A Graeco-Roman Temple in Armenia

Finding a good-looking Graeco-Roman temple in Armenia is quite a surprise for it is the only remaining such building in that country.

[Picture by Vahag851]

The Temple of Garni dates probably from 77 AD and based on the Greek inscription that has been recovered, it was supposedly built by King Tiridates I of Armenia. Originally, it was dedicated to the sun god Mihr (from the Zoroastrian mythology and related to Mithra) and in the early days of Christianity in the fourth century, it became the summer residence of Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III – not bad!

Unfortunately, the construction collapsed in 1679 when the region was hit by a severe earthquake and it was only about one hundred years ago that the ruins were discovered. Between 1969 and 1975, the remains were sorted out and put back together to become the tourist attraction we see today.

The Temple of Garni was mentioned by Tacitus as belonging to a fortress overlooking the valley of the Azat River. The location was strategically very important as it was part of the defence of the Ararat Plain. Beside the temple, there are remains of a Roman bath including a mosaic floor with Greek inscription and a royal summer palace.

As to the Greek inscription belonging to the temple, scholars do not agree on the exact translation as the text has been damaged (for details, see Wikipedia).

There is, however, an other theory stating that this was not a temple but a mausoleum built around 175 AD. This idea is based on similar Graeco-Roman constructions in Asia Minor like the Nereid Monument in Xanthos and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; and also the fact that it is surrounded by several tombs from that same period. When Armenia converted to Christianity, pagan temples were systematically destroyed and it would be odd to find this Temple of Garni as the sole survivor. As a grave, the construction was more plausible to have survived.

Whatever the theory or the origins of this Temple of Garni, it is a very pleasant sanctuary to look at and still makes you wonder about the Hellenistic influence in that part of the world.

Alexander amidst the pomp and circumstance of Persepolis.

From our history books, we often get the impression that Alexander rushed to Persepolis, set the place ablaze, and left right away for his next destination. Nothing is less accurate. Alexander arrived at Persepolis about the first week of February 330 BC, and Tiridates, its commander, must have received him with the appropriate protocol and deference. Alexander spent about four months in Persepolis, which he left by late May or early June 330 BC, and it was evident he did not sit there idly.

Curtius seems to be the only one to write about Alexander's expeditions into the interior of Persia at some time in April, where he was troubled by heavy rain and "almost intolerable weather" (hard to imagine since I was troubled by a severe heat wave that same time of the year). He was even stopped by heavy snow that had frozen solid; not for long, though, as he immediately started making his way, breaking the ice with a mattock, an example that was promptly followed by his men. The frightened inhabitants he encountered in these pathless forests cannot have offered much booty, which the soldiers had to find in the villages further down across the valley floor. Then Alexander reached the Mardi, a warlike people who lived off their flocks in the mountains. Curtius mentions that on the thirteenth day after setting out from Persepolis, the king returned to share his trophies with his friends and those who had merited them.

In Persepolis, Alexander held games in honor of his victories and performed lavish sacrifices to the appropriate gods. Still, he must also have received couriers from home and delegations from far and abroad, although I find no such record in history. The appropriate place to welcome his guests was evidently the Apadana, the Audience Palace, the most imposing building of Persepolis, and one that defies our most daring imagination. With its approximately 100x100m, it was by far the largest palace on the plateau and widely surpassed and outshone all others. It could hold as many as 10,000 guests!

It was an extremely rich building, but somewhat tricky to figure out today. The Apadana lies three meters above the rest of the plateau, hence the two stately staircases, one on the eastern side and one on the northern side. They are both identical, as far as the north side is generally a mirror of the east side, meaning that the figures' profiles on the reliefs are shown in reverse.

