The Gate of Cyrus at Pasargadae (near Persepolis)

About five years ago, I mentioned that the foundations of a city gate had been discovered in Pasargadae (see: Archaeological research resumed at Pasargadae). At that time and pending further research, it was assumed that it had probably been built by Cyrus the Great to celebrate his victories.

By now, archaeologists have been able to prove that this gateway had indeed been built upon the orders of Cyrus and that it was actually used from the reign of his son, Cambyses onward. Although the article published in the Archaeology News Network speaks of a gate near Persepolis, it is clear that we are talking about the same monument. After all, Pasargadae lies only 40 kilometers from Persepolis.

This imposing gate measured 30 x 40 meters and once stood 12 meters high. It was entirely made of mudbricks which were covered with glazed bricks as we know from Persepolis, for instance. However, the composition apparently was inspired by similar decorations from Babylon where the lower section was embellished with lotus flowers and the higher portion of the wall displayed mythical animals.

The colors have faded dramatically but the outlines of the flowers and animals are not too difficult to recognize.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the central rectangular room of 8 x 12 meters bore cuneiform inscriptions in Babylonian and Elamite.

[Pictures are from the Archaeology News Network]

The Bisutun relief of King Darius I

The most important rock-wall relief and certainly the best known is that of Bisutun in which Darius I celebrates his victory over Gaumata and eight more pretenders to the throne in 518 BC.

Bisutun or Behistun was located on the well-travelled road connecting Babylon to Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) and it was obviously an ideal place for Darius I the Great to advertise his military victories, although the relief is perched some one hundred meters above the valley floor. I find it terribly disappointing that I am not allowed to climb up the scaffold onto the platform to have a closer look at the scene. Instead, I have to step back as the platform is blocking the relief from view when standing at the foot of the cliff. From down here it is impossible to see the trilingual inscriptions and I wonder how travelers in antiquity were supposed to read the exploits of their king.

Unlike the rock-wall reliefs of Naqsh-e Rustam and Persepolis, there is no tomb at Bisutun, just a victory scene – but what a victory!  To clearly understand what has happened, we have to go back to Cyrus the Great, who was succeeded by his son Cambyses II known for having lost his army in the Egyptian desert. When Cambyses died, he had no direct successor and it seems that a man posing as his brother Bardiya, a magian and/or Gaumata, a Zoroastrian priest, seized the throne.

Darius, the later Darius I the Great contested the legitimacy of this new king and claimed his rights as being the great-great-great-son of Teispes, just like Cambyses II. Here at Bisutun Darius I provides a lengthy sequence of events. Within the year he fought no less than nineteen battles, murdering Gaumata and Bardiya (also known as Smerdis). After that, he marched against several other pretenders to the throne choking several revolts in Media, Elam,  Babylonia, Armenia, Parthia, Margiana, Scythia, and even in the heart of Persia. This is what is being related on the Bisutun relief where a row of nine prisoners, their heads locked in a collar and hands tied behind their backs, are led in front of Darius standing in a commanding posture. Above the group floats the emblem of Ahuramazda by whose will Darius receives his kingship.

The trilingual inscriptions relating to the king’s conquests are basically written in five columns in Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite. Unfortunately, from the valley floor, one cannot even see the cuneiform signs up there!

To my greatest surprise, I am confronted with another inscription left by Darius I and his son Xerxes. This happens at a place called Ganj Nameh, some five kilometers southwest of Hamadan. There are no pictures here, just two clear-cut frames on a granite wall, each written in three languages: Old Persian, Neo-Babylonian, and Neo-Elamite. As is customary, they both start by praising Ahuramazda and continue describing their lineage and deeds, Darius on the left panel and Xerxes on the right. It reads: "The Great God [is] Ahuramazda, greatest of all the gods, who created the earth and the sky and the people; who made Xerxes king, and outstanding king as outstanding ruler among innumerable rulers; I [am] the great king Xerxes, king of kings, king of lands with numerous inhabitants, king of this vast kingdom with far-away territories, son of the Achaemenid monarch Darius." Again the entire setting is quite spectacular in the landscape close to a fast-running mountain river and lovely waterfalls.

This about closes the subject of Achaemenid rock reliefs and tombs (see also my previous post: Achaemenid Tombs at Naqsh-i Rustam and Persepolis), which I feel certainly deserves our full attention since Alexander must have seen them all, even if historians do not mention them. 

