomb of Cyrus was situated at Pasargadae, where ' DitULAPOVy VArt antique^ torn. L p. 48.
