“The extent of the ruins of Shahpúr to the southward is bounded by a beautiful stream of water. Over the spring from which it issues the road is sustained by fragments of architecture, which are part of the entablature of some public building, and, by their dimensions, must have once been magnificent. “Immediately after passing the spring, we came upon the ruins of Shahpúr. When standing on an eminence, we computed the whole to be comprised, on a rough calculation, within a circumference of six miles. This circumference enclosed a tract of plain, and a hill, on which the remains of the ancient citadel formed a conspicuous and commanding object. Whether by the caprice of Nature or by the labour of man, this hill or acropolis is distinctly separated from the great range of mountains forming the most eastern boundary of the plain of Kázerún. “Between this and another imposing mass of rock runs the beautiful river of Shahpúr. We reckoned the space between the two rocks at thirty yards, which formed a little plain of verdure and shrubbery, intersected, indeed, by the stream of the river. The opening between the two grand masses presented a landscape the most varied, the most tranquil, the most picturesque, and, at the same time, the most sublime, that imagination can form. “A black and stupendous rock flanked the right of the picture; while another still more extraordinary rock, as richly illumined as the other was darkened, supported the left. Between both a distant range of mountains, whose rocks were terminated by a plain, filled up the interstices, forming a fine aërial perspective; whilst the river and rich shrubbery completed a most enlivening foreground. “The hill on which the remains of the citadel stand is covered by ruins of walls and turrets. On its eastern aspect the nature of the fortification can be traced easily; for walls fill the chasms from rock to rock, forming altogether a place of defence admirably strong. The first object which arrested our attention was a mutilated sculpture of two colossal figures on horseback, carved on the superfices of the rock. The figure on the right was most injured; the only part, indeed, which we could ascertain with precision was one of the front and two of the hinder feet of a horse, standing over the statue of a man, who was extended at his full length, his face turning outwardly, and reposed upon his right hand, and his attire bearing marks of a Roman costume. A figure in the same dress was placed in an attitude of supplication at the horse’s knees, and a head in alto-relievo just appeared between the hinder feet. The equestrian figure on the left is not quite so much mutilated, the horse and parts of the drapery on the thighs being still well preserved.