Achaemenid Tombs at Naqsh-i Rustam and Persepolis

How does it feel to actually see these tombs at Naqsh-i Rustam, cut out of the cliff wall high above your head? No picture can prepare the visitor for this unique setting. We generally know the photographs taken under optimal conditions where every single detail is highlighted, but standing at the foot of these high limestone cliffs featuring the tombs of four different Persian kings is a unique experience!

I wonder what impression they must have made on Alexander who inevitably must have passed here on his way from Persepolis to Pasargadae as the scars in the cliffs are clearly visible from a distance and certainly from Persepolis.

The only tomb at Naqsh-i Rustam that can be identified with certainty is the one belonging to King Darius the Great (died in 486 BC), the first one facing the visitor upon arrival, thanks to an inscription. All tombs look very much the same, but according to the conclusions drawn so far by the researchers we are supposed to see the tomb relief of Artaxerxes I (died 424 BC) to Darius’ left, followed by that of Darius II; the tomb to his right and at an angle has been attributed to Xerxes I (died in 465 BC). 

It is a fact that after Cambyses II (522 BC) all Achaemenid kings were entombed in one of the high straight cliffs in the area: four of the kings were buried here at Naqsh-i Rustam as mentioned above, but three found their last resting place at Persepolis, i.e. Artaxerxes II (died 359 BC), Artaxerxes III (died in 338/337 BC) and probably Darius III (died 330 BC) whose tomb was not completed. 

The façades of all Achaemenid tombs are very similar and are often referred to as “Persian crosses” because they have the shape of a cross, approximately 23 meters high and 18-20 meters wide. The arms of the cross are enhanced with half-columns and bull-head capitals imitating those found at Persepolis with in their centre the entrance leading into a small burial chamber. 

Above these columns 28 representatives of the various satrapies are carved in relief, set in two rows carrying the throne bed with twisted legs and lion claws. The king is standing on a stepped throne, wearing the tiara and dressed in the specific kandys-robe (a three-quarter long Persian coat). He is stretching out his right hand in a sign of respect in front of a fire-altar, and his left hand is holding a bow resting on his foot. In the center above the king, we recognize the Achaemenid motive of an aisled sun disk with a crowned half-figure, as well as a moon symbol. On either side, guards and courtiers are watching on. 

Since the Persian palaces were so lavished colored, I tried to find out whether these tomb-reliefs were as well. It seems the study is still ongoing but so far the tomb of Darius the Great has revealed some evidence. Traces of blue have been located in Darius’ beard and mustache, as well as in the cuneiform inscriptions. The king’s hair was black and his eyes were red framed in black; his lips and his shoes were red and on his clothes hints of various colors have been found. Overall the colors seem to match those used at Persepolis (For more info see: Tehran Times). Hopefully, a closer examination of the other tombs will give us more information on the colors used.

Naqsh-i Rustam has also a series of seven reliefs on a lower register, i.e. below the Achaemenid reliefs. Some five hundred years later, several Sassanid kings have carved out their victories here to be remembered for posterity. I’ll talk about them separately in the next blog.

All the tombs have been looted at some time in antiquity, so all we have are these facades telling the story of great Achaemenid and Sassanid kings.

As far as Persepolis is concerned, the centerpiece is the tomb of Artaxerxes III (died 338/337 BC) in plain view for whoever visits the palaces. On the right-hand side of the tomb’s entrance, we see a bust of a Persian guard holding a spear. The two other tombs are more difficult to make out and have tentatively been ascribed to Artaxerxes II (died 359 BC) and Darius III (died 330 BC) as mentioned above.

[Click here for more pictures of Naqsh-i Rustam]

Cyrus the Great who made Pasargadae the capital of Persia

It is well documented that Alexander had great admiration and respect for Cyrus the Great, the king who united Media and Persia into the largest empire of the then-known world. The story of his early life, written down in the fifth century BC by Herodotus in his Histories, is more legend than reality, but there is reason enough to attribute a good deal of truth to it.

We have to go back to Astyages who became king of the Medes in 585 BC. Astyages had a dream in which his daughter, Mandane, gave birth to a boy who would destroy his empire. To avoid this destiny, he married her off to Cambyses, a Persian man of a good family thinking that their son would be no threat to his throne. But while his daughter was expecting her first child, Astyages had another dream, which the Magi explained as telling that the boy would rule over Asia. As soon as Cyrus was born, the king sent for a trusted kinsman, Harpagus, ordering him to take the baby with him and kill him. Harpagus took the boy home but feared for his own safety should he proceed with the murder, so he sent for one of the king’s herdsmen, Mithridates, and put him in charge of executing the king’s orders. But when Mithridates brought the infant to his house he found his wife in tears as their own baby was stillborn. Together they decided to present their own infant as the murdered king’s child and to adopt Cyrus as their own.

