Location: 32 mi (51 km) Northeast of Shiraz, Fars province Map
Constructed: 515 BC by Cyrus the Great
Destroyed: 330 BC by Alexander the Great
Persepolis is a former Persian palace situated 32 mi (51 km) Northeast of Shiraz, Fars province in Iran. Ruins of the former palace of Persepolis are still impressive despite years of negligence and abandonment. The palace construction started in 515 BC by Cyrus the Great who started a Persian Empire. Persepolis was the heart of the empire. However all was laid to rest in 330 BC by Alexander the Great. Famous Greek leader stormed the armies of king Darius III wiping them out in a series of battles. Greek soldiers finally captured the capital of the Persian Empire and started probably World's greatest party. Alexander the Great seeing debauchery and lack of discipline decided to torch the king's palace with all of its riches. The historians claim that this was the revenge for burning of Athens by Persian king Xerxes just a century before that.
Pasargadae was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the
Great, however, according to Andre Godard and some other archaeologists,
Cyrus had already begun to equip Persepolis for the new capital.
According to them, the city was founded around 560 BC, although the
oldest archaeological sites date back to the period around 515 BC (and
the first written evidence dates back to 509 BC).
King Darius I
moved the capital here after 520 BC., undertaking large-scale
construction. At the same time, the remoteness and inaccessibility of
the city made it less suitable for the leadership of a large empire than
other capitals - Susa, Ecbatana and Babylon.
Work on Persepolis
was carried out in parallel with the construction of the Palace of Susa.
Darius ordered the construction of the great Apadan Hall and Council
Hall (Trypylon or "Triple Gates"), as well as the main imperial
treasury. They were completed during the reign of his son Xerxes I.
Further construction of buildings on the terrace continued until the
fall of the Achaemenid state.
The construction at Persepolis can
be divided into five phases, corresponding to the reigns of the
following emperors:
Darius (518-490 BC): Terrace, Apadana, walls;
Darius and Xerxes I (490-486 BC): Tachara (residential palace),
treasury, eastern and northern staircases, Gate of all peoples;
Xerxes (486-465 BC): Palace of Xerxes, Harem, Trypylon, Palace D;
Artaxerxes I (465-424 BC): Hundred-columned hall, palace of Artaxerxes,
garrison;
Artaxerxes II, Artaxerxes III, Darius III (424-330 BC):
tomb of Artaxerxes II, palace of Artaxerxes III, 32-columned hall, tomb
of Artaxerxes III, unfinished gate and tomb.
Alexander the Great
occupied the city in 330 BC. lightning strike from the mountains, and a
few months later he allowed the troops to plunder the city. The eastern
palace of Xerxes was set on fire by Thais of Athens, and the fire spread
to the whole city. It is believed that the action was revenge for the
burning of the Acropolis during the Greco-Persian wars. Precious copies
of the Avesta, written on bull skins with golden ink, were destroyed.
In 318 BC. e. Persepolis was the capital of Persia as a province of
the Macedonian Empire (Diodorus, xix, 21 seq., 46). However, the city
lost its power.
In 200 BC e. the city of Istakhr (Stakhr) rose
five kilometers north of Persepolis, where the residence of the Sasanian
satrap was located. Istakhr became the spiritual center of
Zoroastrianism and the repository of the Avesta. Later, Istakhr was for
some time the capital of the Sassanid Empire.
Istakhr was
destroyed during the Arab conquest, for some time it was used as a
fortified fortress.
Between the 14th and 18th centuries, the
ruins of Persepolis became an object of interest for European travelers.
The first in their line was Odoric of Friul in 1318 on his way to China.
After 150 years, another Venetian citizen Josaphat Barbaro visited here.
The Spanish diplomat Garcia de Silva Figueroa, sent to the court of Shah
Abbas I, visited Persepolis in 1619 and left a translation of a number
of Greek inscriptions. In 1621, Pietro della Valle was the first
European to copy cuneiform inscriptions.
From September 12 to 16,
1971 in Persepolis, in the presence of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and
foreign guests, the 2500th anniversary of the Iranian monarchy, timed to
coincide with the year of the death of Cyrus II as the founder of the
Persian state, was magnificently celebrated.
Apadana
The center of the complex is Apadana Daria, raised four
meters above the terrace. Two grand staircases lead to it, so gentle
that one could drive chariots along them. The main value of these stairs
and the entire Apadana terrace are reliefs carved on stone slabs. On the
outside of the stairs they depict the solemn procession of the royal
guard, and on the inside - the procession of servants carrying rams,
vessels, wineskins with wine. The same action is depicted on the reliefs
of Apadana itself: here representatives of the conquered peoples are
lined up in a procession.
Many researchers have long believed
that the processions of tributaries decorating the stairs of Apadana
literally reproduce some kind of annual event, possibly timed to
coincide with the celebration of the New Year. At the eastern door of
Apadana, the king of kings Darius I is depicted seated on the throne,
behind him stands the heir to the throne Xerxes.
The apadana
itself was a large hall surrounded by vestibules. The roof of the
structure was probably wooden and supported by seventy-two stone
columns, thirteen of which have survived.
Tripylon and Hundred
Column Hall
Behind Apadana Approximately in the center of the terrace
was the Trypylon, probably the main ceremonial hall in Persepolis. Its
staircase is decorated with relief images of dignitaries, on its eastern
gate there was another relief depicting Darius I on the throne and the
heir of Xerxes. Next was a huge room, called the Hall of a Hundred
Columns by archaeologists, according to the number of found bases of the
columns. Large stone bulls stood on the sides of the northern portico,
eight stone gates were decorated with scenes from the royal life and the
king's battles with demons. Both front rooms - Apadana and the Hall of a
Hundred Columns - are almost square in shape; Labyrinths of treasuries,
storerooms and living quarters adjoined the buildings where they are
located at the back, of which practically only the foundations have
survived.
Tachara
To the right of the apadana was the tachara
(residential palace) of Darius I. The palace was decorated with relief
images. In the palace there is an inscription of their creator: "I,
Darius, the great king, king of kings, king of countries, son of
Hystaspes, Achaemenides, built this palace." Today, only the foundation,
stone portals with doorways and the lower parts of the walls with
surviving bas-reliefs remain from the tachara.
Harem of Xerxes
In the southern part of the platform were the palace of Xerxes,
residential and utility rooms, as well as the royal treasury, decorated
with relief images of Darius and Xerxes. The most interesting of them is
the building called by the first Persepolis archaeologist Ernst Emil
Hertzfeld "Xerxes' Harem". It consisted of twenty-two small two- and
three-room apartments, where women with young children could live.
Tomb of Darius III
On the outskirts of Persepolis, scientists
have discovered the tomb of Darius III, the last king of the Achaemenid
dynasty. Left unfinished, it is destroyed by natural conditions. Its
reliefs are uncut and schematic.
Water system of Persepolis
The sewer networks of Persepolis were among the most complex in the
ancient world. Persepolis was built at the foot of Mount Rahmat, and
often, for example, in early spring, the city was flooded due to heavy
rainfall and water runoff from melted ice and snow. Therefore, sewer
networks acquired great importance. The sewers were used to direct the
flow of water from top to bottom from the northern areas, as well as to
serve the inhabitants of the city in their need for water.