The main hall of the Apadana is a central square of 60x60m and has six rows of six columns, totaling 36 splendidly fluted columns resting on a square base and crowned with the ever-present floral decorations just underneath the double-headed bulls that supported the ceiling. At the main hall's western, northern, and eastern sides, huge double-leaved doors in the 5.32 meters-thick wall led into a rectangular portico with twelve columns set in two rows of six. Together with the columns of the main hall, the Apadana totaled 72 columns, thirteen of which are still standing 19 meters high. The ceiling was made of wood, probably cedar from Lebanon, although cypress may have also been used. On the southern side of the main hall lay several small chambers used for storage or connecting to the adjacent Palace of Darius.

The wall of the main hall was made of individual mud bricks of standard size of 33x33x13cm joined together with a lime-and-clay mortar and covered with a greenish stucco made of gypsum and clay as used all over Persepolis. The guests and delegates would enter through the north-eastern door, ushered by a Persian or Median guard posted at the Gate of Nations, from where they had an unobstructed view of the Apadana; the gift-bearers, however, would have entered separately through the north-western door.

Alexander and the Persian Kings before him would enter the Audience Hall through a small corridor in the most southerly corner linked to the Palace of Darius. Obviously, in this ostentatious setting, he could not appear in his Macedonian clothes. Anyone with some sense of etiquette could see that it demanded a statelier outfit, but his victorious troops were convinced that only their laws and customs applied. Not so for Alexander, who showed respect for the newly conquered land and lords. We ignore, however, what the Persians thought of Alexander's "adjusted" Persian dress. It would be interesting to travel back in time.

A sturdy tower had been erected at each corner of the Apadana, a square construction with a three-meter-thick outer wall, while the inner walls measured 2.5 meters. The towers were four stories high, i.e., 22 meters. It was here that the gold and silver foundation inscriptions written in Babylonian, Old Persian, and Elamite were buried in an adequate box by Darius the Great. Two of these boxes have been retrieved intact (two others were looted in antiquity). One set is now safely exhibited at the National Museum of Tehran, and the other pair was eventually transferred to the Azadi Museum in Tehran. Based on Darius' details about the extent of his empire, the construction of the Apadana can be dated to about 515 BC.  

Today's visitor is immediately drawn to the lavishly decorated stairways leading into the inner Apadana. The eastern stairway is being sheltered under a protective roof to preserve its unique original reliefs. This is a true gem where I spent most of my time figuring out the many scenes, and it is definitely worth it! As I said, the northern stairway is almost identical, but not in such good condition as this one.

To begin with, the main wall of this eastern stairway is 81 meters long and could be divided into three equal parts of 27 meters each. Access to the Audience Hall is possible over the central double-reversed staircase (at the center of the wall) or over the staircases at either end of the wall on the right and left sides. The projecting central outer staircase stands in front of the long back wall, although attached to it by its wide steps. It shows symmetrical reliefs of four soldiers (apple-bearers), alternatively, two Medes with round hats and two Persians, facing each other across a blank space between them. Either side is flanked by the ever-recurring image of a lion-bull fight. The entire group is crowned by a winged circle in the very middle of the panel (Ahuramazda), flanked on either side by a seated sphinx with a human head and winged lion's body raising his right hand in a gesture of adoration. A row of nine palm trees fills the remaining space towards the end.

Originally, instead of the four apple bearers and the open space, this place was occupied by a relief showing an audience scene of King Darius I with his heir Xerxes standing behind him (although recent research indicates that this is King Xerxes with the later King Darius II behind him). This relief was moved to the Treasury, possibly by Xerxes when he became king, and he didn't like his place as crown-prince behind his father's throne – a theory that is not applicable should the king on the throne indeed be Xerxes, in which case another historical background applies. Opposite the enthroned king stands an official of the empire doing obeisance to his king by throwing him a kiss with his hand. Right in front of him stand two incense burners. This relief, meanwhile, has been moved to the National Museum of Tehran.