Cyrus’ life took a sharp turn when he was about ten years old. He was playing king with his friends and when one of his play-subordinates disobeyed him, he arrested him and all joined in to beat the boy. The disobedient boy who was the son of a distinguished Mede ran home to complain of his harsh punishment. The father took his cherished boy to the king to show his wounds upon which King Astyages summoned the herdsman and his son. After a serious confrontation, Astyages found out that this boy was Cyrus and that evidently, his trusted man Harpagus had not obeyed his explicit orders. It was here that Cyrus’ true identity was revealed and he was reunited with his parents, Cambyses and Mandane, the king and queen of Persia. Astyages took vengeance over Harpagus, who by the time Cyrus had come of age persuaded the Medes to revolt against the harsh rule of their king. There was a serious court intrigue and a confrontation between both armies, but in the end, Cyrus was victorious. This is how Media and Persia were united into one kingdom under the rule of Cyrus.

Cyrus thus became the founder of the Achaemenid Dynasty in 559 or 560 BC and his reign lasted about thirty years. Throughout those years he expanded his power and annexed the Lydian Empire as well as the Neo-Babylonian Empire before setting off to conquer Central Asia. His empire reached from the Mediterranean Sea with the Balkans and Thracia to the Indus River in the east.

During his reign, he found time to build a new capital which he named Pasargadae, actually on the very spot where he defeated the Median army of Astyages. Still today we find remains of his Palace not too far from his famous tomb (see: The Gem of Pasargadae, the Tomb of Cyrus the Great). As far as we can make out, it consists of a gatehouse or entrance, an Apadana or Audience Hall, a Private Palace with a Garden, and two smaller palaces.

Just as for the construction of Susa and Persepolis, the walls were made of mud-brick pierced by tall stone doorways. The Gate House still has its relief in the northeast corner representing a four-winged man (maybe Cyrus himself?) wearing an Elamite dress and two rams’ horns in Egyptian style holding three sun disks with bundles of reed flanked on each side by a cobra. The cuneiform inscription in the upper right corner is hard to make out but reads “I am Cyrus the King, an Achaemenid” in three different languages (I suppose Elamite, Old-Persian, and Babylonian based on the current practice at Persepolis, for instance). Here as well as all over the site, the connecting walls have been reconstructed in mud-brick to a height of approximately half a meter, which helps to map out the Palace Complex.

Pasargadae does not show the grandeur of Persepolis but there is much more left to see than at Susa, for instance, but then this was the first Persian Palace ever to be built on such a scale.

The Apadana has served as an example for later palaces at Persepolis and Susa. Consequently, it has been designed with the same layout, measuring 32x22m. Only the lower part of the doorjambs have been preserved and show reliefs with the feet and legs of two figures resembling human beings either with the tail of a fish, the legs of a bull, or the claws of a bird; only one has normal feet. There is also a 13-meter-tall pillar carrying a cuneiform inscription in Old Persian reading: I, Cyrus the king, an Achaemenid, i.e. basically the same text as written near the four-winged figure at the Gate House.

The Residential Palace is recognizable by its remaining columns set in five rows of six because, unlike Persepolis, the floor plan here is rectangular and not square. Apparently, only the lower part of these columns was made of stone with an upper section of plastered and painted wood. The portico on the southwestern side overlooked the royal gardens where we still can see the paved water channels. This Palace contains the same cuneiform inscription we encountered in the previous buildings – a clear way for Cyrus to put a stamp on his achievements. The northwestern portico was supported by twelve columns and the preserved lower part of the doorjambs shows reliefs of the king accompanied by two of his servants. Two archaeologists are at work here when I visit the site, cleaning up the reliefs – a very tedious task! I notice some holes in the reliefs confirming that real jewelry once enhanced these panels.

The Palace of Pasargadae is not well-known as visitors generally only stop at the Tomb of Cyrus the Great, but the setting of both buildings in this wide wild valley overlooked by the nearby Tall-i Takht citadel and the frail remains of the Achaemenid tower creates a homely feeling. It has grandeur but not one of pomp and circumstance like at Persepolis. It is a place where one could actually live and in a very pleasant way for that matter. It nearly makes one forget that Cyrus was the first king to instate a series of regal titles: Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World (just in case he had forgotten one of those corners!)

