PERSPOLIS
The site's Iranian name is Takht-e-Jamshid, "The throne of
Jamshid", a mythical King of Iran. The ancient name is "Parsa", "Pars's Town".
Provincial of Fars. Altitude 1,800 meters, 60 km N-E of Shiraz on an excellent
road, 420 km S of Esfahan on a good road. International airport at Shiraz.
National airport at perspolis.
A large bare plain, surrounded
by mauve cliffs with sharp edges. It is there, in the center of the Marv
Dasht basin, that Cyrus the Great chose, toward the end of the his reign, to
build under the shelter of a fold in the mountains, a palace worthy of the
Empire. It was named Parsa, but later under subsequent Greek influence
became known as perspolis, "The city of the Persians".
"The Gate of All Nations,
Takt-e-Jamshid (perspolis) "
You go to Pasargarde to
contemplate, in the solitude of Land deserted for the past two thousand years,
the tomb of Cyrus, the founder of an Empire. But you first go through
Naqsh-e-Rostam is a sort of "Valley of Kings", dominated by tall
ochre-colored cliffs, cracked and wrinkled by the wind with half-way up, the
cross-shaped cavities of the tombs cut right into the stone.
"Tomb of Cyrus the Great,
Pasargad, Fars Province"
Without going into detail the
following excursion site are worthy of mentions: Bishahpur(140 km to the West on
the Ahvaz road), a large archaeological site in gorgeous mountain setting, with
the remnants of the palace of the Sassanid King Shahpur (241-272 A.D.), the
Qalaeh-ye Dokhtar Gorges, controlled by an impressive system of fortifications
erected in the 10th and 11th centuries (near Firouzabad, 110km South of Shiraz);
other Sassanid fortresses near Fasa (170 km to the S-E); farther on the same
road, in the direction of Darab (280 km of Shiraz) fortified enclosures, bas
reliefs and at Darab proper, a que, cross-shaped mosque hewn out of the
rock.
"The Southern face of the
Gate of All Nations"
The many buildings which
make up perspolis are on an artificial terrace about 300 metres long and 450
meters wide, between 10 and 20 meters above ground-level. You reach the terrace
by a monumental double staircase.
"Perspolis"
The gaunt beauty of the Mountains, the immense
landscape, the deep silence which pervades, the site remote from any village,
are appropriate for the sacred character of this necropolis sheltering the tombs
of the main Achaemenian Sovereigns (Cyrus lies in solitude at Pasargadae). From
right to left, the tombs are those of Xerxes, Darius the Great Artaxerxes I and
Darius II. Darius the Great's Tomb is larger than the others.
"Naqsh-e Rostam"
"Kazeron, Fars Province
Relief of Sassanian period. Tang-e Chogan."
"perspolis"
"perspolis"
"perspolis "
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