My attention then goes to the reliefs on both sides of the central panel. The northern wing (to the right when facing the stairways) is also 27 meters long and shows three rows of soldiers, i.e., three files of guards standing at attention with the butt of their spears resting on one foot. This butt is shaped like an apple or a pomegranate, which gave the guards the name "apple-bearers." They closely resemble the guards from the glazed-brick walls in Susa (now at the Louvre Museum), clad in the same Persian dress. The top right row ends with royal grooms leading horses (probably the famous Nicean horses) and two chariots. Just underneath, we find two rows of royal dignitaries, alternatively a Mede representing the military officer and a Persian identified as the court official. The 32 pairs of officials stand for the 32 nations, as mentioned in an inscription found at Persepolis. On each step leading up to the Audience Hall proper, a single soldier stands at attention, probably duplicating the live soldiers lining up on great occasions.

The southern wing (to the left when facing the Apadana's stairways) covers the last 1/3 of the entire length, another 27 meters. This is where we find delegations from all nations, each being introduced by an usher in Persian or Median costume. Going into details is a great pastime, but it would take far too long to explain, although it is a terribly exciting occupation. I will, however, limit myself to merely listing the different nations. 

They are:

Medes (from Azerbaijan and Kurdistan), 





Susians (from Khuzistan),

Armenians (from Armenia and eastern Turkey), 

Arians (from Herat in Afghanistan),

Babylonians (from around Babylonia),

Elamites (from around Susa)

Lydians (from modern western Anatolia), 

Arachosians (from central Afghanistan),

Assyrians (from northern Iraq and Syria),

Cappadocians (from eastern Armenia and north-eastern Turkey), 

Egyptians,

Scythians (from Iran, northeast of the Caspian Sea), 

Ionians (modern western Anatolia),

Bactrians (from the Balkh region in Afghanistan),

Gandarans (from the Kabul area in Afghanistan), 

Parthians (from modern Khorasan), 

Assagartians (or Sagartians from southeast Media), Saka Haumavarga (Scythians living east of the Jaxartes),

Indians (from the Northwest Frontier), 

European Scythians (from modern Macedonia and Ukraine), 

Arabs (from Jordan and Palestine), 

Zarangians (ancient people of Seistan),

Libyans, 

and Ethiopians. 

In fact, these nations cover the entire map of the Achaemenid Empire, similar to the territories that Alexander ultimately conquered. Here too, a soldier is standing at attention on each step leading to the entrance of the Audience Hall.

We should remember that all these walls were painted in brilliant colors. Above this colorful spectacle rose the 19-meter columns, also colored as mentioned above, with their double-headed bulls staring down at the visitor. Quite particular is the fact that the columns of the western portico (the one opposite this grand entrance) had capitals of double-headed lions. Once inside the main hall of the Apadana, the walls were tiled with colorful bricks with pictures of lions, bulls, and flowers.

One must admit that Greece had nothing comparable to offer in spite of the splendor and the grandeur of the Acropolis in Athens. Persepolis is of a totally different proportion and majesty, making me wonder what impression it must have made on Alexander and his troops. Unfortunately, the surviving ruins do no justice to this once enormous wealth.

The last building that deserves attention is the Tripylon, so named because of its three entrances, allowing access to the Apadana on the north side, the Hall of the One Hundred Columns and the Harem on the east, and the Palace of Xerxes on the south side. Although it was added after the completion of the Apadana and the Hall of the One Hundred Columns, its function is unclear. The Tripylon occupies the center of the Persepolis plateau and may have served as a Council Hall or a monumental corridor linking the abovementioned buildings. It occurs to me that it may have functioned as a separation between the huge official halls and the most private palaces of Xerxes, Darius, and the Harem.

The reliefs on the jambs of the doorways are generally parallel images from other buildings. That is also the case for the reliefs enhancing the different stairways, including the delegates from 28 subject nations. Of particular interest is the small staircase that has been moved to the Museum of Tehran, with on the outer side reliefs of Persian lancers and archers; on the inner side, each step depicts a member of the Persian and Median clergy sharing the step as they carry food and animals for religious rites. Unique is also the capitals of the four columns of the Tripylon's main hall, which, unlike the usual double-bull, lion, or griffin, are double men's heads with a bull's body. This mythological figure originates in Babylonia and Assyria and is called Iamassu. It usually served to ward off evil and was placed at a gate entrance, hence the theory that this Tripylon might have served as an entrance (to what, I wonder, though). One such Iamassu is on display at the Tehran Museum.

