Ancient Persia Art & Architecture
Persian Arts has a very ancient history and tradition. It's attracted not only in Asia and Europe but also around the Globe.

Persian Arts spread in different fields like Architecture, Calligraphy, Carpets, Cinema, Music, Painting and Different types of Crafts. In Iran, as in all Islamic societies, art favors the non-representational, the derivative and the stylized rather than the figurative, the innovative and the true-to-life. Accurate representation of the human form has never been a part of traditional Islamic art, and though portraiture is not forbidden by Shiite Islam, it never really caught on in Iran until the introduction of the camera.

Many Iranian art forms predate the Arab conquest, but since nearly all of them reached their peak within the Islamic era, religious influences are rarely completely absent. Favorite motifs in Iranian art are geometrical shapes such as medallions and meanders; grapevines and other floral patterns, often very complex; and highly stylized real or imaginary creatures such as lions, elephants, peacocks, phoenixes and griffins. Human figures do turn up, but they tend to be very formalized. Calligraphy is highly prized in Iran and often merges into pictorial art, though modern examples are works of art in their own right.

Source taken from http://www.iranhouseindia.com/


Palace, Buildings and Structures
Darius I built the great terrace in Persepolis, on which all the buildings are situated, and the main royal audience hall, the Apadana, its largest building, as well as many of the subsidiary halls and apartments. He planned a series of complex of palaces not only as the seat of government but also, and primarily, as a show place and a spectacular center for the receptions and festivals of the Achaemenian kings and their empire. Darius lived long enough to see only a small part of his plans executed. His brilliant and grandiose ideas were taken up and followed by his son and successor Xerxes I.

In the northern part of the Terrace, consisting mainly of the Audience Hall of the Apadana, the Throne Hall, and the Gate of Xerxes, represented the official section of the Persepolis complex, accessible to a restricted public. The other part held the Palaces of Darius and Xerxes, and such.
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Persian Coins
Image courtesy of http://www.seleukids.org





The Persian Language
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The Silk Road
When The Silk Road was at the height of its glory, the Persians acted as middlemen in the trade of the brilliant fabric, buying it from those who brought it from the East and, with a suitable mark-up, selling it on to the West. Consequently, the land which later became Iran was a vital link in the long commercial chain which was The Silk Road. The main route and the feeder routes criss-crossed the country.



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