[IRAN] Persepolis

Persepolis is the magnificent palace complex founded by Darius the Great in about 518 BC to serve as a symbol of power and also as the setting for celebrating the great national and religious festival of Nawrooz (“New Year Day”). He ordered a promontory at the foot of the mountain called Mount Mithra, which is now known as Kooh-e Rahmat (“Mount Mercy”) to be cut to a smooth surface on which various residential and official palaces were to be built. This ancient heart of the Persian empire is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



The ticket office at the entrance gate.



There’s a warning sign about items that are prohibited in the site: fire arms and cold weapons, baggage, baby carriage, foods and animals.





Surprisingly, there wasn’t a queue in the ticket office when we reached there. The ticket price is 150,000 Iranian rials.





The restaurants and shops area.



The spacious walkway leading towards the ancient site.



Map of Persepolis showing the location of important monuments of the site.



All visitors enters the site through the terrace stairway. This grand double-flight stairway on the northwest of the platform leads up to the terrace. Each flight has 111 steps, each 40cm deep, 10cm high and nearly 7cm wide.



The two flights were used by different group of royal guests: the gift bearing delegations from subject nations climb up from one flight, and the nobles of the empire used another flight. The short raise of steps was a deliberate device to allow guests to climb up with ease in their magnificent attire and with dignified movements while conversing with one another.



The parapets were decorated with carved niches symbolizing fire temples.



This palace on the northwest of the terrace was built by Xerxes who calls it in the inscription carved on its pillar, “the Gate of All Lands”.



The pillars of the western and eastern doorways are ornamented with the sculptured representations of “guardian bulls” which are in fact composite animals, each having the body of a bull, wings of an eagle and the crowned head of a bearded man.







Above each sculptured figures is engraved a cuneiform inscription in three versions: Old Persian, Elamite and Neo-Babylonian. In it Xerxes praise the Lord Ahuramazda for whatever good constructions that were built in Persepolis.



The “Army Street”.





This street is 92m long and nearly 10m wide, linking the Gate of All Lands and the Unfinished Gate and the north portice of the Hundred Column Hall. Here some fragments of unfinished works have been found.



On the left of “Army Street”, there are two eagle-griffin capitals which are mounted on short pillars. Originally they must have been intended for use of a structure, but it seems that they were rejected and left here unused at Persepolis.





This is the “Unfinished Gate” at the other end of “Army Street”.



The largest and the most complex building was the audience hall, or Apadana, marked by a large terrace, whose east side adjoined the Kh-Rhamat, while the other three sides were formed by a retaining wall.



Carvings on the monumental stairways of Apadana, representing a symbol in Zoroastrianism for Nawrooz.









Next to the Apadana is the the Hundred Column Hall or Throne Hall. This 70 x 70 square meter hall was started by Xerxes I and completed by his son, Artaxerxes by the end of 5th century BC.



This hall has eight stone doorways.



Reliefs of throne scenes on the north and south of the Throne Hall’s stone doorways.



Reliefs of scenes depicting the king in combat with monsters on the east and west of the Throne Hall’s stone doorways.



The Treasury of Persepolis was built on the south east of the terrace by Darius the Great and enlarged by Xerxes. It was one of the richest in the world, and Alexender reportedly used 3,000 camels and mules to carry off its contents, worth over 120,000 talents of silver.



The Queen’s Palace which is now used as Persepolis Archeology Museum.












Souvenirs are sold in the Persepolis complex. You can only get Persepolis souvenirs here or at Shiraz.



Located up on the hill is the tomb of Artaxerxes II.



View of Persepolis from the tomb.



A panoramic view of Persepolis.





Entry into the tomb however is not allowed.









This badly ruined palace on the south of terrace was built by Xerxes. It is called the “Hadish”. It was the private palace of Xerxes and traces of Alexandrian fire which devastated it can be seen everywhere.



Other palaces included the Tachara, which was built under Darius I.





It consisted of a square hall surrounded by a portico with 8 columns on the south, two rooms each with four columns on the north, and guard rooms on the other sides.



A double-flight stairway ornamented with figures of servants or priests carrying food and vessels and even live animals leads from south court up to the southern portico. Later Artaxerxes III constructed a small staircase on the western side of the palace and ornamented its facade with gift-bearing delegations.



Unfortunately in 330 BC, the site was burned, looted and destroyed by Alexander the Great.



Some of the enormous columns are still standing on the terrace today.





Time to leave Persepolis.



Even after 2,500 years, the ruins of Persepolis are still awe-inspiring. It’s one of the highlights in this trip. Don’t leave Iran without visiting Persepolis!