Persepolis (ancient city, Iran)

Persepolis, or Parsa, was an ancient Persian city in what is now Iran. Founded by the Persian peoples of the Achaemenid Empire in 518 BCE, Persepolis was captured by the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, leading to its plundering and destruction. Historians are not sure exactly what motivated Alexander to destroy the city's fabled grand palace, but it is known that prior to his arrival, Persepolis was a thriving metropolis and a great center of culture and learning. After Alexander's departure, few traces of its former glory remained.

Archeologists began a series of excavations at Persepolis in the 1930s and uncovered spectacular ruins that now rank among the world's most visited ancient sites. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the remains of the city to its list of World Heritage Sites in 1979.

Brief History

Construction of Parsa began in 518 BCE at the behest of King Darius I, ruler of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The city's name is sometimes written as Parseh or Parse, and its Greek iteration, Persepolis, translates as "city of the Persians." In Western culture, Persepolis is the most commonly used name of the ancient city.

During the rule of Darius I, Persepolis supplanted Pasargadae as the capital city of the Achaemenid Empire. Later Achaemenid Empire leaders, including Xerxes I and Artaxerxes III, are widely credited with bringing the city to the flourishing heights it reached at the summit of its golden age.

Filled with grand palaces and impressive buildings constructed mainly from limestone, Persepolis matured into one of the greatest cities in the history of antiquity. It became the Achaemenid Empire's center of culture and learning, and was the home of its most prized works of art and literature. According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Persepolis was once the richest city in the known world, and its houses were brimming with precious treasures, including gold, silver, embroidered finery, pottery, and furniture. These riches were mercilessly plundered by Macedonian soldiers under the command of Alexander the Great, who conquered the city in 330 BCE and ordered its destruction.

Alexander's signature act was to burn the city's great royal palace, known as the Apadana, to the ground. His choice to do so has puzzled historians and scholars for centuries. The Macedonian conqueror was well known for his strong support of culture and learning, and the Apadana (and the vast riches it contained) became his property when his conquest was complete. Why he would choose to destroy these treasures rather than keep them for his empire is the subject of historical conjecture. Some believe it was an ill-advised act carried out on a drunken impulse, while others believe it served as symbolic retribution. Persian armies had burned Athens in 480 BCE during the prolonged Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BCE).

Although Persepolis continued to be sparsely populated after its Macedonian conquest, the once great city had suffered an immense blow from which it would never recover. It faded into obscurity until the fifteenth century, when European explorers began conducting surveys of the scattered ruins that remained.

Topic Today

In the 1930s, the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute conducted the first modern archeological excavations of the ruins of Persepolis, work that was later continued by André Godard on behalf of the Iranian Archeological Service. These archeological excavations focused on the city's main terrace, which was the historic home of the Apadana, the city's legendary treasury, and most of its other important buildings.

Over a period of decades, archeologists painstakingly uncovered the ruins of several major ancient monuments, including the remains of the Apadana and the treasury. When the Apadana was first uncovered, archeologists found as much as three feet of ash covering its floor, a testament to the vicious intensity of the blaze that destroyed it. Of the columns of the Apadana that were salvaged, many bear permanent, highly visible signs of fire damage.

The treasury, which was built between 511 BCE and 507 BCE, once contained an estimated three thousand metric tons of gold, silver, and other valuables that Alexander is believed to have used to help finance his continued campaign of conquest in the Middle East. Columns, flooring, doorways, and fenestrations of the original building were recovered, along with artifacts including signet rings, coins, vessels, sculptures, weapons, and tools.

Other prominent features of the excavated ruins include the Gate of All Nations and its Great Double Staircase. The Gate of All Nations, also known as the Gate of Xerxes, was a central entry point to the city's main terrace. It featured three massive doorways, one in each of the south, east, and west, which led into a central hall that directed visitors north into the Apadana. Its recovered remains include grand columns, sections of wall with preserved inscriptions and bas-relief carvings, and elaborate sculptures of animals and mythological beasts. The Great Double Staircase is a feature of the Gate of All Nations and was built from large limestone blocks as an access point to the Apadana palace. Experts have described the Great Double Staircase as possibly being the most perfectly formed structure of its kind ever built, owing to the mathematical precision of its layout and its flawless construction. Other points of interest in the excavated terrace of Persepolis include the Throne Hall, the Council Hall, the Royal Tombs and their accompanying monuments, the Palace of Darius, the Palace of Xerxes, and the many miscellaneous structures, cuneiform tablets, inscriptions, bas-relief carvings, artworks, and royal seals uncovered during the archeological recovery process.

The ruins of Persepolis are located approximately 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of the city of Shiraz, in what is now Iran. Its archeological remains are one of the most popular attractions in the country, which has seen a sharp rise in foreign tourism in recent years. Persepolis was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1979, and is one of nineteen such designated sites in Iran.

Bibliography

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