Persepolis and the Empire's Other Capitals

Persepolis (Old Persian, Parsa) was founded by Darius I around 518 BCE as the empire's new ceremonial capital, in the region of Persis. It was built on a great artificial stone terrace, reached by a monumental double staircase decorated with reliefs. The "Gate of All Nations," built by Xerxes I, greeted visitors with colossal winged-bull figures of Assyrian inspiration, and the Apadana, the great audience hall, had thirty-six columns more than nineteen meters tall; its reliefs depict processions of representatives from twenty-three subject nations bearing tribute, offering one of the most complete depictions of the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Achaemenid Empire.