In the middle of a desert in modern day Iran, there are some fascinating ruins.

Let’s find out how this amazing structure went from the centre of the Persian Empire to end up as just a couple of columns poking up out of the sand.

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire was pretty bloody big. By the 5th century BC, its believed that the Empire ruled over 44% of all humans alive at the time. The territory that called itself as part of the Achaemenid Empire stretched from the Balkan Peninsula in the west all the way over to the Indus River Valley in the east. The states that made up the Empire came from Central Asia and Afghanistan to Asia Minor, Egypt, Libya and Macedonia. The Persians did attempt to expand up into mainland Greece, but weren’t quite able to manage it.

With such a vast empire how were the Persian Kings able to control everything? Well they had a pretty simple way of doing it. They used regional administrators to control parts of the empire that were far away. And it was because of their massive empire, that regional centres were established and Persepolis, our destination for today, is one of these monumental centres.

Supposedly, Cyrus the Great was the one to come up with the idea of Persepolis. But it wasn’t until Darius I was in power that something was actually done about it and construction was started. It would take over a century for the great city to be finished. And as the seat of government for the Empire, it’s understandable that they would have taken their time to get things right.

The exact date of when everything started isn’t actually known, but it’s believed to have been between 518 and 516 BC.

Even though Persepolis was seen as the centre of the Persian Empire, its actually believed to have only been occupied seasonally and most commonly during the Persian New Year Festival.

Apart from being a summer house for the Emperor’s court, Persepolis started to become the safehold for the Empire’s greatest treasures, like literary works and works of art from conquered lands that were now a part of the Empire.

When organising the build of the city, Darius had been very specific in choosing the precise location. It had to be isolated enough for it to be insignificant to those outside of the Empire, but central enough so that members of the furthest corners of the Empire could reach the city in order to drop off their tribute.

Darius was so proud of his achievement of the start of Persepolis with what we now call the Palace of Darius, that he had an inscription added to the building. And we know this because the inscription was excavated, confirming that it was in fact Darius and not Cyrus the Great who got everything going.

And Ahuramazda was of such a mind, together with all the other gods, that this fortress (should) be built. And (so) I built it. And I built it secure and beautiful and adequate, just as I was intending to.

But before any of the buildings could go up, a fair amount of work had to go into levelling the ground and cutting into the mountain side to form the large platform that would be the base of the whole Palace.

Something that seemed to be very common in the architecture of Persepolis was the Persian Column. Originally it’s thought that all the columns were going to be wooden, but were changed to stone when they found that the largest Lebanon Cedars just weren’t tall enough to hack it with the big boys. And the stone they used, the grey limestone and natural rock, was used for pretty much all parts of the construction.

The first phase of the construction is believed to have been between 518 and 490. It was during this time that Darius had the workers level the ground and build a massive platform, about 450 x 300 metres, where the palace would stand. It was also during this time that a complex system of water tunnels were built to help with the all important water supply and drainage.

As we move past 490 and in through to 480, we’re looking at the second building phase, which saw Darius start to see some of the first structures go up. It was during this phase though that Darius died, leaving his son, Xerxes, as Emperor of the Achaemenid Empire.

And so it fell to Xerxes to continue the work started by his father. Another excavated inscription shows how Xerxes felt it was his duty to continue his father’s work:

When my father Darius went (away from) the throne, I by the grace of Ahuramazda became king on my father’s throne. After I became king … what had been done by my father, that I also (did), and other works I added.

And that is exactly what Xerxes did, throughout 480 and 470 he even went a step further and built his own palace, conveniently known as the Palace of Xerxes, and in order to make the place his own its actually the biggest Palace in the whole of Persepolis. He even added some epic gates that go by the Gate of All Nations, that were protected by two massive statues on either side called Lamassu and were bull-men hybrid protectors, tasked with keeping evil out. Obviously that didn’t exactly work out, but we’ll go into that a little later on.

Xerxes had such as passion for Persepolis, that it’s believed that most of the construction work happened under Xerxes’ reign.

Above his Gate of All Nations Xerxes even had inscribed:

I am Xerxes, the Great King, King of Kings, King of countries containing many kinds (of men), King in this great earth far and wide, son of King Darius, the Achaemenian. Proclaims Xerxes the King: By the favour of Ahuramazda I built this Gateway of All Nations. I built many other beautiful things in Persia. I built them and my father built them. All beautiful things we built, we have built by the favour of Ahuramazda. Proclaims Xerxes the King: May Ahuramazda protect me from harm, and this land, and whatever was built by me as well as what has been built by my father.

