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PERSEPOLIS
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PERSEPOLIS , an See also:ancient See also:city of See also:Persia, situated some 40 M. N.E. of See also:Shiraz, not far from where the small See also:river Pulwar flows into the Kur (Kyrus). The site is marked by a large See also:terrace with its See also:east See also:side leaning on Kuhi Rahmet (" the See also:Mount of See also:Grace "). The other three sides are formed by a retaining See also:wall, varying in height with the slope of the ground from 14 to 41 ft
on the See also:west side a magnificent See also:double See also:stair, of very easy steps, leads to the See also:top. On this terrace are the ruins of a number of See also:colossal buildings, all constructed of dark-See also:grey See also:marble from the adjacent See also:mountain. The stones were laid without See also:mortar, and many of them are still in situ. Especially striking are the huge pillars, of which a number still stand erect. Several of the buildings were never finished. F. Stolze has shown that in some cases even the See also:mason's rubbish has not been removed.' These ruins, for which the name Kizil minare or Chihli menare (" the See also:forty columns or minarets "), can be traced back to the 13th See also:century, are now known as Takhti Jamshid (" the See also:throne of Jamshid "). That they represent the Persepolis captured and partly destroyed by See also: N.N.E., on the opposite side of the Pulwar, rises a perpendicular wall of rock, in which four similar tombs are cut, at a considerable height from the bottom of the valley. The See also:modern Persians See also:call this See also:place Nakshi Rustam (" the picture of Rustam ") from the See also:Sassanian reliefs beneath the opening, which they take to be a See also:representation of the mythical See also:hero Rustam. That the 'Cf. J. See also:Chardin, E. See also:Kaempfer, C. See also:Niebuhr and W. See also:Ouseley. Niebuhr's drawings, though See also:good, are, for the purposes of the architectural student, inferior to the great See also:work of C. Texier, and still more to that of E. Flandin and P. Coste. Good sketches, chiefly after Flandin, are given by C. Kossowicz, Inscriptiones palaeopersicae (St See also:Petersburg, 1872). In addition to these we have the photographic plates in F. Stolze's Persepolis (2 vols., See also:Berlin, 1882).
z Lettera X V. (ed. See also:Brighton, 1843), U. 246 seq.
occupants of these seven tombs were See also:kings might be inferred from the sculptures, and one of those at Nakshi Rustam is expressly declared in its inscription to be the See also:tomb of See also:Darius Hystaspis, concerning whom See also:Ctesias relates that his See also:grave was in the See also:face of a rock, and could only be reached by means of an apparatus of See also:ropes. Ctesias mentions further, with regard to a number of Persians kings, either that their remains were brought " to the Persians," or that they died there.' Now we know that See also:Cyrus was buried at See also:Pasargadae (q.v.) and if there is any truth in the statement that the See also:body of See also:Cambyses was brought See also:home " to the Persians " his burying-place must be sought somewhere beside that of his See also:father. In See also:order to identify the See also:graves of Persepolis we must See also:bear in mind that Ctesias assumes that it was the See also:custom for a See also: Xerxes II., who reigned for a very See also:short time, could scarcely have obtained so splendid a See also:monument, and still less could the usurper Sogdianus (Secydianus). The two completed graves behind Takhti Jamshid would then belong to Artaxerxes II. and Artaxerxes III. The unfinished one is perhaps that of See also:Arses, who reigned at the longest two years, or, if not his, then that of Darius III. (Codomannus), who is one of those whose bodies are said to have been brought " to the Persians "2 (see See also:ARCHITECTURE, fig. 12). Another small See also:group of ruins in the same See also:style is found at the See also:village of Hajjiabad, on the Pulwar, a good See also:hour's walk above Takhti Jamshid. These formed a single See also:building, which was still intact 900 years ago, and was used as the See also:mosque of the then existing city of Istakhr. Since Cyrus was buried in Pasargadae, which moreover is mentioned in Ctesias as his own city,' and since, to See also:judge from the See also:inscriptions, the buildings of Persepolis commenced with Darius I., it was probably under this king, with whom the See also:sceptre passed to a new See also:branch of the royal See also:house, that Persepolis became the See also:capital' (see PERSIA: Ancient See also:History, V. 2) of Persia proper. As a See also:residence, however, for the rulers of the See also:empire, a remote place in a difficult alpine region was far from convenient, and the real capitals were See also:Susa, See also:Babylon and See also:Ecbatana. This accounts for the fact that the Greeks were not acquainted with the city until it was taken and plundered by Alexander the Great. Ctesias must certainly have known of it, and it is possible that he may have named it simply HEpoat, after the See also:people, as is undoubtedly done by certain writers of a somewhat later date.' But whether the city really See also:bore the name of the people and the See also:country is another question. And it is extremely hazardous to assume, with See also:Sir H. See also:Rawlinson and J. See also:Oppert, that the words and Pdrsd, " in this Persia," which occur in an inscription on the gateway built by Xerxes (D. 1. 