The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great, King of Kings of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the Four Corners of the World. The Achaemenids ruled for approximately 500 years, and they must have felt their power was eternal by the grace of Ahuramazda. Yet, their reign ended quite dramatically with the arrival of Alexander, King of Macedonia, who managed to defeat the Great King Darius III at the battle of Gaugamela three years after he had left his homeland. However, Darius was still alive, fleeing ever further east with Alexander at his tail. Was Persepolis going to pay the price?

Food for thought in "Fire over Persepolis."
[Click here to read about Alexander's arrival at Persepolis. the previous post]

Alexander’s arrival at Persepolis

For years I lived with the image of the straight road leading up to the plateau supporting the Palace of Persepolis as described by Peter Bamm in his book “Alexander, Power as Destiny” and I am not at all surprised to find the place exactly as I had pictured it: a 12 meters-high wall on top of which a dozen of tall columns compete with each other for the visitor’s attention.

Alexander must have arrived over this very same avenue some 2,500 years before, welcomed no doubt by Tiridates, the citadel commander. This man had sent a letter to Alexander stating that if he made it ahead of those who planned to defend Persepolis for King Darius III, he would hand the palace and its precious possessions over to him. Alexander didn’t have to think twice about such an appealing proposition and he hurried to Persepolis in order to take over ownership.

The earliest construction of Persepolis goes back to Cyrus the Great in about 518 BC, but it was King Darius I (the Great) who conceived and partially built this man-made plateau 450 meters wide and 300 meters deep where he erected the Apadana, the Tripylon, and the Imperial Treasury. A titanic task that was completed by his son, Xerxes the Great. Later Achaemenid rulers all added their own touch and more buildings, yet each and everyone blended in with the initial style.

Alexander reached Persepolis about the first week of February 330 BC and like me, he must have climbed the double stairway that leads from the broad valley floor to the terrace. It is one of the stateliest steps I ever encountered with an easy rise of 10 cm at the time, 38 cm deep, and nearly seven meters wide. After a first flight of 63 steps to a landing, they make a 90-degree turn to another stretch of 48 steps, 111 steps in all to take you to the top. Unlike similar staircases at the entrance of the Apadana, for instance, these walls are plain and barren. Over the centuries, a tale has grown that the slow rise of these stairs was planned on purpose so the visitors could reach the terrace on horseback, but this theory is totally unfounded since entering the palace of a ruler on horseback was considered to be a grave insult.

Once on the plateau, the only access to the huge complex is through the so-called Gate of All Nations which we owe to Xerxes. For some unknown reason I have the feeling of being in a cramped hallway, but the truth is that it measures nearly 25 x 25 meters – a quite sizeable room, I must admit. It has three doors: the one through which I just entered (west) and the one opposite (east), both 3.80 meters wide and 10 meters high; and a much higher third doorway on the south side leading directly to the Apadana. This gate is also wider, measuring 5.12 meters. Nothing much remains of this gate, however, but evidence has revealed that the doors would have been made of wood covered with sheets of gold and bronze decorated with designs of animals. Hard to imagine!

The inner sides of the eastern and western doorjambs of this Gate of All Nations are filled with two enormous bulls standing on a 1.50-meter-high pedestal. The composite animals have the body of a bull, the head of a bearded man in Assyrian style, and the wings of an eagle. Above their backs are cuneiform inscriptions in three languages: Elamite, Old Persian, and Babylonian confirming that Xerxes was Great King by the grace of Ahuramazda. Unfortunately, visitors from later centuries felt the need to write their names there as well – graffiti is of all times it seems. The faces of the bulls looking out over the broad valley are badly damaged but the ones staring out over Persepolis are pretty well preserved, helping to visualize their brothers on the opposite side; originally they were painted in vivid colors (just like Greek statues). What we miss, however, are the very walls connecting the doorways which were built of mud-brick and covered with glazed bricks like those found at Susa and Babylon. It must have been a rather pleasant reception hall.

