Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAP. XXII. Takhti Jemsheed.--Remains of Persepolis.--A brief Description of its Ruins as they now exist. It is the general opinion, and I have no doubt a correct one, that here stood the ancient and magnificent city of Persepolis, once the capital of the Persian empire. Holy writ gives us no account of this city, nor have profane historians said much regarding it; but we have every reason to believe that here it stood, and that it was for long the capital of this realm: the exact period when it ceased to be so, being very uncertain. Some have contended that Shushan (now called Shush It is, however, mentioned in the Apocrypha. Vide 2 Maccabees, ix. 2. VOL. H. B 2 TAKHTI JEMSHEED. ter) where Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes held their courts, was the capital; but there is no good reason to suppose that Shushan on the Ulai was anything more than an occasional royal residence. As regards the beautiful and stately remains, now commonly called the takhti jemsheed (Jemsheed's throne), chihl mindr (forty columns) or istakhar, the various speculations of antiquaries have attained no conclusion, save that these are the relics of some great building, either a royal palace or a temple of religious worship, or probably a combination of both, which stood conspicuous in the great city of Persepolis; which city has now been swept away by the hand of time. Whether this was the palace which Alexander the Great burnt in a drunken frolic, at the instigation of a vile courtesan, is a matter involved in doubt. Modern Persian historians assert that it was destroyed by the Moslem conquerors of this country, and the assertion is probably true. The very name has been lost, for the appellation of Persepolis is evidently of Greek invention, and the other titles by which...