It is known that Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of those he conquered, an example that Alexander has widely accepted and implemented. He established a successful centralized administration with a system that was beneficial for all his subjects thanks to the satraps or governors he put in place to supervise the local population. In this field, Alexander tried to walk in his predecessor's footsteps – but this concept was entirely misunderstood by his Macedonians who saw themselves only as victorious conquerors. How or whether Alexander could have brought this to a good end will always remain an open question since he died too soon after his return to Babylon to implement his Persian administration. The mass wedding at Susa was a first step in that direction, but after his untimely death, even this attempt soon fell apart.

 Had he lived longer and had he been able to spread the message of Cyrus, our world today would have been quite different. Cyrus had declared that his newly conquered peoples would enjoy religious freedom. It was written in cuneiform script on a clay cylinder and kept at the temple of Marduk in Babylon (now at the British Museum in London). It is widely accepted as being the oldest known declaration of human rights – and that almost 2,600 years before the United Nations came up with the idea! During Assyrian conquests, most of the non-Babylonians had been moved from their home countries by force, and this included the destruction of Jerusalem. Cyrus, in turn, allowed the Jews to recover their statues and gods that had been confiscated and taken out of their own temples; they also were allowed to return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild their temple. That gesture earned him the title “shepherd of God” and “Lord Anointed” (Messiah) in the Book of Isaiah. From ancient Greece to the Renaissance, to the Founding Fathers, generations of philosophers, kings, and statesmen found their inspiration in Cyrus’ words giving shape to a very modern way of ruling, uniting people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and religions (see also: The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning).

[Click here to see all the pictures of Pasargadae]

The gem of Pasargadae: the Tomb of Cyrus the Great

Visions of Pasargadae are automatically linked to the tomb of Cyrus the Great, somewhere on a rather lonely spot in the broad flat valley of the Pulvar River. The setting is unreal yet a commanding one, undisturbed by the more than 2,500 years since its construction, except for the surrounding grove with all sorts of trees mentioned in antiquity that has disappeared.

Cyrus the Great was king of Persia from 559 BC till approximately 530 BC. He is generally seen as the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, as he united Media and Persia to form the mighty Persian Empire. In his days, his realm comprised today’s Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Lydia and Babylonia, which included modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine. He finally led an expedition into Central Asia, where he was killed in a battle against the Massagetae at the Jaxartes River. Well, this is what Herodotus tells us in his Histories. There are several other versions: Ctesias tells us that Cyrus was wounded in a battle against the Derbici and was brought back to camp, where he appointed Cambyses as his heir; Diodorus’ story is that Cyrus was taken prisoner and crucified by a Scythian queen, and Xenophon has Cyrus dying at home. In the end, nobody explains why or how he was buried here at Pasargadae.

Pasargadae, the oldest capital of the Persian Empire, was founded by Cyrus – maybe the reason why he was buried here. Unlike the tombs of later Achaemenid Kings that were hewn in the cliffs around Persepolis and Pasargadae, the Tomb of Cyrus is a rather unique construction. The monument has the shape of a small house measuring 13x12 meters and is set on a base about five meters high. Inside the low tomb chamber, the gold coffin containing the embalmed corpse of Cyrus was placed with next to it a couch with gold legs. A Babylonian carpet and purple rugs formed the bedding upon which the Median coat with sleeves and other Babylonian dresses were spread out, i.e., the royal cape that every new ruler was supposed to wear for his inauguration. The Median trousers and robes were dyed the color of hyacinth; others in purple and other colors; there also were collars and sabers, earrings of gold, and precious stones. Next stood a table dressed with precious tableware. When Alexander visited this tomb in 330 BC while collecting the treasury at the Palace of Pasargadae, he must have been amazed by its richness.

However, on his return from India in 324 BC, he did stop here to pay his respects and instructed the tomb to be unsealed. As Alexander stepped inside the small chamber, he found the remains of Cyrus scattered over the floor, his purple mattress, his clothes and the precious grave gifts were gone; the lid of the sarcophagus was broken. Alexander is known to have had a special veneration for Cyrus, and we can easily imagine his anger, maybe more so since no real culprit could be found in spite of torturing the Magi who were supposed to guard and maintain the tomb. The Greek historian, Aristobulus, was appointed to repair Cyrus’ tomb. It is said that he managed to replace the royal clothing, but I wonder how; then the entrance door was sealed with stones and clay stamped with the king’s seal.

