As I woke up and walked out into the hotel room balcony there was a golden light shining over the sand like colour buildings and the slightly brownish mountains in the distance. It was certainly going to be a hot day and we would mostly be out in the sun all morning once we were heading to the Persepolis archaeological site a few kilometres from Shiraz.
Amongst the Komeyni and Khâmene'i 's posters spread around there were also quite a few with "unknown" faces on them, which I later found out to be the martyrs of the Irak-Iran war, whose presence was to be felt all the way into Persepolis outskirsts.
Considered to be more than just another ancient site, Persepolis is acknowledged as embodying all the glory and demise of the Persian Empire. Its construction began around 515 BCE under Darius the Great, with his sucessors having added buildings, though by the end of 330 BCE it was still said to be unfinished.
It is believed to be where the Achaemenid kings received their subjects, celebrated the New Year and ran their empire, before Alexander the Great burnt the whole thing to the ground, looting the city seven years before his death.
Access to the site was by means of a double stairway at the end of a main road, whose low risers are said to have allowed horses to be ridden up to the Monumental Gate of all Lands in the past.
Constructed around 475 BCE on the order of Xerxes I, sucessor of Darius the Great, the gate is flanked by giant sculptures of two quadrupeds, while two huge human-headed winged bulls in the Assyrian style face into the palace area.
High over the sculptures there is a trilingual cuneiform inscription proclaiming "I am Xerxes, the great King, King of the kings, King of the lands of many people, King of this great earth far and wide. By Ahura Mazda's favour I have had made this Gate of All Lands. Much that is beautiful has been built in this region which I and my father have built. All that has been built and appears beautiful ... we have built by the favour of Ahura Mazda's".
It is said to be one of the 110 inscriptions there, many of which reaffirm the belief in the Zoroastrian creator God.
I couldn't resist taking photographs from several perspectives, though it was quite difficult due to the increasing number of tourists visiting the site, but the imposing figures were so impressive that I felt it was absolutely imperative, particularly as far as details were concerned.
It wasn't but when we walked towards the Apadana that we go the real sense of the Gate size (first pictures).
(To be continued)
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