It is probable that they originally supported a colonnade, which skirted internally a small walled court, within which the tomb was placed.

The capitals of the pillars, if they had any, have wholly disappeared; and the researches conducted on the spot have failed to discover any trace of them.
The remainder of the Persian royal sepulchres are rock-tombs, excavations in the sides of mountains, generally at a considerable elevation, so placed as to attract the eye of the beholder, while they are extremely difficult of approach.

Of this kind of tomb there are four in the face of the mountain which bounds the Pulwar Valley on the north-west, while there are three others in the immediate vicinity of the Persepolitan platform, two in the mountain which overhangs it, and one in the rocks a little further to the south.

The general shape of the excavations, as it presents itself to the eye of the spectator, resembles a Greek cross.

[PLATE LII., Fig.