Dario I the Great, father of Xerxes, began the construction of his capital, Persepolis, around 512 BC. and remained standing for almost 200 years, until Alexander the Great ended the Persian Empire. Join us to know Persepolis and discover 10 Curiosities of the city that destroyed Alexander the Great.
Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire
Alexander the Great regretted having destroyed it and judging from the ruins it must have been an impressive city.
10 Curiosities of Persepolis
1. For a long time it was believed that Persepolis It was not a common city, but a "ritual" city that only had an annual occupation, in the spring, when the nations and peoples under Achaemenian power came to offer their tributes to the king during the Persian New Year. However, later discoveries allow us to affirm that Persepolis it was permanently inhabited and served as the administrative and political center of the Persian Empire.
2. Persepolis is the name that the Greek enemies gave to the capital city of the Persian Empire, its real name was "Parsa" which means "the Citadel of Peace". In present-day Iran it is called "Tajt-e Yamshid" "the throne of Yamshid," a mythical ruler of Iran who according to legend reigned for more than 300 years and gave his people multiple insights.
3. When Dario I decided to build his capital in Persepolis There already existed a city in the place as attested by the found tablets that speak of constructions made by Ciro and Cambises, former Persian kings. At the death of Darío, both Xerxes as his successors continued with the construction of the city. Xerxes added, for example, the "Door of all Nations."
4. One fact that differentiates this city from the great monumental works of Greece is that it was not built by slaves as was the case in Greece . The workers, artisans and builders who took part in the construction were free men from all parts of the Persian Empire: Ionia, Babylon, Egypt, etc. This diversity of origins is reflected in the different styles of the constructions of Persepolis .
5. Persepolis It was a palatial city in which temples and majestic buildings abounded, but in which also lived a large number of people without public office who lived houses of today hardly any vestiges remain. The city was built on an artificial terrace at the foot of a hill called Kuh-e-Ramat and had a triple wall to protect it. In addition, many buildings were "guarded" by the "lammasus", mythological divinities that had the human face, but the body of a winged bull.
6. The so-called "Door of all Nations" still retains a pair of lammasus or winged bulls. It was built by Xerxes in the year is 475 a.C. and it measures 5'5 m. Tall.
7. Other of the most important constructions of which some remains are preserved in the place are the Apadana or hypostyle hall, the Palace of the One Hundred Columns, Hadish or Palace of Xerxes and the Tachara or Dario's Palace. In the latter you can see the remains of the real bathroom. In him some reliefs in which a eunuco is seen, since it does not take beard, with a napkin and a bottle with ointment. A channel that passed through the center of the room ensured that there was constant water.
8. Alexander the Great took the city in 331 a.C. But it was not burned until May 330. According to legend, Tais, who would later become Ptolemy's wife, insisted to Alexander that the palace of Xerxes should be burned in revenge for the looting and destruction it caused in Athens. Alejandro, who was drunk, picked up a torch and threw it at the palace. The second torch was thrown by Tais herself.
Historians of the time left written that Alejandro repented of the destruction of the city. However, the decision was meditated and he intended with that act to put an end to the Persian Empire. After the taking and burning of Persepolis , symbol of the Achaemenian power, and with the death of the last emperor of his dynasty, Darius III, the First Persian Empire disappears forever.
9. Since the fourteenth century there are European documents that mention the ruins of Persepolis and from the 19th century onwards archaeological works were carried out and a part of its most sumptuous construction was discovered: "The Palace of the one hundred columns". After the Iranian revolution the remains of Persepolis they were about to disappear under the bulldozers sent by the Islamic regime of the ayatollahs. They considered that it was a pre-Islamic cultural remnant and that it had been used by the monarchy of the deposed Sha for their festivities. The inhabitants of Shiraz, with the help of the governor of the province of Fars, managed to save the site by preventing bulldozers from entering the site.
10. The ruins of Persepolis can be visited and are about 70 km away. from the city of Shiraz in Iran.
Did you know the existence of Persepolis ? Would you like to visit a place that holds so much history?
Images: Diego Delso , Nikopol , map