The Hyi'OStvle Hall of Xerxes. 307 The stones of frames and pillars, it has been said, may have dis- appeared, taken away to the last stone by the villagers. But how can we explain the fact of the pillac^ers having singled forth this one structure and spared all the rest ? If a dead set was made against the ruins of Perscpolis, would not traces of these ravages be found about the other royal houses ? Yet the Palace of Uarius, which is contiguous to the hypostyle hall of Xerxes, has all its antae and frames intact ; whilst a few steps farther, no less than forty door- cases are ranged in almost perfect order around the Hall of a- Hundred Columns. Will it be urged that as the hypostyle hall was on the very edge of the platform, it was plundered first ? But in that case why not have begun with the Propylaea almost in touch with the stairs ? Here, however, the huge stones that formed the jambs of the doorways are still in place. ' Besides, would a distance of some hundred yards or thereabouts have been a serious obstacle to rustics bent upon removing materials from the platform ? Admitting they carted away what was nearer to hand, can we suppose their having confined their depredations to this one edifice ? The total disappearance of antae and stone frames from the hypostyle hall is, then, highly improbable; its antae and stone frames would doubtless have been of greater dimension than either those of the Palace of Darius or the Hall of a Hundred Columns. If it should be deemed necessary to put a wall between the inner and the lateral colonnades, on die only model which seems appro- priate in a restoration of the Hall of a Hundred Columns, we must suppose a building wherein brick had not only furnished the material for the walls, strictly so called, as in Chaldaea, but doors, ' windowS) niches, and antae as well ; in &ct, a structure wholly destitute of stone, where, as a natural consequence, sculpture would have no place. That the hypostyle hall of Xerxes was a queen among the other monuments of the platform, is shown in the imposing adjustment and the wealth of ornament displayed about the stairs by which it was approached, the extent of the ground it covered, - the exceptional height and magnificence of its quadruple Golon« nade. Can we seriously imagine that an arrangement employed everywhere else with signal success, was abandoned in the one doubt in the iniDd of the observer is that oontmaoiu nibstnictuies, window and door frames, are conspiciiously absent. Digitized by Copgle
