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Persepolis

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.

Gate of all nations,
main entrance of the city.

Persepolis (Old Persian Pârsa, modern Takht-e Jamshid): Greek name of one of the capitals of the ancient Achaemenid empire, founded by king Darius the Great (522-486 BCE), forty-three kilometers downstream from the capital of Cyrus the Great, Pasargadae. It was destroyed in the spring of 330 by Alexander the Great. A satellite photo can be found here. Five building phases can be discerned (colors correspond with map):

Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine

Map op Persepolis. Design Jona Lendering.

First period: Darius I the Great (518-490)

Terrace (building inscription)
Apadana (map 1)

eastern stairs (faces of people)

Treasury (map 2)

Second period: Darius I / Xerxes (490-480)

Taçara, 'winter palace' (or Palace of Darius (map 3)
Xerxes' gate ("Gate of all nations"; map 4)
Stairway (map 5)
Apadana (map 1), northern stairs (relief)

Third period: Xerxes (480-470)

Hadiš (Palace of Xerxes) (map 6)

Harem (map 7)

Tripylon or Council Hall

"Palace D" (??)

Fourth period: Artaxerxes I

Fifth period: fourth century

Tomb of Artaxerxes II

Palace of Artaxerxes III ("Palace G")

Hall of thirty-two columns (map 9)

Tomb of Artaxerxes III (map 10)

Army road and Unfinished gate (map 11)

Unfinished tomb

Other

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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