Alexander considered himself as Cyrus’ heir, and he had hoped that this standpoint would be appreciated by the Persians and the Greeks alike since both people showed great admiration for the founder of the Persian Empire. The disturbed grave site must have hurt Alexander deeply, and not only for the damage done but for its symbolic meaning. He certainly was aware of the crowning ritual, as explained by Plutarch in his history of Artaxerxes II, who became king in 404 BC, nearly 150 years after Cyrus’ death. The king would be initiated in a nearby temple dedicated to a war goddess, not unlike Athena. To this purpose, he had to drop his own clothes and wear the dress which Cyrus wore at the time he became king, apparently a rough leather uniform. He then had to eat a ritual meal of figs and terebinth leaves with a bowl of sour milk. After this ceremony, he then would assume Cyrus’ royal cloak to finally access kinghood. It was clear to Alexander that since the tomb was stripped of the meaningful clothes, the crowning ceremony, as he had imagined in Cyrus’ footsteps, was impossible.

Today the Tomb of Cyrus is protected by a discreet Plexiglas screen, but the entourage has been entirely stripped of whatever columns and other remains that appear in photographs taken last century, for instance, by Ernst Herzfeld, the German archaeologist who, in the 1930s spent most of his life excavating the site of Persepolis. Because of the security screen, no one is allowed to climb the six steps leading to the very entrance of the tomb on the western side. The doorway is very narrow and very low, but it would have been terribly gratifying to step inside the funeral chamber knowing that Alexander had been there before!

Nearby are the pretty stripped remains of the Palace of Pasargadae that was built by Cyrus the Great (see: Cyrus the Great who made Pasargadae the capital of Persia), but the layout definitely inspired Darius the Great some fifteen years later when he drew the plans for his palaces of Susa and Persepolis.

[The black and white Photograph of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae with remains of a more recent cemetery, probably taken in 1923, © Photograph by Ernst Herzfeld, Freer|Sackler Archives] 

[Click here to see all the pictures of Pasargadae]

Cambyses’ lost army found after 2,500 years?

Such news deserves to make the headlines. Imagine the King of mighty Persia having to admit the loss of 50,000 of his soldiers who simply disappeared in the Egyptian desert. What happened?

We owe the story to the Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BC), who tells us how Cambyses, son of Cyrus the Great, sent a large detachment of soldiers from Thebes in Egypt to attack the Oasis of Siwah and its oracle because the priests refused to legitimize his claim to their country. The army did reach an oasis (believed to be that of El-Kharga) and after they left, they were never seen again. They are said to be buried beneath the sands carried by a strong and deadly southern wind. Cambyses was evidently never accepted as ruler of Egypt, unlike Alexander the Great who received the confirmation as son of god from the oracle of Amon at Siwah in 332 BC.

As no tangible evidence ever surfaced, the story was moved to the land of tales till first surveys of the area were carried out in 1996. Researchers noticed some human remains next to a large natural rock shelter 35 meters long and 3 meters deep – the only one is a wide area. Using a metal detector, they were able to dig up remains of ancient weaponry like a bronze dagger and several arrow tips. By itself not a massive find, but these pieces were identified as belonging to the Achaemids of Cambyses times. About 500 meters from that shelter, they then found a silver bracelet, an earring and a few silver beads belonging to the same period.

During the following years, ancient maps were studied closely and the researchers came to the conclusion that in 525 BC, Cambyses’ army did not follow the known caravan route but a different itinerary that existed already during the 18th Dynasty. From El Kargha, the army marched westwards to Gilf El Kebir, passing through the Wadi Abd el Melik, from where they headed toward Siwah. The advantage was that this route was not controlled by the Egyptians, meaning that the Persian soldiers would not have to fight for every single oasis on their way. To prove this theory, geological surveys were carried out along said alternative route. What they found was astonishing: many dried up springs as well as artificial wells made from hundreds of pots buried in the sand, which afterwards were dated to Cambyses’ days. There definitely was enough water to make this desert march possible.

In 2002, the team decided to investigate the oral Bedouin stories about thousands of white bones that had emerged from the sand several decades ago after a sandstorm. Surely enough, they found a mass grave with hundreds of bleached bones and skulls. Among the remains, there were a number of Persian arrowheads and a horse bit, identical to what was known from Persian pictures.

The conclusion is that the army was surprised by a cataclysmic sandstorm that lasted for more than one day, although starvation from lack of food and water may also have played a role.

This statement still stands although the Egyptian Supreme Court of Antiquities (i.e. Zahi Hawass) do not authorize any digging in the area as Mr. Hawass refuses to believe the story.

My afterthought on this story is that this episode of Persian history must certainly have been known to Alexander when he set out for the Oasis of Siwah and it makes me once more aware of Alexander’s courage and determination.