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Persepolis - Gate of All Nations
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 construction of the Stairs of All Nations and the Gate of All Nations, here seen from the west, were ordered by king Xerxes (486-465), the successor of the founder of Persepolis, Darius I the Great. Originally, the main access was in the south; now, one had to ascend to the terrace from the west. Here you can see it on a satellite photo.
Like Gate R in Pasargadae, the entrance of the Gate of All Nations was protected by bulls (front) and these mythological creatures, called lamassu's, bulls with the head of a bearded man. These bull-men originated in Babylonia and Assyria, but the Persians adopted them. The general idea behind them is that they warded off evil. This picture is from the east.
The Gate of all nations at Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins. The entire monument, seen from the southeast. It was an enormous construction (24¾ meters long) with two large doors in the west and east (extreme left, and right) and a hall between them. A third gate was to the south. From here, one could walk to the Apadana.
In the mid-fourth century, the main exit was no longer to the Apadana but to the Hall of hundred columns; when the palaces were sacked by Alexander the Great, Persian artisans were building the Army road that was to connect these two buildings.

This picture shows one of the impressive lamassu's.
The columns of the central halls, 16½ meters high. The capitals had the form of a double bull.
Signature of Cornelis de Bruijn at the Gate of all nations, Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins.
The first westerner to visit Persepolis and make scientific drawings was Cornelis de Bruijn in the winter of 1704. He inscribed his name in the Gate. Later travelers did the same, but not all of them had the energy to work a day or two. At the beginning of the twentieth century, another Dutchman, Maurits Wagenvoort, left a careless graffito and made a photo to prove that he had traveled in the footsteps of De Bruijn. His name is hardly recognizable (left), so he "improved" the photo when he published his account (right).
The signature of another well-known traveler: the American journalist Henry M. Stanely, who visited Persepolis in 1870. The next year, he was to become world famous when he found the British explorator David Livingstone in Ujiji (Tanzania).
Inscription XPa on the Gate of all Nations, Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins. The ancient inscription in the gate, which is known as XPa. The crucial line is:
This Gate of All Nations I [=Xerxes] built. Much else that is beautiful was built in this Persepolis, which I built and my father built. Whatever has been built and seems beautiful - all that we built by the favor of Ahuramazda.
Persepolis with the Gate and Stairs of all Nations and the Palace of Darius. Drawing by Cornelis de Bruijn (1704/1705; published 1711).
Persepolis with the Gate and Stairs of All Nations and the Palace of Darius. Drawing by Cornelis de Bruijn (1704/1705; published 1711).
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