being about two feet, and the faces representing diverse types of humanity, some old and some young, some male and some female, some apparently realistic, some idealised and more or less grotesque in their accompaniments. The drawing of the heads is said to have been full of spirit, and their general effect is pronounced life-like and striking.

1

The seven halls, which have been described, were divided into two groups, of three and four respectively, by a low fence, which ran from east to west across the inner court, from the partition wall separating the third and fourth halls to the buildings which divided the inner court from the outer. It is probable that this division separated the male and female apartments. The female ornamentation of the large hall (No. II.) belonging to the southern group is perhaps an indication of the sex of its inmates; and another sign that these were the female quarters is to be found in the direct communication existing between this portion of the building and the Temple' (No. VIII.), which could not be reached from the male apartments except by a long circuit round the building.

The Temple' itself was an apartment of a square shape, each side being about forty feet. It was completely surrounded by a vaulted passage, into which light came from two windows at its south-west and north-west corners. The Temple was entered by a single doorway, the position of which was directly opposite an opening leading into the passage from Hall No. II. Above this doorway was a magnificent frieze, the character of which is thought to indicate the religious purpose of the structure. The interior of the

1 See above, p. 376, note .

Temple was without ornamentation, vaulted, and except for the feeble light which entered by the single

Frieze over Temple doorway, Hatra (after Ross).

doorway, dark. On the west side a portal led into the passage from the outer air.

Besides these main apartments, the edifice which we are describing contained a certain number of small rooms, lying behind the halls, and entered by doorways opening from them. One or two such rooms are found behind each of the smaller halls; and another of somewhat larger dimensions lay behind the great hall (numbered VII. in the plan), forming the extreme north-western corner of the building. These rooms

were vaulted and had no windows, receiving their only light from the small doorways by which they were entered.

It is believed that the entire edifice, or at any rate the greater portion of it, had an upper story. Traces of such a structure appear over the halls numbered I. and VI.; and it is thought that the story extended over the entire range of halls. One traveller,' on con

1 Ainsworth, Researches, vol. ii. p. 165. Mr. Ross believed that he found traces of a staircase leading

to the upper rooms at the southern end of the building. (Geograph. Journal, vol. ix. p. 470.)

jectural grounds, even assigns to the building an elevation of three stories, and ventures to restore the second and third in the mode represented in the subjoined woodcut. According to this author the upper portion of the edifice resembled in many respects the great palace of the Sassanian monarchs, of which splendid

Restoration of the Hatra Palace-Temple (after Ainsworth).

remains still exist on the site of Ctesiphon, where they are known as the Takht-i-Khuzroo, or Palace of Chosroes. That palace was, however, on a very different plan from the Hatra one, comprising as it did one hall only, but of a size vastly superior to any of those at Hatra, and two wings, one on either side of the hall, made up of dwelling and sleeping apartments.1

The few windows which exist at Hatra are oblong square in shape,2 as in general are the doorways connecting one apartment with another. In one case there is an arched doorway, or niche, which has been blocked up. There are no passages except the one which surrounds the Temple,' the apartments generally leading directly one into another. In some cases

6

1 See the ground plan in Mr. 2 Ross in Geograph. Journal, vol. Fergusson's History of Architecture, ix. p. 468.

vol. ii. p. 430.

the lintel of a doorway is formed of a single stone, and ornamented with very delicate carving. The doorways are for the most part towards the corners of apartments; that of the Temple, however, is in the centre of its eastern wall.

6

The general style of the buildings at Hatra has been said to be Roman or Byzantine;' and it has even been supposed that in the style of the ornaments and sculptured figures may be traced the corrupt taste and feeble outline of the artists of Constantinople.' 2 But there is abundant reason to believe that the Hatra Palace was built nearly two centuries before Constantinople came into existence; and, although the large use of the round arch in vaulting may be due to the spread of Roman architectural ideas, yet there are no grounds for supposing that any but native artists, Parthian subjects, were employed in the work, or that it is other than a fair specimen of what was achieved by the Parthian builders during the later period of the empire. The palace of Volagases III. at Ctesiphon, which Avidius Cassius destroyed in his invasion, was most likely of the same general character a combination of lofty halls suitable for ceremonies and audiences with small and dark sleeping or living rooms, opening out of them, the whole placed in the middle of a paved court, and the male apartments carefully divided from those of the women.

3

The remains at Hatra are further remarkable for a considerable number of reservoirs and tombs. The open space between the town proper and the eastern wail and gate is dotted with edifices of a square shape, standing apart from one another, which are reasonably

regarded as sepulchres.1 These are built in a solid way, of hewn stone, and consist either of one or two chambers. They vary in size from twenty feet square to forty, and are generally of about the same height. Some are perfectly plain, but the exteriors of others are ornamented with pilasters. The reservoirs occur in the paved court which surrounds the main building; they have narrow apertures, but expand below the aperture into the shape of a bell, and are carefully constructed of well-cut stones closely fitted together.

The material used at Hatra is uniformly a brownish grey limestone; and the cutting is so clean and smooth that it is doubted whether the stones have needed any cement. If cement has been employed, at any rate it cannot now be seen, the stones everywhere appearing to touch one another.

There are several buildings remaining in Persia, the date of which cannot be much later than that of the Hatra edifice; 2 but, as it is on the whole more probable that they belong to the Sassanian than to the Parthian period, no account' of them will be given here. It will be sufficient to observe that their architecture grows naturally out of that which was in use at Hatra, and that thus we are entitled to ascribe to Parthian times and to subjects of the Parthian Empire that impulse to Oriental architecture which awoke it to renewed life after a sleep of ages, and which in a short time produced such imposing results as the Takht-i

1 Ross in Geograph. Journal, vol. ix. p. 370. Mr. Ainsworth regards some of these buildings as dwelling houses, and thinks that only upon a very cursory inspection could they have been considered in all cases tombs (Researches, vol. ii. p. 171).

He does not, however, question the sepulchral character of the greater number.

2 As especially those at Serbistan and Firuzabad, described by Mr. Fergusson in his History of Architecture, vol. ii. pp. 428-430.