Persepolis - Persia's Pride by Devanshi Mody

Subsequently, it was re-christened Persepolis, owing to Greek influences, before acquiring its present name, Takht-e-Jamshid, "Throne of Jamshid," (after a mythical Persian King).

Darius the Great commenced construction of the magnificent palace complex around 518 B.C, but over a century elapsed before its completion. Persepolis, the grand ceremonial capital, was visualised as a show place and seat of Darius the Great’s vast Achaemenian Empire.

He proudly proclaimed his achievement in an excavated foundation inscription that reads, "And Ahuramazda was of such a mind, together with all the other gods, that this fortress (should) be built. And (so) I built it. And I built it secure and beautiful and adequate, just as I was intending to."

Alas, Persepolis’s security and splendour lasted but two centuries, perishing in flames when Alexander the Great ravaged and ransacked Persepolis in 330 B.C.

Yet, today’s charred ruins spark the imagination and rekindle the past. You relive Persepolis’s former glory as you enter overwhelmed through the monumental Xerxes’s Gate (the Gate of Nations), flanked by a pair of colossal bulls in the west and in the east by lamassus (Persian minotaur-like bull men).

Phoenix-like, Persepolis is re-created from ashes in the mind’s eye, as you wander through what was once the immense Apadana Palace, Darius’s Palace, Xerxes’s Palace, the Hall of a Hundred Columns, the Tripylion (debating) Hall, the Imperial Treasury, the Council Hall, the Royal Stables, the Chariot house...

Darius’s Palace was once adorned with statues covered in jewels and doors of gold, before Alexander struck. According to Plutarch, he carried away its treasures on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels laden with spoils worth 120,000 talons of silver.

From the time of its barbaric destruction until 1620 AD, when its site was first identified, Persepolis lay buried under its own ruins for two thousand years. The local population invented legends to explain the existence of the ruins of what was called Chehel Minar or '40 columns'. It wasn’t until the 1930s that systematic scientific excavation commenced.

Persepolis’s many constructions were erected on a 125,000 square meter artificial terrace accessed via the majestic double staircase of 111 steps known as the Great Persepolitan Stairway, designed to enable horsemen to ascend in ease and dignity. The buildings at Persepolis are divided into three areas: military quarters, the treasury and the reception and occasional houses for the King of Kings.

Darius the Great built the grandest and most glorious palace at Persepolis, the Apadana, used for the King of Kings' official audiences. The immense audience hall, which could hold thousands of guests, was a structure with seventy-two Taurus-topped columns, thirteen of which still stand. The main characteristic of Persepolitan architecture are its columns, originally wooden but replaced with stone when the largest cedars of Lebanon and teaks of India could not satisfy the required mammoth sizes.

The columns, each 25m high, carried the weight of the vast and heavy ceiling. The tops of the columns were made from animal sculptures such as two headed bulls, lions, eagles and hybrid winged Persian men.

Although Darius the Great initiated the construction of Persepolis, the sprawling palace complex was mostly the work of Xerxes, who proclaims in an inscription: “When my father Darius went away from the throne, I became king on his throne by the grace of Ahuramazda. After I became king, I finished what had been done by my father, and I added other works.”

Indeed, Xerxes' Palace (in Persian called Hadi or Dwelling Place) which occupies the highest level of the terrace and stands on bare rock was twice as large as Darius’ Palace (Tachara or Winter Palace), which, incidentally, Darius didn’t live to see finished.

Xerxes also constructed the "Harem” (or women’s quarters) around a spacious courtyard whilst his son Artexerxes. I completed the Throne Hall, known as the Hall of Hundred Columns (Persepolis' second largest building), whose eight stone doorways are decorated with reliefs of throne scenes and depictions of the king vanquishing monsters.

Forget monsters, the Persian kings certainly conquered nations. Indeed, the immense wealth of the Persian Empire was such that the treasury sufficed not, especially during the period of Xerxes' successful wars, to house the booty of the conquered states. In 467 BC the Treasury, which according to Fortification tablets employed no less than 1348 people (many to keep the gold and silver shining), was repeatedly enlarged.

