Persepolis, Shiraz

Persepolis, Shiraz

Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid)

History of Persepolis:
The first capital of the first Persian Empire, Achaemenids, was Pasargadae, but around 512 BC King Darius I the Great undertook the construction of Persepolis, this massive palatial complex. later expanded by his son Xerxes I and his grandson Artaxerxes I. While the administrative capitals of the Achaemenid kings were Susa, Ecbatana and Babylon, the citadel of Persepolis maintained the function of ceremonial capital, where the New Year celebrations and other ceremonies were celebrated.

Built in a remote and mountainous region, Persepolis was the ceremonial royal residence, and was visited mainly in spring. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great, occupied and sacked Persepolis and set fire to the Palace of Xerxes, perhaps to symbolize the end of the war of revenge against the Persians.
In 316 BC, Persepolis was still the capital of Persis, a province of the new Macedonian empire. The city gradually declined during the Seleucid and later periods. In the 3rd century AD, the nearby city of Istakhr became the center of the Sassanid Empire.

Architecture of Persepolis:
Persepolis was built on a platform of natural rock, about 300 x 500 m, attached to a slope of the Küh-é Rahmat (Mount of Mercy), About 50 km northeast of the city of Shiraz, province of Fars (center of the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires), in southwest of Iran.

The other three sides of the quadrangular platform that serves as the base for Persepolis are composed of a retaining wall of cyclopean ashlars, varying in height because of the inclination of the hillside from 4 to 14 meters).
On the west side, a majestic double staircase with 111 steps gives access to the terrace, on which there are the ruins of several colossal buildings, arranged orthogonally. All the palaces and buildings are built by a kind of dark gray stone from the neighboring mountain, often polished to reach the marble texture. The ashlars, of great size and cut with the maximum precision, were placed without mortar, and many of them still remain in their situation.
The palaces incorporated architectural elements from various traditions like Mesopotamian, Greek and Egyptian. Most of the citadel of Persepolis was excavated by the Oriental Institute of Chicago in the 30s, and later by the Iranian Archaeological Service.

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Artistic style of Persepolis:
In the flourishing time of the Achaemenid architecture that took place in Persepolis, the influence of the traditional Elamite architecture is evident. The influence of Greek art is also perceptible in Persepolis, since Darius, returning from the war in the Aegean, took a large number of Greek artisans with him.
The Achaemenid Persian artistic leitmotif were stone carvings. These differ from those of Assyria, where the reliefs were used as interior decoration and had a narrative content. In Persepolis they became parts of the exterior decoration of the walls, which explains the occasional monotony of their processional themes. The flat and detailed bas-relief of the Assyrian engravings gave way to the subtle modeling of Persepolis, which recalled the work of the smiths.
The clothes suggested in the Greek way, the forms of the human body through the fabrics, and a more plastic treatment of the human and animal themes, all meant a break with the former prevailing Mesopotamian styles.

The Greek and Egyptian enrichments were added innovatively to the sculptural column heads, which were the Mesopotamian animal forms. The columns in Persepolis are fluted, with base in the form of an inverted bell.
The column heads combine Greek motifs (like hanging sepals and double volutes) with Egyptians (palm leaves), and are topped by zoomorphic imposts composed of two united animals: bulls, lions or griffins.

Main buildings of Persepolis

Gate of the Nations, or Darvaze Melal
It is a monumental portico, built by Xerxes I, where the great entrance staircase of Persepolis leads you, and under which one must invariably pass to access the citadel. It is flanked as guardians by pairs of colossal winged bulls, whose stylistic precedents are testified in Assyrian art. This portal, open on three sides, consists of a room measuring 22 m on one side, whose roof was supported by four stone columns.

Apadana or Audience Hall of Darius I
The immense columns are particularly noteworthy. They are 21 meters high and crowned with complex capitals in the shape of bulls. thirteen of them used in the Great Hall of Audiences of Darius I, known as Apadana, are still standing. This great square hypostyle hall of Persepolis, which is 75 meters on one side, and which supported a ceiling of cedar wood with an area of ​​3600 square meters, surpassed all the palaces built until that time in proportions, was finished by his son Xerxes. Ten thousand people could gather in this majestic hall.The fact that the roof was made of wood and not of stone allowed the columns to be so tall.
An inscription on the southern retaining wall records the famous sentence by Dario to his people: "May God protect this country from enemy, hunger and falsehood."

Stairways to access the Apadana in Persepolis
The access stairs to the Apadana and the Tripylon (triple gate) are literally covered in their external walls and in the inner part of their stone parapets by innumerable reliefs of Persian, Median and Elamite officers. Rows of parading soldiers represent the Ten Thousand Immortals, a Persian regiment of elite warriors.
In 23 scenes separated by cypress reliefs, delegations from the remote areas of the empire are described, which, led by a Persian or Median herald. They carry gifts to offer to the king, on the occasion of the national holiday of the spring equinox.
A sculptural motif that is repeated on the external walls of the stairs is the battle between a lion and a bull, symbolizing the Persians and the Assyrians.

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