The remaining staircases will not require very lengthy or elaborate descriptions.  They are six in number, and consist, in most instances, of a double flight of steps, similar to the central portion of the staircase which has been just described.  Two of them (e and f) belonged to the building marked as the “Palace of Darius” on the plan, and gave entrance to it from the central platform above which it is elevated about fourteen or fifteen feet.  Two others (c and d) belonged to the “Palace of Xerxes.”  These led up to a broad paved space in front of that building, which formed a terrace, elevated about ten feet above the general level of the central platform.  Their position was at the two ends of the terrace, opposite to one another; but in other respects they cannot be said to have matched.  The eastern, which consisted of two double flights, was similar in general arrangement to the staircase by which the platform was mounted from the plain, excepting that it was not recessed, but projected its full breadth beyond the line of the terrace.  It was decidedly the more elegant of the two, and evidently formed the main approach.  It was adorned with the usual bull and lion combats, with figures of guardsmen, and with attendants carrying articles needed for the table or the toilet.  The inscriptions upon it declare it to be the work of Xerxes. [PLATE XLIV.] The western staircase was composed merely of two single flights, facing one another, with a narrow landing-place between them.  It was ornamented like the eastern, but somewhat less elaborately.

[Illustration:  PLATE XLIV.]

A staircase, very similar to this last, but still one with certain peculiarities, was built by Artaxerxes Ochus, at the west side of the Palace of Darius, in order to give it a second entrance. [PLATE XLV., Fig. 1.] There the spandrels have the usual figures of the lion and bull; but the intermediate space is somewhat unusually arranged.  It is divided vertically and horizontally into eight squared compartments, three on either side, and two in the middle.  The upper of these two contains nothing but a winged circle, the emblem of Divinity being thus placed reverently by itself.  Below, in a compartment of double size, is an inscription of Ochus, barbarous in language, but very religious in tone.  The six remaining compartments had each four figures, representing tribute-bearers introduced to the royal presence by a court officer.

[Illustration:  PLATE XLV.]

The other, and original, staircase to this palace (f on the plan) was towards the north, and led up to the great portico, which was anciently its sole entrance.  Two flights of steps, facing each other, conducted to a paved space of equal extent with the portico and projecting in front of it about five feet.  On the base of the staircase were sculptures in a single line—­the lion and bull in either spandrel—­and between the spandrels eighteen colossal guardsmen, nine facing either way towards a central inscription, which was repeated in other languages on slabs placed between the guardsmen and the bulls.  Above the spandrels, on the parapet which fenced the stairs, was a line of figures representing attendants bringing into the palace materials for the banquet.  A similar line adorned the inner wall of the staircase.