14), signify " in this city of Parsa," and consequently prove that the name of the city is identical with the name of the country. The See also:form Persepolis (with a See also:play on 1rEpacs, destruction) appears first in See also:Cleitarchus, one of the earliest, but unfortunately one of the most imaginative See also:annalists of the exploits of Alexander. It has been universally admitted that " the palaces " or "the See also:palace " (rel. (3ao-iXeca) burned down by Alexander are those now in ruins at Takhti Jamshid. From Stolze's investigations it appears that at least one of these, the See also:castle built by Xerxes, bears evident traces of having been destroyed by See also:fire. The locality described by Diodorus after Cleitarchus corresponds in important particulars with Takhti Jamshid, for example, in being supported by the This statement is not made in Ctesias (or rather in the extracts of See also:Photius) about Darius II., which is probably accidental; in the See also:case of Sogdianus, who as a usurper was not deemed worthy of See also:honourable See also:burial, there is a good See also:reason for the omission. 2 See also:Arrian, iii. 22, 1. ' Cf. also in particular See also:Plutarch, Artax. iii., where Pasargadae is distinctly looked on as the sacred See also:cradle of the See also:dynasty. * The See also:story of See also:Aelian (H. A. i. 59), who makes Cyrus build his royal palace in Persepolis, deserves no See also:attention. b So Arrian (iii. 18, 1, 1o), or rather his best authority, King See also:Ptolemy. So, again, the Babylonian See also:Berossus, shortly after Alexander. See Clemens Alex., Admen. ad gent's, c. 5, where, with Georg See also:Hoffmann (Pers. Mdrtyrer, 137), KaL is to be inserted before Wpows, and this to be understood as the name of the See also:metropolis. with an event which occurred shortly after A.D. 200. mountain on the east .2 There is, however, one formidable difficulty. Diodorus says that the rock at the back of the palace containing the royal sepulchres is so steep that the bodies could be raised to their last resting-place only by See also:mechanical appliances. This is not true of the graves' behind Takhti Jamshid, to which, as F. Stolze expressly observes, one can easily ride up; on the other See also:hand, it is strictly true of the graves at Nakshi Rustam. Stolze accordingly started the theory that the royal castle of Persepolis stood See also:close by Nakshi Rustam, and has sunk in course of time to shapeless heaps of See also:earth, under which the remains may be concealed. The vast ruins, however, of Takhti Jamshid, and the terrace constructed with so much labour, can hardly be anything else than the ruins of palaces; as for temples, the Persians had no such thing, at least in the time of Darius and Xerxes. Moreover, See also:Persian tradition at a very remote See also:period knew of only three architectural wonders in that region, which it attributed to the fabulous See also:queen Humai (Khumai)—the grave of Cyrus at Murgab, the building at Hajjiabad, and those on the great terrace? It is safest therefore to identify these last with the royal palaces destroyed by Alexander. Cleitarchus, who can scarcely have visited the place himself, with his usual recklessness of statement, confounded the tombs behind the palaces with those of Nakshi Rustam; indeed he appears to imagine that all the royal sepulchres were at the same place. In 316 B.C. Persepolis was still the capital of See also:Persis as a See also:province of the great Macedonian Empire (see Diod. xix, 21 seq., 46 ; probably after Hieronymus of Cardia, who was living about 316). The city must have gradually declined in the course of time; but the ruins of the Achaemenidae remained as a See also:witness to its ancient See also:glory. It is probable that the See also:principal See also:town of the country, or at least of the See also:district, was always in this See also:neighbour-See also:hood. About A.D. 200 we find there the city Istakhr (properly Stakhr) as the seat of the See also:local See also:governors. There the See also:foundations of the second great Persian Empire were laid, and Istakhr acquired See also:special importance as the centre of priestly See also:wisdom and orthodoxy. The Sassanian kings have covered the face of the rocks in this neighbourhood, and in See also:part even the Achaemenian ruins, with their sculptures and inscriptions, and must themselves have built largely here, although never on the same See also:scale of magnificence as their ancient predecessors. The See also:Romans knew as little about Istakhr as the Greeks had done about Persepolis —and this in spite of the fact that for four See also:hundred years the Sassanians maintained relations, friendly or hostile, with the empire. At the time of the Arabian See also:conquest Istakhr offered a desperate resistance, but the city was still a place of considerable importance in the 1st century of See also:Islam (see See also:CALIPHATE), although its greatness was speedily eclipsed by the new metropolis Shiraz. In the loth century Istakhr had become an utterly insignificant place, as may be seen from the descriptions of Istakhr, a native (c. 950), and of Mukaddasi (c. 985). During the following centuries Istakhr gradually declines, until, as a city, it ceased to exist. This fruitful region, however, was covered with villages till the frightful devastations of the 18th century; and even now it is, comparatively speaking, well cultivated. The " castle of Istakhr " played a conspicuous part several times during the See also:Mahommedan period as a strong fortress. It was the See also:middle-most and the highest of the three steep crags which rise from the valley of the Kur, at some distance to the west or See also:north-west of Nakshi Rustam. We learn from See also:Oriental writers that one of the Buyid (Buwaihid) sultans in the loth century of the See also:Flight constructed the great cisterns, which may yet be seen, and have been visited, amongst others, by See also: See also:Noldeke, Geschichte der Perser . . . aus . . . Tabari, p. 8). The ruins at Takhti Jamshid are alluded to as the work of Humai, in connexion (TH. N. ; A. H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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