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Persepolis - Apadana
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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 Apadana at Persepolis. Photo Marin Bahrami. The Apadana or Audience Hall of Persepolis (map 1), from the air. It belongs to the oldest building phase of Persepolis, the great design by king Darius I the Great (522-486). Here, the great king received the tribute from all the nations in the Achaemenid Empire, and gave presents in return. The gifts he received, were stored in the Treasury.
Photo Mahin Bahrami (©*)
Pharnaces paying honor ('proskynesis') to king Darius the Great. Relief from Persepolis. Archaeological museum of Tehran (Iran). Photo Marco Prins. The original relief of the northern stairs shows king Darius on his throne, crown prince Xerxes next to him, two incense burners, and an important official, probably Pharnaces. He salutes the king, and announces the arrival of the tribute carriers, who are also represented on the wall near the stairs. This relief is now in the Archaeological Museum of Tehran; more pictures can be found here.
 
Traces of fire on one of the columns of the Apadana, Persepolis. Photo Jona Lendering. The gift exchange mechanism was one of the central elements in the Persian royal ideology, and the Apadana was, therefore, one of the most important symbols of the great king's power. It is no coincidence that Alexander the Great, in 330, selected the Apadana and the Treasury to be destroyed, together with the Palace of Xerxes. This columns has several black burning traces. The roof of the Apadana had been made of precious kinds of wood. When the site was excavated, the archaeologists discovered a layer of 30 to 60 centimeters of burnt cedar, ebony, and teak wood.
The Apadana of Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins. The Hall, the largest and probably most beautiful of the buildings at Persepolis, could contain hundreds, probably thousands, of people at the same time. The seventy-two columns which supported the roof (6x6 inside the hall, the remainder in three porticoes) were twenty-five meters high.
Today, only thirteen columns are standing, but in the sixteenth century, there were forty. Back then, the ruin was called Tchilminar, "forty columns". In 1704, Cornelis de Bruijn, the first professional artist to visit the site and make drawings for scholars, saw that there were storks' nests on top of the columns.
And another view, from the southwest. Here you can see it on a satellite photo.
The moon rises over the columns of the Apadana. Photo Jona Lendering. The moon rises over the columns of the Apadana.
Capital of a column at the eastern entrance of the Apadana. Photo Marco Prins. On top of the columns were capitals, consisting of two heads of strong animals like bulls or lions. Between the two heads was the place where the wooden beams could rest. (An ancient representation of these capitals, cut in a rock, can be found here.) This aggressive lion, once part of the capital of a column in the eastern portico, still shows traces of red paint in the throat - although one needs excellent eyes to see them.
Another fierce creature: a statue of a dog, now in the Archaeological Museum of Tehran.
The four copies of DPh and their box. In the Apadana, a little box was discovered that contained two silver and two golden plates with an identical inscription, which is now known as DPh. They say that Ahuramazda gave Darius was a kingdom "from the Sacae who are beyond Sogdia to Kush, and from Sind to Lydia".
(Photo Chicago Oriental
Institute; ©!!!)
General view of the eastern Apadana stairs, Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins. There were two main entrances, in the north and in the east. These are the eastern stairs, beautifully decorated with representations of all nations in the Achaemenid Empire.
Guardsmen near the eastern entrance of the Apadana. Photo Marco Prins. When people came to pay tribute, perhaps during the Now Ruz (new year) festival, they saw on the stairs representations of themselves. At the entrance, on top of the stairs, were guardsmen, and they were represented too. They are soldiers, but are dressed like civilians. Their sticks indicate that they are officers.
Relief showing tribute bearers.
(Photo British Museum; ©!!!)
Part of the door of the Apadana. Photo Marco Prins. Part of the door of the Apadana - probably. Actually, it comes as a surprise that the entrance of the Apadana could be closed, because it is entirely without parallel. Usually, halls like these were open to all sides, an architectural form that has been common in Persia well into the Safavid age.
Chehel Sotun palace, Esfahan. Photo Jona Lendering As a comparison a Safavid palace (Chehel Sotun, Isfahan), to illustrate this point. The Apadana of Persepolis had a similar roof, although the columns were made of stone. In fact, this type of building has been erected in Iran for more than two millenniums. The oldest known example is at Pasargadae (see picture above) and dates to the third quarter of the sixth century BCE. Maybe excavations at Hamadan, ancient Ecbatana, an even older capital of Iran, will one day show an even earlier audience hall.
Remains of the Apadana. Photo Marco Prins. More remains of the Apadana: a lion's head and the base of a column.
XPg. National Archaeological Museum, Tehran (Iran). Photo Marco Prins. An Achaemenid Royal inscription from the Apadana, written on glazed bricks, known as XPg:
The great king Xerxes says: By the grace of Ahuramazda, much that had been ordered by king Darius, my father, was well. It was also by the grace of Ahuramazda that I completed these works and made it excellent. May Ahuramazda and the gods protect me and my kingdom!
  

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