Persepolis

From the time of King Darius I (reigned ca. 522-486 b. c.), one of the Persian Empire’s three main capitals, along with Babylon and Susa. Work began on Persepolis in about 518 b. c., and additions were made to the city during the reigns of Darius’s son, Xerxes, and later Persian kings. Darius chose a virgin site on the northern edge of a fertile plain in southern Iran about 43 miles (70km) northeast of the modern provincial capital of Shiraz. Building Persepolis was an unusually difficult task, partly because the site was in a remote area and the materials were shipped in from all parts of the known world. The bricks came from Babylonia, the cedar logs from Syria-Palestine, the gold from Anatolia, and the silver and ivory from Egypt and Ethiopia. The gigantic crew of workers included Mesopotamians and Anatolian Greeks as well as local Persians.

In its prime, Persepolis was dominated by an enormous terrace 1,640 feet (500m) long, 1,200 feet (366m) wide, and 50 feet (15m) high. Among the many structures on the terrace was an immense audience hall (apadana). It was accessed by a wide double staircase—which still survives largely intact—magnificently decorated with carved figures of people from all of Persia’s subject nations. There was also a large throne room, the so-called Hall of a Hundred Columns, completed by Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I. Guarding the entrances to the hall were Assyrian-style carved stone bulls. other structures on the terrace included the palaces of Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes; a treasury; a harem complex with twenty-two separate apartments, each with a door leading into lush gardens; a council hall; workshops for artisans; and guardhouses for soldiers.

All of this splendor lasted fewer than two centuries. In 330 b. c. Alexander the Great burned Persepolis during his conquest of Persia. It was said that his men required twenty thousand mules and five thousand camels to cart away the treasures they looted from the great terrace. Although the terrace and surrounding city were devastated, in time materials from the site were used to erect a smaller, much less impressive town, Istakhr, nearby. The new town gained some prominence later under the Parthians, the Sassanians, and the Arabs until it was eventually abandoned. The site of Persepolis was excavated beginning in 1931 by a team from Chicago’s oriental Institute.

See Also: Darius I; palaces; Persian Empire