Iran Travel Persepolis tour, IranTravelingCenter Persepolis /PerspolisVideo: Persepolis The province of Fars is located in south of Iran and is counted as one of the most famous provinces. This vast land is of the oldest civilization center and was the capital for Iranian kings for centuries. Splendid and important monuments are remained from different dynasties in this province. Fars Province with an area of 126 ,489 km2 is counted as one of the well-known and important provinces in Iran for industry , agriculture and handicrafts (especially inlaying) and has over 250 industrial sites.  If the traveler to Iran visited only the provinces of Khuzestan and Fars , he would see what the essential heart of Iranian history is virtually. Fars (ancient Parsa) - homeland of the Persians and the source of the name so often given to the entire land - contains not only an enormous number of prehistoric sites with nearly 1 ,000 identified in the Marvdasht alone , but the major Achaemenian and Sassanian remains in the country.  Persepolis is situated 58 Kilometers from Shiraz. A large bare plain , surrounded by mauve cliffs with sharp edges. It is there , in the center of the Marvdasht basin , that Cyrus the Great chose , toward the end of 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 Persepolis , "The city of the Persians". The works started in 518 BC by Dariush I. The site consists of the remains of several monumental buildings on a vast stone terrace surrounded by a brick wall.  The splendor of Persepolis , however , lasted only two centuries. Its majestic audience halls and residential palaces perished in flames when Alexander the Great conquered and looted Persepolis not long before the death of the last of the Achaemenian , Dariush III , in 330 BC , and carried away its treasures on 20 ,000 mules and 5 ,000 camels. The city gradually declined in the Seleucid period and after , its ruins attesting its ancient glory. In the 3rd century AD , the nearby city of Estakhr became the centre of the Sassanian Empire. | Important places :By far the largest and most magnificent building is the Apadana , begun by Darius and finished by Xerxes , that was used mainly for great receptions by the kings. Thirteen of its seventy-two columns still stand on the enormous platform to which two monumental stairways , on the north and on the east , give access. They are adorned with rows of beautifully executed relief showing  scenes from the New Year's festival and processions of representatives of twenty-three subject nations of the Achaemenid Empire , with court notables and Persians and Medes , followed by soldiers and guards , their horses , and royal chariots. Delegates in their native attire , some completely Persian in style , carry gifts as token of their loyalty and as tribute to the king. These gifts include silver and gold vessels and vases , weapons , woven fabrics , jewelry , and animals from the delegates' own countries. Although the overall arrangement of scenes seems repetitive , there are marked differences in the designs of garments , headdresses , hairstyles , and beards that give each delegation its own distinctive character and make its origin unmistakable. Another means by which the design achieves diversity is by separating various groups or activities with stylized trees or by using these trees alone to form ornamental bands. In addition , an intentional usage of patterns and rhythms conveys a grandiose ornamental impression. |
Iran Travel Persepolis tour, IranTravelingCenter Persepolis /Perspolis |
At some 13 km northwest of Persepolis are the Achae menian royal tombs.
There rises a perpendicular wall of rock in which four similar tombs are cut at a considerable height from the bottom of the valley. This place is called Nakhsh-eRostam (the Picture of Rostam) , from the Sassanian carvings below the tombs , which were thought to represent the mythical hero Rostam. That the occupants of these seven tombs were Achaemenian kings might be inferred from the sculptures , and one of those at Nakhsh-eRostam is expressly declared in its inscriptions to be the tomb of Darius I. The three other tombs , besides that of Darius I , are probably those of Xerxes I , Artaxerxes I , and Darius II. The two completed graves behind Persepolis probably belong to Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III. The unfinished one might be that of Arses , who reigned at the longest two years , but is more likely that of Darius III , last of the Achaemenian line , who was overthrown by Alexander the Great. |
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