This inscription kind of reads like an ancient Donald Trump, except that Xerxes was 100 times more successful at staying in power than Trump and we can give Xerxes the benefit of the doubt by saying that probably a lot is lost in translation.

As the fourth phase of construction rolled around, we see Xerxes replaced with his son Artaxerxes I. Now Artaxerxes also built his own Palace within Persepolis and also added in the Hall of Hundred Columns. This Hall was pretty big, and once it was completed in 450 BC, we actually don’t see any building activity for almost a century.

When Artaxerxes III came to power, he decided that despite potentially being one of the last emperors to rule the Achaemenid Empire he needed to add his own mark to Persepolis. But because he couldn’t quite do as well as the original Artaxerxes, Junior Junior decided to settle for a Hall of Thirty-Two Columns.

Now there may have been a couple extra things added on when Artaxerxes III’s successors, Artaxerxes IV and Darius III were in power, but there didn’t really seem to be a whole lot going on construction wise when Alexander the Great turned up in 330 BC. Although Diodorus, the ancient Greek historian, does say this about Persepolis:

[Persepolis] was the richest city under the sun and the private houses had been furnished with every sort of wealth over the years.

So at least we know that Persepolis was loaded with treasure. And at the end of the day, we all know that’s all that really matters.

 The Palace

In history it’s commonly acknowledged that the winners of the war get to write down what happened, and that’s exactly the case when it comes to the name of Persepolis. The Palace was known to the people of Persia as Parma or ‘The City of the Persians’, but the reason we know it as Persepolis was because that was what the Greeks knew it by. ‘The City of the Persians’ is Persepolis in Greek. And since it was Alexander the Great, the Macedonian King who captured Persepolis, and because Macedonian’s spoke ancient Greek, we, the people of the future, also call the place Persepolis.

The ruins is all we see of Persepolis today, and they are located at the foot of the Kuh-e Rahmat, or the ‘Mountain of Mercy. And that’s about 850 km south of present-day Tehran. The whole area is known as Marv Dasht Plain, and can be found northwest of modern-day Shiraz, in Iran. And yes, it is related to the wine of the same name, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. I’ll link to a very interesting article in the show notes if you want to learn more about it.

So the massive platform that Darius had laid down is pretty bloody big at 125 000 square metres and is 20 metres tall that you would need massive staircases to access. On this you’ll find his palace, reception hall, the Apadana and a 60 metre long hall with 79 columns 19 metres high. We’ll get into the specifics of the different parts of the palace in a moment, but can you see why those poor Lebanon Cedars just weren’t tall enough? 19 metres, good grief. Although the columns weren’t just some stone blocks stacked on top of each other, the columns were topped with sculptures of animals that would symbolise the power and authority of the King and his empire.

The whole Palace had about nine important structures. These were the Apadana Palace, the Council Hall, the Treasury, the Throne Hall, the Palace of Xerxes, the Harem of Xerxes, because what’s a palace without a harem, the Palace of Darius, the Gate of All Nations and the Tomb of the Kings. Plus we can’t forget about some of the smaller buildings, which possibly included a marketplace, the Palace of Artaxerxes I and probably residential buildings. But because the Palace was destroyed, we don’t know terribly much about these parts.

What looks to have once been the most magnificent building in the Palace is the Apadana, this was one of the first buildings constructed by Darius and then was finished off by Xerxes and is believed to have been used for royal receptions.

The columns that we see sticking out of the sand today are 13 of the 72 columns that once held up the roof to this great structure. And the massive stairways that led up to the Apadana still have their intricate reliefs showing. Allowing us to see what is believed to be a New Year’s festival procession of representations from the 23 nations that made up the Achaemenid Empire. If you look closely you might also see court notables, soldiers, guards, horses and royal chariots.

Even though it might look as if the same thing is just being repeated again and again, by stepping a little closer we can actually see that each section has distinctive features in the garments, hair styles and beards. Each representative of the fashion of that particular nation. And the detail is so spot on that archaeologists and historians have actually been able to identify where the people in the relief were from.

