Persepolis
Persia: Empire and AfterwardsA Capital That Was Not a Capital
Darius began building Persepolis around 518 BC on a vast stone terrace at the foot of a mountain in Fars. It was never the empire's administrative centre — that was Susa, and the court moved between several cities with the seasons. Persepolis was built for ceremony. Its purpose was to be seen.
The Apadana
The great audience hall stood on the terrace, its roof carried on columns over nineteen metres tall — extraordinarily slender for their height, fluted, and topped by capitals carved as paired bulls or lions kneeling back to back. Nothing in Greek or Egyptian architecture looks like them. Colossal winged, human-headed bulls guarded the gateways.
The Stairway
The reliefs lining the apadana stairway are the most eloquent thing the Achaemenids left. Delegation after delegation climbs towards the king, each bringing tribute: Ionians with cloth, Bactrians with camels, Nubians with ivory and an okapi, Armenians with a horse, Indians with gold dust. Around twenty-three peoples are shown. Every figure is carved in its own dress, its own beard, its own headgear.
What the Carvings Argue
No one is in chains. Nobody kneels in the dust. The delegates are led forward by Persian ushers holding their hands, and each is unmistakably himself. That is a deliberate political statement in stone: the empire's claim was not that it had erased these peoples but that it had gathered them. It is the same argument as the Cylinder, made in relief instead of clay.
The Colours You Cannot See
The reliefs today are bare pale stone. They were originally painted in strong colour and fitted with metal details — gold, and inlays of turquoise and lapis. Traces survive in protected corners. The building we admire for its austerity was designed to be dazzling.
Key Dates to Remember
- c. 518 BC — Darius begins the terrace at Persepolis
- c. 490 BC — The apadana is largely complete
- 5th c. BC — Xerxes and successors extend the site
- 330 BC — Alexander's army burns the complex
- 1930s — Systematic excavation begins