Ancient Persia

Image courtesy of Mark Drury's Achaemenid Persian

Persia was a land that included parts of what are now Iran and Afghanistan. The map above shows the Achaemenid Empire at its peak in 500BC. It was the center of an empire that stretched west to the central Mediterranean Sea, east to India, and from the Gulf of Oman in the southern Russia in the north. Persia is one of the world's most mountainous countries. Its mountains have helped to shape both the political and the economic history of the country for several centuries. The mountains enclose several broad basins, or plateaus, on which major agricultural and urban settlements are located. There are no major river systems in the country, and historically transportation was by means of caravans that followed routes traversing gaps and passes in the mountains. The mountains also impeded easy access to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.

The Royal Road - According to the Greek researcher Herodotus the royal road connected the capital of Lydia, Sardes, and the capitals of the Achaemenid empire, Susa and Persepolis.

Explore the Royal Road

Ecbatana was the capital of Media and was subsequently the summer residence of the Achaemenian kings and one of the residences of the Parthian kings. According to ancient Greek writers, the city was founded in about 678 BC by the semilegendary Deioces, who was the first king of the Medes.

The Greek historian Herodotus described the city in the 5th century BC as being surrounded by seven concentric walls. Ecbatana was captured from the Median ruler Astyages by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, and it was taken from the last Achaemenian ruler by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. The site of the ancient city lies partly within the modern city of Hamadan and has never been excavated.

Its ancient name was Parsa to ancient Persians, its modern name is Takht-e Jamshid, (Persian: Throne of Jamshid), to Iranians it was the capital of the Achaemenid kings of Iran (Persia).

Persepolis is situated 58 Kilometers from Shiraz. A large bare plain, surrounded by mauve cliffs with sharp edges. It is there, in the center of the Marv Dasht basin, that Cyrus the Great chose, toward the end of his reign, to build under the shelter of a fold in the mountains, a palace worthy of the Empire. It was named Parsa, but later under subsequent Greek influence became known as Persepolis, "The city of the Persians". The works started in 518 BC by Dariush I. The site consists of the remains of several monumental buildings on a vast stone terrace surrounded by a brick wall.

The splendor of Persepolis, however, lasted only two centuries. Its majestic audience halls and residential palaces perished in flames when Alexander the Great conquered and looted Persepolis not long before the death of the last of the Achaemenians, Dariush III, in 330 BC, and carried away its treasures on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels. The city gradually declined in the Seleucid period and after, its ruins attesting its ancient glory. In the 3rd century AD the nearby city of Estakhr became the centre of the Sasanian empire.

Prior to his death, Cyrus I founded a new capital city at Pasargade in Fars and had established a government for his Empire. Pasargadae covered an area almost 1.5 miles in length and included palaces, a temple and the tomb of the king of kings. The city was built on the site where king Cyrus defeated the leader of the Medes, Astyages, in 550 BC. Cyrus appointed a governor (satrap) to represent him in each province, however the administration, legistlation, and cultural activities of each province was the responsibility of the Satraps.

The heart of Pasargadae is the citadel, which is known as Tall-i-Takht or 'throne hill'. It overlooks a garden in the south, and the palace complex itself. This consists of two smaller units: the residential palace and the many columned audience hall. The audience hall or Apadana can be approached from the south-east; the visitor first has to pass a gate and then has to cross a bridge over the river Pulvâr.

The small tomb of King Cyrus is situated a little to the southwest. It was venerated by later rulers, the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, who ordered restorations in January 324 BC. The tomb of Cyrus' successor Cambyses was never finished.

Even though King Darius built a new capital, Persepolis, 43 kilometers downstream along the river Pulvar, Pasargadae remained an important place, probably as the religious capital of the Achaemenid empire where the inauguration of the kings took place.

The Tomb of Cyrus at Pasargade
The tomb of Cyrus, was discovered in 1951 at the ruins of Pasargadae (south-central Iran). Over 2500 years old, the tomb is in decent condition, made of white limestone and stands a total of 36 feet high. The tomb itself is 18 feet high resting on a 6 level base, also 18 feet high. It was built like a Ziggurat with Ionian and Lydian features. There is a small entrance and double doors leading to a room with no windows which once contained the "golden sarcophagus" of Cyrus, it is now an empty shell. Five huge stones make up its roof, which was slanted (gabled) to shed heavy rains. These Nordic gables were the architectural style of lands far to the north. The inscription was seen and recorded by Plutarch in AD 90.
Image courtesy of http://www.pitt.edu/~megst20/persia.html

Sardis was the capital of Capital of Lydia until Cyrus the Great captured it in 546 BC thus ending the reign of the Lydian Empire. The Persians establish Sardis as it’s western anchor of the vast Persian Empire,and Cyrus begins construction on the Royal Road linking Sardis to Susa, the capital of Persia

Sardis

Susa was the capital of Elam and is one of the oldest cities in the world. The ruins of this city lies in the province of Khuzistan, in southwestern Iran. Susa flourished until about 640 BC, when the Assyrians plundered it. The city was rebuilt by the Darius the Great and he meade it one of the capitals of the Persian Empire. During the reign of Darius, many roads were constructed to serve Susa: the great Royal Road all the way west via the Tigris below Arbela and Harran to Sardis and Ephesus in Asia Minor, the road north through Lurestan to Hamadan; and a third east to the sacred city of Persepolis and Pasargadae, a part of stone-paved surface of which can be seen near Behbahan.

It was from Susa that Xerxes set out on his great expedition against Greece. Although he failed in his attempt to subjugate the whole of Greece, he succeeded in despoiling both Delphi and Athens, and he depositied their wealth in his treasury at Susa on his return there.

After the fall of the Achaemenid empire and the reign of Alexander the Great, Susa became part of the Seleucid empire. It was now called Seleucia on the Eulaeus. A palace in Greek style was erected, next to Darius' palace. The administrative center, however, was in the southern part of the city, where nearly all Greek and Parthian inscriptions were discovered. The city remained important until the thirteenth century.

Susa - Favourite residence of Darius the Great
Susa: the Eternal City of the East