We’ve already touched on the stairs, but these were built symmetrically, with quite a shallow and wide step. Supposedly this was so the nobles and royal family could ride their horse up them and wouldn’t have to walk up them themselves like the average peasant.

Next door to the Apadana you’ll find the Throne Hall, also called the ‘Hundred-Column Hall’. It really is bloody big with eight doorways that are decorated with scenes of kings sitting on the thrones and kings fighting monsters, because what else do you do when you’re the king but sit on your throne and fight monsters?

When Xerxes was around, the Throne Hall’s primary function was for receptions of the nations representatives. But later on when the Treasury started to overflow. Some of that overflow found its way to the Throne Hall, and as often does, the Throne Hall started storing the spoils of a rich Empire.

Schmidt, one of the excavators of Persepolis that we’ll meet in a moment, actually draws an interesting parallel to the modern world and the present Iranian royal family’s exhibits of royal treasures.

Next to the Throne Hall we find the Treasury, which as we already know held all the Empire’s treasures. But this Treasury was also used as a Court of Reception while the Throne Hall was being built and fortification tablets found at the site tell us that in 467 BC there were at a minimum 1348 people working at the treasury, so that should give you some idea as to how big the treasury is and how much treasure must have been stored in the Treasury for it to spill out into the next room.

The Palace of Darius, was obviously Darius’ private quarters. Twelve columns are believed to have supported the roof with reliefs depicting animals carrying food to the king and again Darius fighting off monsters, because why not.

The Palace of Xerxes is twice as big as Darius’ palace, but the reliefs in both are similar. Except that instead of Xerxes fighting monsters, he’s depicted standing around with animals. But because this palace, spoiler, took the brunt of the destruction, it’s far less well preserved than that of Darius’ Palace.

The Council Hall allowed access to the royal apartments through three entrances. Two were for official purposes as they led to the Apadana and the Throne Hall, and the third was for the Harem. This hall is also called the Tripylon Hall, with Tripylon meaning ‘Triple Gates’.

Found 12 km to the northwest, are three tombs. These tombs have been build out of the rock and are believed to be the resting place of Darius I, Xerxes and Artaxerxes.

Alexander the Destroyer

So back in 480 BC, while the construction of Persepolis was going on at home, Xerxes had decided to invade Greece. He was pretty successful because after defeating the Greeks at the Battles of Salamis, Platea and Thermopylae, he managed to get all the way to Athens and literally burn the Parthenon down.

This invasion was not easily forgotten by the Greeks and is believed to be pretty much the sole reason why Alexander destroyed Persepolis.

Because of Darius’ excellent location choice, the city’s existence was pretty much unknown outside of the Persian Empire, meaning that it was super safe to store all the loot and treasure the Empire had accumulated over the centuries. And this ignorance around the existence of the city was true until Alexander the Great wandered past and brought the city to its knees.

After defeating Darius III at the battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, Alexander continued forward into Persian territory, finally capturing Persepolis. It’s told that he looted the palace, and burnt the whole thing to the ground, destroying everything that he couldn’t physically take away with him. Meaning that hundreds to thousands of priceless texts and art pieces have been lost to history. Although according to Plutarch there wasn’t that much left over, with Alexander loading up 20 000 mules and 5000 camels with treasure.

Now the reasoning behind Alexander’s decision to burn Persepolis is a bit lost on the modern archaeologist and historian. Especially because Alexander is well-known for being fascinated by the Persian culture and being extremely lenient on imposing Greek cultural reforms on the people he conquered.

The general story of how the burning came about was that the whole idea was proposed by a lovely lady called Thais. She is said to have been Athenian (so you already know she’s holding a grudge against Persia in general) and the lover of Ptolemy I, who was Alexander’s closest friend and so was also his general and bodyguard, and potentially his half-brother, but that’s neither here nor there.

Now the issue we have here is that all the accounts of what happened that night were written by sources who lived centuries after Alexander was even alive, so potentially we don’t really know what happened. But most of the writers tell something similar to that seen in Diodorus’ Biblotheca Historica.

One day when the Companions were feasting, and intoxication was growing as the drinking went on, a violent madness took hold of these drunken men. One of the women present, Thais, the Athenian lover of the Macedonian commander Ptolemy, declared that it would be Alexander’s greatest achievement in Asia to join in their precession and set fire to the royal palace … Others joined in the cry and said that only Alexander was worthy of this deed. The king was excited with the rest of these words … A quantity of torches was quickly collected … [Thais] was the first after the king to throw her blazing torch into the palace. As the others followed their example the whole area of the royal palace was quickly engulfed in flames.

