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] 

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Making Cnidos more appealing to the tourists

Cnidos is a magical place to visit for many different reasons, either because of its double harbor, its precious memories of the first nude Aphrodite, or simply because of its location as it is spread over two opposite hills. Sailing into the harbor of Cnidos situated at the tip of the Dorian Peninsula, 18 miles due south of Halicarnassus, is a unique experience too (see: What did Alexander the Great know of Cnidos?)

Beyond the buildings now in ruins, Cnidos is said to be the hometown of the Greek astronomer and mathematician, Eudoxus (408-355 BC) who was a pupil of Plato. What seems to be the first sundial ever was discovered here at Cnidos, the gnomon, and has been attributed to Eudoxus as well. More great men have their roots in Cnidos: Euryphon (early 5^th century BC), a Greek physician; Polygnotos (end 5^th century BC), a Greek vase painter; Ctesias (5^th century BC) who as a Greek historian wrote a history of Persia and as physician served Artaxerxes Mnemon of Persia; and finally Sostratos, a Greek engineer and architect who designed the incomparable lighthouse of Alexandria.

In 2013, new excavations were focused mainly on the largest Byzantine Church and the theatre, while attention was also given to possible underwater artifacts. Work has also started at the Temple of Dionysus, of which the floor was swept clean. Yet during Byzantine times, this temple was often converted into a church of which we can only see the rounded apse. Excavators are now defining the propylon of this temple and erecting the columns in the gallery. In the process, many loose blocks, ornamental or not, will be prepared for restoration, including the Stoa that runs parallel to the length of the temple over a distance of one hundred meters.

It will be interesting to see what has been done here since my last visit in 2012. It always pays to go back, doesn’t it?

Which Cnidos? Near modern Tekir or modern Datça? - Caria 4

History is often more complicated than it appears to be at first glance. The famous city of Cnidos, boasting about its unique statue of the first naked woman ever created in the shape of Aphrodite, is located at the end of the Dorian peninsula near today’s Turkish town of Tekir. The lizard-like peninsula is approximately forty miles long. Still, at no point more than eight miles wide, its name “Dorian” refers to the origin of its first settlers who came from the Greek city of Sparta, according to Herodotus.Being built shortly after 360 BC, it would have looked pretty new if Alexander the Great had visited Cnidos. We must imagine shining white stones and polished marbles enhanced with the bright colours on the pediments and the friezes of the many temples. This is one of those moments in life I wish I could travel back in time … 

Among the Carians, the Cnidians were renowned sailors who traded with cities all over the eastern Mediterranean and who, together with other Greeks, established several colonies, even as far as Sicily in the early 6th century BC. However, the best-known settlement is that of Naucratis founded as early as 610 BC in the Nile Delta, roughly 70 km away from the later city of Alexandria. 

Exceptionally, the Egyptian pharaoh allowed it to be called a city and named it Hellenium. Here a good half dozen states including Cnidos and Halicarnassus were allowed to trade, the only place in Egypt where Greeks were allowed to do so. The Cnidian entrepreneurship made them one of the most prosperous people in the Greek world and it is not surprising to see typical Cnidian amphora at the Archaeological Museum in Bodrum. I personally think that business was so flourishing that they could afford their own amphora factory and their own design with a cone-shaped base that served as a third handle - a funny-looking little knob. Cnidos of the wine from Chios. It was distributed all over the Mediterranean and the Aegean, reaching its peak between the 3rd and 1st century BC. This inexpensive, rather sweet wine called “protopon” was especially appreciated by the soldiers posted in Alexandria and Athens, it seems.

Yet the city of Cnidos was not always located near modern Tekir, which I visited (see: Was Alexander the Great aware of Cnidos?) but until about 360 BC was lying halfway the Dorian peninsula, near the pleasant harbor of modern Datça. Except for a few coastal patches, this peninsula had not much arable land between the mountains and the sea - most of the eastern end is truly bare. For that reason, the few villages settled near fertile land around the middle of the peninsula, exactly where I find Datça when sailing into its busy harbor. I don’t have the opportunity to investigate the scarce remains of this first settlement of Cnidos, but traces of a well-defended city wall dating to around 400 BC have been found. All we know of this city is based on the few stretches of walls, loose blocks, and solid foundations of a large building near the river-mouth, for most of it is now buried at considerable depth. The old city at Datça was not abandoned when the new Cnidos was built at the western tip of the peninsula, but since commerce was centered on this new efficient double harbor at Cape Crio, it is evident that the old location became less attractive. Looking at the overall landscape, I try to find the acropolis and the outlines of the ancient harbor. This is not easy, for the entire bay is crowded with ships and boats tied to the concrete shoreline where scores of cafés and restaurants compete for the tourist’s attention. To escape the crowds, the noise, and the invading music, I seem to walk around in circles, and I’m glad that we soon heave the anchor to rest in a more peaceful cove for our own meal on board.

Famous artists flocked to the new city of Cnidos. I mentioned Praxiteles earlier as the sculptor of the beautiful Aphrodite, but there were others, like Bryaxis who made a statue of Dionysus; Skopas who created another Dionysus and an Athena; the unknown creator of the famous head of Demeter that Newton found in the area; and finally Sostratos who eventually built the lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt. As early as the 5th century BC, Cnidos knew many good doctors, like for instance Euryphon who developed a new method to examine his patients. And there was Ctesias, in fact a historian whose excellent medical skills promoted him to become the personal physician of the Great Persian King. The most famous citizen of Cnidos is in my eyes the scientist, Eudoxus, a many-sided scholar, who is said to have built an observatory on top of the hill in Cnidos (the new city near Tekir, of course), but no trace has been found so far. Besides being an astronomer, he also was a mathematician, physician, geographer and philosopher. Some say that he was the one who wrote the code of laws for the new city – it would be interesting to find that out, wouldn’t it? He is known to have died about 355 BC (when Alexander was only one year old …).

The prosperity of Cnidos must not have gone unnoticed by the Persians who were ever pushing further westwards. After taking Lydia in 546 BC, they gradually moved further south and took possession of Caria by 353 BC. Yet their rule was a pretty loose one, and the Carians were happy with the way the Hecatomids treated them. When Alexander the Great arrived there in 334 BC, he found a Persian satrap governing the region while the Carian Queen Ada, the true successor to the throne of King Mausolus, was living in exile in Alinda. How and what Alexander decided to do with Cnidos is not documented. It probably was simply included in Ada’s Caria till she died as well as Alexander. After that, Cnidos became the scene of the unfortunate wars of Alexander’s successors.

[Click here to see all the pictures of Cnidos]
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