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Persepolis: Palace of Darius
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 palace of king Darius I the Great in Persepolis (#3 on the map) was, according to the inscription known as DPa, built by Darius, but he did not live to see it finished. It was completed after his death in 486 by his son and successor Xerxes, who called the house a Taçara, "winter palace", in Antiquity. Its ruins are immediately south of the Apadana.
Photo Mahin Bahrami (©*)
This is one of the original entrances, to the north. You can see how the king enters the building. Two servants attend him with a fan. This type of decoration can also be found in the Palace of Xerxes.

Compared to that building, the Apadana and the Treasury, the winter palace is well-preserved. A likely explanation is that it was spared when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great destroyed Persepolis in 330. His men were especially interested in the palace of the man who had once sacked Athens, and in the two two buildings that symbolized the Persian redistribution economy. Darius was, in European eyes, not a criminal.
The central room of the palace of Darius, which you can see here from outer space.
The original main entrance, with a large double staircase leading to the terrace, seen from the south.
One of the building inscriptions, known as DPa. It says: "Darius, the great king, king of kings, king of countries, Hystaspes' son, an Achaemenid, built this palace".
The same southern entrance, seen from the southeast. Between the two large pillars were columns. Above the windows was a Persian inscription; on its sides were translations into Elamite and Babylonian. The Persian text runs as follows:

ardastâna \ athagaina \ Dârayavauš \ xšhyâ \ vithiyâ \ karta

"A stone window frame from the house of king Darius"
This is what the southern façade must have looked like. The tomb of Darius at Naqš-i Rustam has the same width as the southern entrance of his palace. This picture, incidentally, shows a copy of the copy, viz. the tomb of Xerxes, also at Naqš-i Rustam.
The stairs were decorated with these figures: people bringing tribute. This theme is also shown on the stairs of the Apadana. There was no big difference in the decoration of the private and official rooms at Persepolis.
The southern façade of the palace. The king is shown in one of the doors, at the moment he is leaving the room. An attendant carries a parasol.
One of the two pillars in front of the southern façade. It must have carried the roof of the southern entrance hall. Both pillars have the same inscription, which was later added by Xerxes and is known as XPc.
A door-knob made of lapis lazuli that was once in the winter palace. It is now in the Archaeological museum of Tehran. The inscription, known as DPi, says:
mayuxa \ kâsakaina \ Dârayavauš \ xšhyâ \ vithiyâ \ karta
"Door-knob of precious stone, made in the palace of king Darius".
Another part of the decoration: a sphinx. It is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Tehran.
In the third quarter of the fourth century, more than a century after the palace had been completed, Artaxerxes III Ochus added a western gate with a staircase, an added an inscription that is known as A3Pa.

The remarkable cavetto element that crowns the door is an Egyptian influence.
The western gate of the palace, showing the king fighting against a winged bull. This type of representation is called "the royal warrior".
A drawing of this palace by the Dutch artist Cornelis de Bruijn. He visited Persepolis in the winter of 1704/1705 and returned to Europe with the first reliable scholarly drawings of the capital of the ancient city.
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