The opportunity to see Persepolis was one of the reasons to go to Iran in the first place. Half the things exhibited in the British Museum in London and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin are from here (well... not quite half of it but an awful lot anyway). Darius I built the enormous palace in his Persian homeland (the Greeks later called it Persepolis, city of the Persians). This is what Michael Axworthy, Prof of Iranian / Persian Studies at Exeter Uni wrote about the place:
"Persepolis is so big that a modern visitor walking over the site, wandering bemused between the sections of fallen columns and the massive double-headed column capitals that crashed to the ground when the palace burned, may find it difficult to orientate himself and make sense of it. The magnificence of the palace served as further prop to the majesty of Darius, and the legitimace of his rule; but helped in turn to create a lasting tradition, a mystique of magnificent kingship that might not have come about but for the intial doubts over his accession." (Iran - Empire of the Mind, p 20)
"Persepolis is so big that a modern visitor walking over the site, wandering bemused between the sections of fallen columns and the massive double-headed column capitals that crashed to the ground when the palace burned, may find it difficult to orientate himself and make sense of it. The magnificence of the palace served as further prop to the majesty of Darius, and the legitimace of his rule; but helped in turn to create a lasting tradition, a mystique of magnificent kingship that might not have come about but for the intial doubts over his accession." (Iran - Empire of the Mind, p 20)
Naqsh-e Rustam
Naqsh-i Rustam is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis. The oldest relief dates to ca 1000 BC.
Again, Michael Axworthy:
"The massive rock carving from Naqsh-e Rostam is perhaps the definitive image of Iranian kingship. Having proved himself in war Ardashir I [picture below, left] receives the symbol of kingship from Ormuzd, founding the Sassanid dynasty (224AD)" (p46)
"The massive rock carving from Naqsh-e Rostam is perhaps the definitive image of Iranian kingship. Having proved himself in war Ardashir I [picture below, left] receives the symbol of kingship from Ormuzd, founding the Sassanid dynasty (224AD)" (p46)