Editing Persepolis (section)

==Archaeological research==
{{See also|Nowruz#Achaemenid period}}
[[Odoric of Pordenone]] may have passed through Persepolis on his way to China in 1320, although he mentioned only a great, ruined city called "Comerum".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KorZMqmTOJgC&q=persepolis%20afterlife&pg=PA95 |title=Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder |last=Mousavi |first=Ali |date=2012 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-1614510338 |language=en |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420100925/https://books.google.com/books?id=KorZMqmTOJgC&q=persepolis%20afterlife&pg=PA95 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1474, [[Giosafat Barbaro]] visited the ruins of Persepolis, which he incorrectly thought were of Jewish origin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Historical account of discoveries and travels in Asia |first=Hugh |last=Murray |author-link=Hugh Murray (geographer) |location=Edinburgh |publisher=A. Constable and Co |year=1820 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LP4vAAAAYAAJ/page/n23 15] |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LP4vAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> ''[[Richard Hakluyt|Hakluyt's]] Voyages'' included a general account of the ruins of Persepolis attributed to an English merchant who visited Iran in 1568.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hakluyt/voyages/v04/chapter11.html |title=Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt : chapter11 |website=ebooks.adelaide.edu.au |access-date=2019-07-03 |archive-date=3 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703223548/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hakluyt/voyages/v04/chapter11.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwFPDgAAQBAJ&q=persian+responses&pg=PR3 |title=Persian Responses: Political and Cultural Interaction with(in) the Achaemenid Empire |last=Tuplin |first=Christopher |date=2007 |publisher=ISD LLC |isbn=978-1910589465 |language=en |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420100925/https://books.google.com/books?id=cwFPDgAAQBAJ&q=persian+responses&pg=PR3 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[António de Gouveia]] from [[Portugal]] wrote about [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform inscriptions]] following his visit in 1602. His report on the ruins of Persepolis was published as part of his {{lang|pt|Relaçam}} in 1611.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Relaçam em que se tratam as Guerras e Grandes Victorias que alcançou o grande Rei da Persia Xá Abbas do grão Turco Mahometto, e seu filho Amethe: as quais resultaram das Embaixadas, que por mando da Catholica e Real Magestade del Rei D. Felippe segundo de Portugal fizeram alguns Religiosos da ordem dos Ermitas de S. Augustinho à Persia. |last=Gouveia |first=António de |publisher=Pedro Crasbeeck |year=1611 |location=Lisboa |pages=31–32}}</ref>

In 1618, [[García de Silva Figueroa]], King [[Philip III of Spain]]'s ambassador to the court of [[Abbas the Great|Abbas I]], the [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid]] monarch, was the first Western traveler to link the site known in Iran as "Chehel Minar" as the site known from Classical authors as Persepolis.<ref>{{cite book |title=Road to Babylon: Development of U.S. Assyriology |author=C. Wade Meade |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1974 |pages=5–7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuAUAAAAIAAJ&q=Garc%C3%ADa+de+Silva+Figueroa+persepolis&pg=PA5 |isbn=978-9004038585 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420100918/https://books.google.com/books?id=iuAUAAAAIAAJ&q=Garc%C3%ADa+de+Silva+Figueroa+persepolis&pg=PA5 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=gdsf>{{citation |last=De Silva Figueroa |first=Garcia |authorlink=Garcia de Silva Figueroa |translator-last=De Wicquefort |translator-first=Abraham |translator-link=Abraham de Wicquefort |publisher=Louis Billaine |location=Paris |date=1667 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JY2ruU4atOQC&pg=PA144 |title=L'Ambassade de D. Garcias de Silva Figueroa en Perse... |access-date=29 November 2022 |archive-date=29 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129183316/https://books.google.com/books?id=JY2ruU4atOQC&pg=PA144 |url-status=live }}.</ref>

[[Pietro Della Valle]] visited Persepolis in 1621, and noticed that only 25 of the 72 original columns were still standing, due to either vandalism or natural processes.<ref>{{cite book |title=تخت جمشيد (Persepolis) |author=M. H. Aminisam |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2007 |pages=79–81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrS6d-vvCcUC&q=Pietro+della+Valle+persepolis&pg=PA80 |isbn=978-1463462529 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420100920/https://books.google.com/books?id=LrS6d-vvCcUC&q=Pietro+della+Valle+persepolis&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Dutch traveler [[Cornelis de Bruijn]] visited Persepolis in 1704.<ref>{{cite book |title=Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder |author=Ali Mousavi |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2012 |pages=104–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p585AgAAQBAJ&q=Cornelis+de+Bruijn+persepolis&pg=PA106 |isbn=978-1614510284 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420100926/https://books.google.com/books?id=p585AgAAQBAJ&q=Cornelis+de+Bruijn+persepolis&pg=PA106 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Cornelis de bruijn persepolis.JPG|Sketch of Persepolis from 1704 by [[Cornelis de Bruijn]]
File:Drawing of perspolis 1713 by Gérard Jean-Baptiste (1671-1716).JPG|Drawing of Persepolis in 1713 by Gérard Jean-Baptiste
File:Persepolis T Chipiez.jpg|Drawing of the [[Tachara]] by [[Charles Chipiez]]
File:Persepolis Reconstruction Apadana Chipiez.jpg|The [[Apadana]] by [[Charles Chipiez]]
File:Persepolis Reconstruction Apadana Toit Chipiez.JPEG|[[Apadana]] detail by [[Charles Chipiez]]
File:Persepolis by Chardin & al.jpg|Persepolis by [[Jean Chardin]], 1711
File:Prus dar persepolis.png|[[Prussia]] board at Persepolis, 1862–1863
File:Ernst Herzfeld.jpg|The first scientific explorations in Persepolis were conducted by [[Ernst Herzfeld]] in 1931
File:Persepolis Colonne flandin.jpg|The design and details of the columns of Persepolis
File:Persepolis Rec Iso Toit Tach Chipiez.jpg|Roof design of palaces at Persepolis
File:Chipiez 100 colonnes.jpg|The design of the Throne Hall, Persepolis 
</gallery>