From the Gate of Nations, one automatically walks up the so-called Army Street, 92 meters long and nearly ten meters wide, which connects to the Palace of the One Hundred Columns created by Xerxes. As I learned later on, this Army Street was the parade ground for the Persian army and it is not impossible that Alexander used the space for similar shows by his Macedonian troops.

Although it seems logical to proceed to the Apadana from here, my honest opinion is that Alexander continued straight ahead, over Army Street, directly to the Treasury. He had to make sure that Tiridates had kept his word and that the sums of money were indeed there for him to collect.

Today, the Treasury is razed to the ground. Only at the far end, we can see a relief showing the audience held by King Darius with his heir Xerxes standing behind him, originally set at the center of the eastern stairway facade of the Apadana. There was an identical relief on the northern stairway of the Apadana and since this one is better preserved, it was moved to the National Museum of Tehran. Why in antiquity these reliefs were moved to the Treasury in antiquity is not entirely clear, but it seems plausible that when Xerxes became king, he didn’t like his place as crown prince behind his father’s throne. Opposite the enthroned king stands an official of the empire doing obeisance to his king by throwing him a kiss with his hand. It’s an image I have seen repeatedly, not knowing where it came from.

Diodorus mentions that Alexander took possession of the treasury, i.e., the accumulation of the state revenues since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The vaults were packed with silver and gold amounting to 120,000 talents. Alexander kept some of the money to cover his war expenses, but the main amount was loaded onto mules and other pack animals to be centralized at Ecbatana. It was Parmenion who was put in charge of this titanic expedition, transporting 7,290 tons of gold and silver from Persepolis, Susa, and Pasargadae with 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels. Just imagine the huge logistics involved in leading such a horde over a distance of approximately 514 miles, with all their drivers and soldiers to police the precious cargo! Even today, nobody in their right mind would consider undertaking such an operation!

Yet to reach the Treasury, Alexander had to pass the Palace of the One Hundred Columns, and if he did not visit it properly upon arrival, he undoubtedly must have stopped here soon after in pure awe. Going by the documented and 3D reconstructions, this building must have been absolutely breathtaking. The sheer size and the multicolored decorations of the columns, ceilings, and walls must have been beyond what he had ever seen (and I say this not knowing exactly how the inside of the Palaces at Babylon or Susa must have looked, as so little has been recovered and those scant remains now scattered among several museums worldwide). The 3D reconstruction uses green and purple as the main colors, but personally, I find the combination rather odd.

The Palace of the One Hundred Columns, measuring 70x70 meters, was a military statement made by Xerxes, although its construction was finished by his son Artaxerxes I. Consequently, it is dated between 470 and 450 BC. We find no trace of the original ceiling or walls, and no full-size column is still standing; all we have are the remains of the eight huge access doors with their high reliefs.

The two pillars of the northern doorways are unique with their reliefs of 100 soldiers carrying the enthroned king in a very symbolic relief. The left and right panels mirror each other. Each shows two groups of fifty soldiers in five rows of ten soldiers on one side; with the same on the opposite side, i.e., ten rows of ten, equaling one hundred, which is the same number as for the columns. On the southern doorways, however, we find Artaxerxes I being brought into the hall by his throne-bearers with the Royal Glory (Ahuramazda) hovering above him. A favorite subject used here on the eastern and western doorjambs is that of a royal hero fighting a lion-looking creature with wings and eagle’s feet.

The 14-meter-high columns of this palace are lined up in ten rows of ten each; they excel in their typical style of a bell-shaped base, topped with a round disk on which a fluted cylindrical column is resting; this column, in turn, supports the elaborate flowers that are crowned by the well-known double-headed bulls. It seems that only two of these bull capitals have survived: one is on display in Chicago, and the other is exhibited in Tehran. Foundation inscriptions written in Babylonian were recovered and state that the palace was built by Xerxes and finished by his son Artaxerxes I.