Added to the spoils of war were the annual tributes sent by the king's loyal subjects for the Persian New Year. The bas-reliefs of the procession of delegations from subject countries bearing gifts (including the famous lioness and cubs) to their ruler explain why so many storerooms were constructed to house all these offerings. So much so that finally even the Throne Hall became a storeroom...

The backdrop to the palace complex comprises three sepulchres hewn out of the rock in the hillside. Their richly decorated façade resemble the wonderfully carved and unique Zoroastrian tombs, embellished with Sassanian reliefs of the great Persian Emperors at the nearby Naqsh-e-Rostam, "Valley of Kings."

Silence reins over this rock-hewn necropolis of Achaemenian Sovereigns. Amidst the remote, gaunt beauty of the mountains of the immense landscape, Darius the Great, Xerxex, Artaxerxes I and Darius II slumber in their rock beds cut high up in a perpendicular rock, cracked and wrinkled by the wind.

Persian kings might have had their own tombs constructed in grand style so that their remains could be “brought back to the Persians,” but they seem to have been convinced of their own immortality as well as that of their empire.

Indeed, Darius ordered his name and his empire details to be engraved on gold and silver plates encased in stone boxes placed in the foundations at the four corners of the palace. Xerxes' name was written in three languages and carved on the entrances, informing everyone that he ordered the structure to be built.

Moreover, King Xerxes left a 'letter to posterity' in the Harem room, a long but stereotypical text, known as the "Harem” inscription, which can be seen in the Persepolis museum on site. One cannot help being more fascinated by the sheer megalomania of this inscription than by the beauty of the museum’s bas-reliefs, uniquely painted and crafted sculptures, ornaments and earthenware, which give an insight into hearts and beliefs of the ancient Persians.

Above the lamassus on Xerxes’s Gate is the inscription: “A great God is Ahuramazda, (…), who made Xerxes king, one king of many, one lord of many. I am Xerxes, the Great King, King of Kings, (…). By the favour of Ahuramazda I built this Gateway of All Nations. I built many other beautiful things in Persia. I built them and my father built them. (…) May Ahuramazda protect me from harm, and this land, and whatever was built by me as well as what has been built by may father.”

This prayer did not deter Alexander the Great, who declared that no city was more mischievous to the Greeks than the seat of the ancient kings of Persia. By its destruction the Greeks thus sought to offer sacrifice to the spirits of their forefathers.

The Macedonians invaded Persepolis, butchering and plundering remorselessly. Initially, the commoners’ houses (very sumptuous abodes) were destroyed, but the palaces were spared.

Following this momentous conquest of the great Persian Empire, Alexander held games in honour of his victories, performing extravagant sacrifices to the gods and entertaining his friends bountifully. Legend has it that during the wild feasting, the courtesan Thais incited the inebriated Alexander to set aflame the palaces of Persepolis and extinguish the famed accomplishments of the Persians to avenge the destruction of Athens in 480 BC.

This was deemed a deed worthy of Alexander alone, inspiring a victory procession “epinikion komon” in honour of Dionysius. Amidst music and debauch revelry, Thais is said to have lead the performance and was the first, after the king, to hurl her blazing torch into the palace, constructed mostly of wood.

An all-consuming conflagration resulted.

When Alexander’s army saw the fire, thinking it accidental, they rushed to bear aid. But when they came to the vestibule of the palace, they saw the king himself piling on firebrands, so they contributed gleefully to the great bonfire.

Thus, the desecration of the Greek temples, this “impious” act of Xerxes against the Acropolis at Athens, was avenged in sport. It is little wonder that the Palace of Xerxes received special treatment – it was the most brutally destroyed.

Such was the end of the capital of the Orient, which, according to ancient scholars, was the richest and most luxurious city under the sun.

When Alexander the Not-So-Great returned several years later and saw the ruins, he regretted his act. The Macedonians, it is said, were ashamed that so renowned a city had been destroyed by their king in a drunken revel. However, they persuaded themselves that this was the correct thing to do.

As for Thais, the woman allegedly responsible for burning down the glorious Persian capital, well, after Alexander's death, she was married to Ptolemy, the first king of Egypt…