The Roman historian, Quintus Curtius Rufus in his History of Alexander the Great, and Plutarch in his Life of Alexander, tell surprisingly very similar stories. And yet there is one historian, Arrian of Nicomedia, who didn’t share the view that the burning didn’t accidentally happen because everyone was drunk. And perhaps Arrian is the account we should put the most stock into because his account is meant to come from the eye-witnesses Ptolemy and Aristobulus. But we mustn’t put too much stock into any one account. As there are always gaps, and Arrian’s gaps is that he doesn’t tell the full story, he doesn’t tell us why Alexander would want to burn Persepolis just says how he does it. So everything we read as historical statements should always be read with an understanding of that person’s and, to a certain extent, our own biases. And even Arrian accepts that there are gaps between eye-witness accounts:

Even the most trustworthy writers, men who were actually with Alexander at the time, have given conflicting accounts of notorious events with which they must have been perfectly familiar.

Despite that, let’s find out what Arrian had to say about what happened:

Alexander burnt up the palace at Persepolis to avenge the Greeks because the Persians had destroyed both temples and cities of the Greeks by fire and sword.

So it’s pretty clear to see here, that Arrian doesn’t think it was a drunken decision on Alexander’s part, but a deliberate action taken to avenge the burning of Athens. But he does accept that there’s a very real possibility that we might never know what happened.

Regardless of how the burning came about, we have archaeological evidence that tells us it definitely happened. And it’s said that Alexander deeply regretted what happened the next morning. I mean, who of us haven’t been in that situation?

By destroying Persepolis, Alexander was well aware of the cultural importance he had obliterated. Religious works of early Zoroastrianism, goat-skin parchments, artworks, tapestries, and other priceless artefacts, all lost forever.

And yet, despite all odds, there was something that survived the fire. The heat of the fire hard-baked tablets of clay and the rubble preserved them until an archaeologist came along and brought them back into the daylight. These tablets actually give us crucial information on how the Empire operated that have helped historians to piece together what Ancient Persia may have looked like.

A group of the found tablets, written in Elamite, known as the language of the Persian chancellery, are known as the Fortification Tablets, these are about 8000 in number and give us numbers on Darius I’s economic position. The Treasury Tablets were also found which give us an insight into the admin side of Artaxerxes I, and lastly what’s known as the Travel Texts, which recorded payments and rations for travellers and pack animals. But what was lost to the raging fire is understood to be irreplaceable.

Just because Alexander burnt down the Palace didn’t mean that anything happened to the city. In 316 BC, Persepolis was still the capital of Persia, which was now as a province of the Macedonian Empire. But the city declined under the Seleucid Kingdom and then fell into ruins.

Modern day Persepolis

These days the ancient civilisation of Persepolis is one of the most visited of the historical sites in Iran. But for centuries the city of Persepolis was lost, and the ruins were only positively identified in 1618 AD. But much like Machu Picchu and Pompeii, not a whole lot happened apart from some treasure-hunters stopping by, and the place was left to its own devices.

So since it was first discovered in 1618, nothing really happened until 1931 rolled around, and it had fallen to Ernst Herzfeld, a Professor of Oriental Archaeology in Berlin, who was chosen by James H. Breasted, the Director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, to take on the task of excavating and, if possible, restoring Persepolis.

And so Herzfeld became the first field director of the Persepolis Expedition. With the help of architect Fritz Krefter, they set about uncovering the Persepolis Terrace, the Eastern Stairway of the Apadana, the small stairs of the Council Hall and the Harem of Xerxes between 1931 and 1934.

Once Herzfeld had moved on, Erich F. Schmidt came on and continued with the large-scale excavations until the end of 1939, when the Second World War put an end to the archaeological work in Iran.

It wasn’t until 1979 that UNESCO graced Persepolis by adding it to its World Heritage Site list. But in the present day, archaeological work is ongoing.

While you might not be able to currently visit the ruins of Persepolis, you can find bits of the Palace in a couple of museums around Europe and America. If you wander over to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum that can be found in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon or the Louvre in Paris you can see bits of Persepolis.

For those in the UK - click here

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