and was covered, or intended to be covered, by a slab of stone.  In the deeper part of the recess there is room for two other such sarcophagi; but in this case they have not been excavated, one burial only having, it would seem, taken place in this tomb.  Other sepulchres present the same general features, but provide for a much greater number of interments.  In that of Darius Hystaspis the sepulchral chamber contains three distinct recesses, in each of which are three sarcophagi, so that the tomb would hold nine bodies.  It has, apparently, been cut originally for a single recess, on the exact plan of the tomb described above, but has afterwards been elongated towards the left. [PLATE LIII., Fig. 1.] Two of the tombs show a still more elaborate ground-plan—­one in which curved lines take to some extent the place of straight ones. [PLATE LII., Fig. 2.] The tombs above the platform of Persepolis are more richly ornamented than the others, the lintels and sideposts of the doorways being covered with rosettes, and the entablature above the cornice bearing a row of lions, facing on either side towards the centre. [PLATE LIII., Fig. 2.]

[Illustration:  PLATE LIII.]

A curious edifice, belonging probably to the later Achaemenian times, stands immediately in front of the four royal tombs at Nakhsh-i-Eustam.  This is a square tower, composed of large blocks of marble, cut with great exactness, and joined together without mortar or cement of any kind.  The building is thirty-six feet high; and each side of it measures, as near as possible, twenty-four feet.  It is ornamented with pilasters at the corners and with six recessed niches, or false windows, in three ranks, one over the other, on three out of its four faces.  On the fourth face are two niches only, one over the other; and below them is a doorway with a cornice.  The surface of the walls between the pilasters is also ornamented with a number of rectangular depressions, resembling the sunken ends of beams.  The doorway, which looks north, towards the tombs, is not at the bottom of the building, but half-way up its side, and must have been reached either by a ladder or by a flight of steps.  It leads into a square chamber, twelve feet wide by nearly eighteen high, extending to the top of the building, and roofed in with four large slabs of stone, which reach entirely across from side to side, being rather more than twenty-four feet long, six feet wide, and from eighteen inches to three feet in thickness. [PLATE LIII., Fig. 3.] On the top these slabs are so cut that the roof has every way a slight incline; at their edges they are fashioned between the pilasters, into a dentated cornice, like that which is seen on the tomb.  Externally they were clamped together in the same careful way which we find to have been in use both at Persepolis and Parsargadae.  The building seems to have been closed originally by two ponderous stone doors. [PLATE LIV., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration:  PLATE LIV.]