[PLATE XLI., Fig.

2.] [Illustration: PLATE XLI.] The first, and grandest in respect of scale, is on the west front of the platform towards its northern end, and leads up from the plain to the summit of the northern terrace, furnishing the only means by which the platform can even now be ascended.

It consists of two distinct sets of steps, each composed of two flights, with a broad landing-place between them, the steps themselves running at right angles to the platform wall, and the two lower flights diverging, while the two upper ones converge to a common landing-place on the top.

The slope of the stairs is so gentle that, though each step has a convenient width, the height of a step is in no case more than from three to four inches.

It is thus easy to ride horses both up and down the staircase, and travellers are constantly in the habit of ascending and descending it in this way.
The width of the staircase is twenty-two feet--space sufficient to allow of ten horsemen ascending each flight of steps abreast.