BABYLON AND PERSIA

DAREIOS I. : YEARS OF PEACE. 4l'lral handling of the draperies and the disappearanceof those muscular exaggerations which are so offen¬sive in the Assyrian reproductions of the humanform.13. A survey of the PerseiDolitan monumentswould be incomplete without a mention of the threeroyal tombs cut in the rocky side of Mt. Rachmed,just behind the palaces of the living.They are inevery particular similar to those at Nakhshi-Rustem,making with these seven in all, which leaves onlytwo of the Akhaemenian kings unaccounted for.Here as there, the door in the sculptured front is asham one, not made to open, and it has been as yetimpossible to discover the real entrance to themostly capacious sepulchral chambers behind.Allwe know, from Greek historians, is that the bodieswere raised by means of windlasses to- be depositedin their place of rest. The openings which arefound at present have evidently been made by plun¬derers. All the tombs were found empty androbbed. As the tomb of Dareios I. is the only onethat has an inscription, the others could not beidentified.