Persepolis

Persepolis also known as Takht-e Jamshid (Old Persian: Pārśa,New Persian: تخت جمشيد Takht-e Jamshid or پارسه Pārseh), literally meaning "city of Persians", was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE). Persepolis is situated 60 km northeast of the city of Shiraz in Fars Province in Iran. The earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BCE. It exemplifies the Achaemenid style of architecture. UNESCO declared the ruins of Persepolis a World Heritage Site in 1979.

Name

To the ancient Persians, the city was known as Pārsa (𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿). The English word Persepolis is derived from the Greek Persépolis (Περσέπολις), compound of Pérsēs (Πέρσης) and pólis (πόλις), meaning "Persian city". Due to the belief among Late Antiquity Persians that the monuments were built by Jamshid, the site has been known as Takht-e Jamshid (تخت جمشید, "The Throne of Jamshid") since Sassanian times. It is also known as Chehel minar (چهل منار, "The Forty Columns/Minarets").

Construction

Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BC. André Godard, the French archaeologist who excavated Persepolis in the early 1930s, believed that it was Cyrus the Great (Kūrosh) who chose the site of Persepolis, but that it was Darius I (Daryush) who built the terrace and the great palaces.