Livius Picture Archive: Pasargadae

home : index : picture archive : Iran : Pasargadae : photos by Marco Prins ; text Jona Lendering ©
	Pasargadae (2)
	Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius. The first page with pictures can be found here.
	At the northern end of the site is the citadel, called Tall-i Takht, "throne hill". It may be older than Pasargadae itself. The impressive western wall, made of beautifully carved regular stones, dates back at least to the reign of Cyrus the Great. It is just as old, and not unlike, Masjid-e Solaiman.
	A detail of the regular masonry. Here you can see the monument on a satellite photo.
	The northern wall on a winter day. One gets a sense of the enormous dimensions by comparing the wall to the man who is trying to climb down.

	The *zendan, a Zoroastrian shrine, also known as "prison of Solomon". An identical monument has been found at Naqš-i Rustam (the Ka'bah-i Zardusht), and the function of the two buildings must be identical. It is often said that they were used to keep the holy fire, but the absence of a chimney at Naqš-i Rustam does not support this interpretation. An alternative is that in these buildings books (e.g., the Avesta*) were stored, but many scholars think that in the Achaemenid age, the sacred texts were learned by heart. A recent theory is that these buildings played a role in the cult for dead kings. Here you can see it on a satellite photo. Between the tomb, the citadel, and the zendan, Cyrus built his palace.

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Pasargadae (2)