The fruitful region was covered with villages until its frightful devastation in the 18th century; and even now it is, comparatively speaking, well cultivated. The Castle of Estakhr played a conspicuous part as a strong fortress, several times, during the Muslim period. It was the middlemost and the highest of the three steep crags which rise from the valley of the [[Kur]], at some distance to the west or northwest of the necropolis of [[Naqsh-e Rustam]].

The French voyagers [[Eugène Flandin]] and [[Pascal Coste]] are among the first to provide not only a literary review of the structure of Persepolis, but also to create some of the best and earliest visual depictions of its structure. In their publications in Paris, in 1881 and 1882, titled {{lang|fr|Voyages en Perse de MM. Eugene Flanin peintre et Pascal Coste architecte}}, the authors provided some 350 ground breaking illustrations of Persepolis.<ref name=ali/> French influence and interest in Persia's archaeological findings continued after the accession of [[Reza Shah]], when [[André Godard]] became the first director of the archeological service of Iran.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/godard |title=Godard, André – Encyclopaedia Iranica |website=iranicaonline.org |access-date=2019-07-03 |archive-date=25 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225064721/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/godard |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 1800s, a variety of amateur digging occurred at the site, in some cases on a large scale.<ref name=ali>Ali Mousavi, Persepolis in Retrospect: Histories of Discovery and Archaeological Exploration at the ruins of ancient Passch, Ars Orientalis, vol. 32, pp. 209–251, 2002</ref>

The first scientific excavations at Persepolis were carried out by [[Ernst Herzfeld]] and [[Erich Schmidt (archaeologist)|Erich Schmidt]] representing the [[University of Chicago Oriental Institute|Oriental Institute]] of the [[University of Chicago]]. They conducted excavations for eight seasons, beginning in 1930, and included other nearby sites.<ref>[http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc5.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205012019/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc5.pdf|date=5 February 2011}} Ernst E Herzfeld, ''A New Inscription of Xerxes from Persepolis'', ''Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization,'' vol. 5, 1932</ref><ref>[http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oip68.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205012055/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oip68.pdf|date=5 February 2011}} Erich F Schmidt, ''Persepolis I: Structures, Reliefs, Inscriptions'', Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 68, 1953</ref><ref>[http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oip69.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205013808/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oip69.pdf|date=5 February 2011}} Erich F Schmidt, ''Persepolis II: Contents of the Treasury and Other Discoveries,'' Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 69, 1957</ref><ref>[http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oip70.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205014409/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oip70.pdf|date=5 February 2011}} Erich F Schmidt, ''Persepolis III: The Royal Tombs and Other Monuments'', Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 70, 1970</ref><ref>[http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oic21.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205015523/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oic21.pdf|date=5 February 2011}} Erich F Schmidt, ''The Treasury of Persepolis and Other Discoveries in the Homeland of the Achaemenians'', Oriental Institute Communications, vol. 21, 1939</ref>

[[File:Persian frieze designs at Persepolis.jpg|thumb|[[Frieze]] designs at Persepolis]]
Herzfeld believed that the reasons behind the construction of Persepolis were the need for a majestic atmosphere, a symbol for the empire, and to celebrate special events, especially the ''[[Nowruz]]''.<ref name=wood/> For historical reasons, Persepolis was built where the Achaemenid dynasty was founded, although it was not the center of the empire at that time.

Excavations of plaque fragments hint at a scene with a contest between [[Herakles]] and [[Apollo]], dubbed ''A Greek painting at Persepolis''.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-hellenic-studies/article/div-classtitlea-greek-painting-at-persepolisdiv/434BDDF27731A3F6A1DF0874C1CBAA41 |doi=10.2307/630751 |year=1980 |title=A Greek painting at Persepolis |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=100 |pages=204–206 |jstor=630751 |author1-link=Michael Roaf |last1=Roaf |first1=Michael |last2=Boardman |first2=John |s2cid=161864288 |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016225947/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-hellenic-studies/article/div-classtitlea-greek-painting-at-persepolisdiv/434BDDF27731A3F6A1DF0874C1CBAA41 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Architecture===
Persepolitan architecture is noted for its use of the [[Persian column]], which was probably based on earlier wooden columns.

The buildings at Persepolis include three general groupings: military quarters, the treasury, and the reception halls and occasional houses for the King. Noted structures include the Great Stairway, the [[Gate of All Nations]], the [[Apadana]], the Hall of a Hundred Columns, the Tripylon Hall and the [[Tachara]], the Hadish Palace, the Palace of [[Artaxerxes III]], the Imperial Treasury, the Royal Stables, and the Chariot House.<ref>{{cite book |title=From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire |author=Pierre Briant |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=2002 |pages=256–258 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQ9W6F1oSYC&q=Persepolis+military+quarter&pg=PA257 |isbn=978-1575061207 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420100932/https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQ9W6F1oSYC&q=Persepolis+military+quarter&pg=PA257 |url-status=live }}</ref>