Adjacent and nearly sticking to the Treasury, we find a series of smaller rooms that are being attributed to the Harem. I guess they needed a place of their own in this large complex, and a recent archaeological study has revealed that these identical units were, in fact, apartments, in which the rooms were arranged around a four-columned central hall. The Harem is surrounded by sturdy walls, much thicker than any other wall in the palace, to protect privacy. There was only one access to the Royal Harem reserved for the king entering from the Palace of Xerxes. Today, the area has been converted into a museum with a bookshop, erected in bright red columns. I find it difficult to understand the color and the size of this building when compared to the other palaces on the plateau, for somehow it looks like a toy.

The Palace of Xerxes stood seven meters higher than the Harem. Why do I have the feeling that Alexander turned this palace into his headquarters? It had direct connections to the other buildings, and at the same time, it gave him enough privacy away from the Apadana and the Palace of the One Hundred Columns. It counted four staircases from where he could directly access the Palace of Darius and the Tripylon towards the north and the Harem through a balcony on the southern side. From this balcony, the king had a splendid view over the entire valley and it just reminds me of the balcony at the Royal Palace of Aegae (today’s Vergina) overlooking the plain below.

This Palace of Xerxes was arranged around the main square hall of 36.5x36.5 meters, which counted 36 columns set in rows of six each. There were five doorways: two opening into a 12-columned portico on the north, one onto the southern balcony, and two accessing the private apartments. The jambs of these doorways are decorated with reliefs of Xerxes entering or leaving the room, accompanied by two attendants, one holding the royal umbrella and the other the towel or the king’s fly-whisk. Xerxes is holding his scepter in his right hand and the lotus symbol in his left. The scene is covered with trilingual cuneiform inscriptions in Elamite, Old Persian, and Babylonian. Like everywhere else, no walls have survived, and we have to mentally connect the different doorways to recreate the walls of this palace.

The best-preserved palace of all (and one of the oldest) is the Palace of Darius, leaning against the southern wall of the Apadana (although nearly three meters higher) and diagonally opposite the Palace of Xerxes. It is easy to find the outlines of this palace since all the doorways seem to be connecting to each other. It has a rectangular plan, measuring 40x30 meters. Like the other palaces, it consists of the main hall with twelve columns, and both the north and south porticos have columns. The façade of the staircase on the southern side is best viewed from the open space in front of it and reveals two rows of Persian soldiers facing the central cuneiform inscription in Old Persian. Strangely enough, this text was written by Xerxes, who also provided the cuneiform inscriptions at either end of this wall, in Elamite to the right and in Babylonian to the left. The same text is repeated again on the inside of the pillars above. These inscriptions are believed to prove that the Palace of Darius was finished during Xerxes’ reign. The inner wall of the stairways carries cute reliefs of servants and attendants, alternatively dressed in Median and Persian dress, who actually are climbing the stairs, stepping from one step to the next, carrying food and utensils.

Here too, the columns are lost, but it is interesting to learn that they have been reproduced in the façade of the tomb built for Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rustam, which I’ll visit later. These columns stood on two square bases and were made of wood, which was then plastered and colored; like elsewhere, they were crowned with double-headed bulls. In the doorways, we find reliefs of guards in Persian dress holding their wicker shields and long lances. The doorways of the main hall show Darius entering or leaving the room, followed by his attendants, just like at the Palace of Xerxes. His crown was originally covered with sheets of gold, and the holes in the wall are there to prove it; armlets, earrings, torques, and other jewelry were inserted as well. Just imagine what this image must have looked like, brilliantly painted and shining with its gold accessories!

By far the most imposing building is the Apadana, linked to the Tripylon at the very heart of Persepolis. They deserve attention of their own, so I’ll describe them in a separate post, Alexander amidst the pomp and circumstance of Persepolis.