Ancient Persia: Notable Places (inc. Buildings, Trade Routes, etc.)

Pasargadae (All Facts)

• Capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire by the reign of King Cyrus the Great around 546 BCE

Persepolis (All Facts)

• Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire by the reign of King Darius the Great in 516 BCE who had moved the capital of the empire to it

• Was considered the wealthiest and most magnificent city in the known, surpassing even Babylon

• Featured there were New Year celebrations, which coincided with the spring equinox, and lasted for 11 days

  • There were parades of unparalleled magnificence, with delegations from all the known world arriving to pay tribute to the Persian Empire

• Epitomized the grandeur of the greatest empire the world had seen up to that point (which by its construction stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Nile and from India to the Aegean)

• The greatness of Persia is displayed in the monumental architecture that was present here

• Its terrace was three times the size of Susa’s, reached by twin returning staircases of 111 steps and surmounted by the immense Gate of Xerxes, with colossal cherubim and Assyrian-type monsters

Susa (All Facts)

• Administrative capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, it was significantly developed and rebuilt by the reign of Darius the Great

  • It was initially destroyed by Ashurbanipal and the Assyrians in 640 BCE

• Commercial center of the Achaemenid Persian Empire by the rule of Darius the Great

• The greatness of Persia is displayed in the monumental architecture that was present here

Sardis (All Facts)

Palace at Persepolis (All Facts)

• Palace of King Darius the Great of Persia

  • Built on the north side of Susa

• Ceremonial life in this place revolved around the two great audience halls

• Exemplified Darius’s continuing of Greek tradition with its great columnar halls flanked by colonnaded porticoes

• This palace was distinguished by its Egyptian cavetto moldings as well as the Egyptian-looking carved frontages of Darius’s cruciform tomb in a huge cliff nearby

• Featured rectangular rooms arranged around several courtyards

• Due to stone having been in short supply, the mud walls of this palace were decorated with enameled bricks that depicted bulls, griffins, and the “Immortals” (Darius’s personal bodyguard)

• The labor and materials provided for it were sourced by 27 different peoples

Apadana (All Facts)

• Place in the palace of Persepolis where

  • ceremonial life revolved around, it was one of the palace’s two great audience halls

  • the king

    • received his dignitaries and the annual tributes of his subject peoples

    • gave an annual banquet for the people of Persia and Medea

• It is reached by flights of steps with friezes depicting tribute-beaters including the Medes, Susians, Arabs, Armenians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Scythians, Indians, Libyans, Ethiopians, and Ionians

• The variant of this in Susa was surrounded by a triple row of columns of black and white stones in which each column was 65 feet high, with a pair of bulls at the top supporting the roof beams

Hall of 100 Columns (All Facts)

• Place in the palace of Persepolis where

  • ceremonial life revolved around, it was one of the palace’s two great audience halls

• Was used for receiving the peoples of the Empire

Palace at Pasargadae (All Facts)

• Palace of King Cyrus the Great of Persia

The Royal Road (All Facts)

• Constructed under the reign of Darius the Great, this ancient inter-satrapy highway system connected Susa to Sardis and was 1500 miles long

• Was used not only for the king’s messengers and troops, but also for commercial purposes in which it linked the economies of the Near East with those of the Aegean Sea