Persepolis

Kenareh Rural District, Iran

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

Find out more

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, situated in the plains of Marvdasht in Fars province, Iran, encircled by the southern Zagros Mountains. The earliest remains date to 515 BC. Rather than a conventional city, Persepolis functioned as a grand palatial complex raised on a walled platform, featuring five halls of varying sizes and elaborate entrances, likely occupied seasonally. The complex served as a focal point for governance and ceremonial life, exemplifying Achaemenid architecture, and appears to have been used primarily for celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when Iranian nobility and tributary states presented gifts to the king—a scene captured in its famous stairway reliefs. Alexander the Great's army captured the site in 330 BC, after which fire destroyed its wooden structures; accounts differ on whether this was deliberate vengeance for Persian destruction of Athens or occurred during an intoxicated feast. Persepolis remains one of Iran's key cultural heritage sites and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its exploration from the 17th century onward contributed crucially to the modern rediscovery and decipherment of cuneiform writing.