Image Details

Ali Mousavi

Persepolis’s palaces, audience halls and other royal buildings were constructed on a huge, multi-terraced platform. Roughly a quadrilateral, 1,500 feet on the west side, 1,000 feet on the north side, 1,400 feet on the east side, and 950 feet on the south side, the platform consists of a thick outer retaining wall filled in with debris. Visitors entered the citadel through a monumental double-reversing stairway built by Darius’s son and successor, Xerxes (486–465 B.C.). The buildings along the edge of the 60-foot-high western facade are, from right to left, the Palace of Darius and the Apadana (the high columns in the photo).